Sustainable biomass supply chain network design with biomass switching incentives for first-generation bioethanol producers

Esmaeili, Seyed A.; Szmerekovsky, Joseph G.; Sobhani, Ahmad; Dybing, Alan; Peterson, Tim O.

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111222

Cited by 41 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The competition between the feedstock as food and biofuel may lead to an increase in market price. It was predicted that the market price for corn as a food source would be at least $2.38/bushel and this does not support the first and second SDGs, which are to reduce poverty and hunger 52 …”

Section: First Generation Biofuelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of the four generations of biofuels – A review

et al. 2020

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Biofuel has emerged as an alternative source of energy to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and combat global warming. Biofuels are classified into first, second, third and fourth generations. Each of the biofuel generations aims to meet the global energy demand while minimizing environmental impacts. Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the current generations without jeopardizing the needs of future generations. The aim of sustainability is to ensure continuous growth of the economy while protecting the environment and societal needs. Thus, this paper aims to evaluate the sustainability of these four generations of biofuels. The objectives are to compare the production of biofuel, the net greenhouse gases emissions, and energy efficiency. This study is important in providing information for the policymakers and researchers in the decision-making for the future development of green energy. Each of the biofuel generations shows different benefits and drawbacks. From this study, we conclude that the first generation biofuel has the highest biofuel production and energy efficiency, but is less effective in meeting the goal of reducing the greenhouse gases emission. The third generation biofuel shows the lowest net greenhouse gases emissions, allowing the reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, the energy required for the processing of the third generation biofuel is higher and, this makes it less environmentally friendly as fossil fuels are used to generate electricity. The third and fourth generation feedstocks are the potential sustainable source for the future production of biofuel. However, more studies need to be done to find an alternative low cost for biofuel production while increasing energy efficiency.

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Section: First Generation Biofuelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of the four generations of biofuels – A review

et al. 2020

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“…Govindan et al (2016); Soleimani et al (2017); Sahebjamnia et al (2018)). Also, some recent motivating studies consider green and sustainable closed-loop SC (see Zhen et al (2019); Yun et al (2020); Esmaeili et al (2020)).…”

Section: Sustainability Considerations In Supply Chain Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A robust-heuristic optimization approach to a green supply chain design with consideration of assorted vehicle types and carbon policies under uncertainty

et al. 2021

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Adoption of carbon regulation mechanisms facilitates an evolution toward green and sustainable supply chains followed by an increased complexity. Through the development and usage of a multi-choice goal programming model solved by an improved algorithm, this article investigates sustainability strategies for carbon regulations mechanisms. We first propose a sustainable logistics model that considers assorted vehicle types and gas emissions involved with product transportation. We then construct a bi-objective model that minimizes total cost as the first objective function and follows environmental considerations in the second one. With our novel robust-heuristic optimization approach, we seek to support the decision-makers in comparison and selection of carbon emission policies in supply chains in complex settings with assorted vehicle types, demand and economic uncertainty. We deploy our model in a case-study to evaluate and analyse two carbon reduction policies, i.e., carbon-tax and cap-and-trade policies. The results demonstrate that our robust-heuristic methodology can efficiently deal with demand and economic uncertainty, especially in large-scale problems. Our findings suggest that governmental incentives for a cap-and-trade policy would be more effective for supply chains in lowering pollution by investing in cleaner technologies and adopting greener practices.

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“…They showed that producing biodiesel is more proper than ethanol. Haji Esmaeili et al [39] proposed a first-generation BSC design by considering the financial aspect which maximizes the profit of the bioethanol supply chain. There are some studies in the literature that applied different carbon policies in the supply chain configuration to consider the environmental aspects of the sustainability.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As mentioned before, switch grass is a nonedible feedstock. It is known as an appropriate and profitable feedstock for producing biofuel in comparison with edible feedstocks [39]. Therefore, in this study, Iran is selected to illustrate the applicability of presented models.…”

Section: Case Study Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing a Sustainable Biofuel Supply Chain by Considering Carbon Policies: A Case Study in Iran

Zarrinpoor

Khani

2020

Preprint

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Background: Population growth and increasing the utilization of fossil fuels have increased carbon emissions and the global warming phenomenon with detrimental impacts on the human life and the environment. Therefore, finding a sustainable substitution for fossil fuels becomes a great challenge for all societies from all over the world. Renewable energies such as biofuels are the appropriate alternative to decrease environmental concerns.Methods: This study develops a multi-objective multi-period multi-echelon biofuel supply chain (BSC) from switch grass regarding economic, environmental and social aspects of the sustainability. For considering the environmental aspect, four carbon policies are taken into account; namely the carbon cap, the carbon tax, the carbon trade and the carbon offset. The fuzzy interactive programming method is implemented to solve the multi-objective model and the fuzzy best-worst method (FMWM) is applied for weighting social objective components.Results: To illustrate the applicability of the model, an actual case study in Iran is considered. It is revealed that different solutions are obtained for the location of switch grass resources, preprocessing centers, and bio-refineries under different carbon policies. Numerical results also demonstrate that biofuel production and transportation activities have a great share in carbon emissions and BSC costs. Applying the carbon cap policy in the proposed case study decreases the carbon emission over 14% in comparison to the basic situation. Moreover, implementing the carbon trade policy increases the total BSC profit about 11% in comparison to the basic situation. The carbon offset policy plays a significant role in improving social considerations compared with other policies. Overall, since three aspects of sustainability have appropriate values under the carbon trade policy, it can be concluded that this policy is the most appropriate policy.Conclusions: The proposed model can aid policy makers and governments to optimize the profitability of the BSC, the carbon emission reduction, and the social consideration, simultaneously.

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Sustainable biomass supply chain network design with biomass switching incentives for first-generation bioethanol producers

Cited by 41 publications

References 35 publications

Sustainability of the four generations of biofuels – A review

Sustainability of the four generations of biofuels – A review

A robust-heuristic optimization approach to a green supply chain design with consideration of assorted vehicle types and carbon policies under uncertainty

Designing a Sustainable Biofuel Supply Chain by Considering Carbon Policies: A Case Study in Iran

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