Economic and life cycle environmental optimization of forest-based biorefinery supply chains for bioenergy and biofuel production

Abstract

The increased use of forest and wood residues for the production of bioenergy, biofuels, and other bioproducts is essential to enhance the economic performance of forest products industries and reduce environmental impacts. Bi-objective optimization models have been developed recently to support the optimum design of either bioenergy or biofuels supply chains considering economic as well as environmental impacts. In an integrated bioenergy and biofuels supply chain where biofuel producers are also users of the generated energy, the energy flows among co-located supply chain entities affect the environmental and economic objective functions and consequently the optimal design of the supply chain, therefore, the energy flows have to be considered in the optimization model. This type of bi-objective problem has not been modeled in previous studies. In this paper, a bi-objective biorefinery supply chain optimization model for the production of bioenergy and biofuels using forest and wood residues is developed. The model considers energy flows among co-located technologies and is formulated as a multi-period mixed integer program (MIP) that calculates the net present value (NPV) and the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings associated with the biorefinery supply chain. The applicability of the proposed model is illustrated through a case study in British Columbia, Canada.