Use of Forest Residues for Building Forest Biomass Supply Chains: Technical and Economic Analysis of the Production Process

(c) there are strong margins for economic profits at the level of each single supply basi

The Value of Seasonal Productivity Forecasting in Biodiesel Plans

Crop productivity is commonly assumed as a deterministic function when developing agricultural plans. Actual data prove however that, even for the same soil at the same location, crop productivity can be better interpreted as a random variable due to the meteorological conditions of the specific year. For the production of biodiesel, crops are easily substitutable and the farmer can chose every year between various alternatives. Without information on the seasonal meteorology, the farmers select the crop to cultivate mainly on the basis of the expected productivity. However, changes in the meteorological situation may result in a reduction in crop profitability. As a result, a crop, that on average is less interesting, may become the best choice in a specific year. Given that seasonal forecasts based on long range climatic variables, such as ENSO, are becoming available, the paper examines their effectiveness in biodiesel production plans, with reference to an area in Mato Grosso, Brazil. We formulate and solve a mathematical programming problem to determine the most efficient crop plan under different scenarios: (i) no information about the seasonal meteorology, (ii) perfect information and (iii) meteorological forecasts with different precision. This allows us to quantitatively evaluate how important the availability of seasonal productivity forecasting might be and shows that even a rough seasonal forecast, if systematically applied, may improve the average production and reduce the risk of traditional agricultural decisions

A Scalable Algorithm for Locating Distribution Centers on Real Road Networks

The median problem is a type of network location problem that aims at finding a node with the total minimum demand weighted distance to a set of demand nodes in a weighted graph. In this research, an algorithm for solving the median problem on real road networks is proposed. The proposed algorithm, referred to as the multi-threaded Dijkstra’s (MTD) algorithm, is then used to optimally locate Wal-Mart distribution centers on the 28-million node road network of the United States with the objective of minimizing the total demand weighted transportation cost. The resulting optimal location configuration of Wal-Mart distribution centers improves the total transportation cost by 40%

Grid Facilities Design: Dynamic Modular Deployment of Production, Handling and Storage Resources

To survive and thrive in a fast-moving environment, facilities must be designed to show adaptability, flexibility and robustness. As some facilities are depicted by heavy and sophisticated equipment costly and hard to displace, others are composed of moveable workstations with highly flexible workers. In most cases, the trade-off is between the cost of redeploying the resources and the excessive cost of material handling and storage incurred by an inefficient deployment of the resources. We propose a design strategy based on (1) conceiving and designing the facility as a stable grid of modules, (2) dynamically deploying production, storage and handling resources to these modules, and (3) dynamically assigning process-product combinations to the modules so as to meet stochastic and dynamically evolving product demand on a rolling planning horizon. We illustrate the strategy as applied to a computer refurbishing and recycling facility

Planning of the Agrifood supply chain: a case study for the FVG region

The aim of this paper is to discuss the planning of regional Agri-food supply chain using an integrated database territorial information. The objective is to optimize the chain performance using alternative solutions. Evidences are obtained with a case study performed in FVG region applied to maize-crop. Firstly it is explored the chain network composed by farms, collection points and processing plants; then territorial, agronomic and climate information are integrated to simulate realistic production forecast model applied to maize crop. Finally a program from graph analysis is used to allocate the production through the chain. The economic performance is evaluated using the net revenues varying with the intensification of maize production and adoption of different organization solutions (independent and cooperative). Conclusions are that the chain performance is influenced by a combination of technology and organization decisions and the policy maker can use these results to orient their targets about regional planning.data integration, supply chain, decision support system, crop simulation, regional policy., Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Labor and Human Capital,

The use of geographic information systems for the optimal location of biomass power plants in the Madrid Community (Spain)

This article has been extracted from the results of a thesis entitled “Potential bioelectricity production of the Madrid Community Agricultural Regions based on rye and triticale biomass.” The aim was, first, to quantify the potential of rye (Secale Cereale L.) and triticale ( Triticosecale Aestivum L.) biomass in each of the Madrid Community agricultural regions, and second, to locate the most suitable areas for the installation of power plants using biomass. At least 17,339.9 t d.m. of rye and triticale would be required to satisfy the biomass needs of a 2.2 MW power plant, (considering an efficiency of 21.5%, 8,000 expected operating hours/year and a biomass LCP of 4,060 kcal/kg for both crops), and 2,577 ha would be used (which represent 2.79% of the Madrid Community fallow dry land surface). Biomass yields that could be achieved in Madrid Community using 50% of the fallow dry land surface (46,150 ha representing 5.75% of the Community area), based on rye and triticale crops, are estimated at 84,855, 74,906, 70,109, 50,791, 13,481, and 943 t annually for the Campiña, Vegas, Sur Occidental, Área Metropolitana, Lozoya-Somosierra, and Guadarrama regions. The latter represents a bioelectricity potential of 10.77, 9.5, 8.9, 6.44, 1.71, and 0.12 MW, respectively

The impact of regional factors and new bio-methane incentive schemes on the structure, profitability and CO2 balance of biogas plants in Italy

The Italian Ministry for Economic Development recently started a new incentive program for biomethane grid injection and biomethane for transportation. This opens up new opportunities for more efficient utilization of agricultural biogas, which in the past was mainly used in Italy for power only solutions. Because of the wider range of feasible options, entrepreneurs and local authorities need support tools to identify optimal alternatives, from an economic and environmental viewpoint, respectively. Thus, a biomass supply chain optimization model, including current costs and new incentives for biogas exploitation, is introduced in this paper. The model is used to explore the impact of Italian energy policies on the profitability of alternative biogas utilization pathways in two regional cases studies, characterized by different penetration of CNG refueling stations. The effect of local factors on energy vectors share and on GHG emission reduction are investigated with factor analysis. It is found that CBM production represents the most profitable choice for entrepreneurs under current levels of bio-methane incentives, however because of the small Italian CBM market size it risks to be overly subsidized. Allocating funds to promote a further expansion of CNG would probably help CBM development and benefits more than increasing specific incentives

Potencialidad de varias especies para la obtención de biomasa con fines energéticos en el secano mediterráneo de Chile

In Chile, there are about 1.8 million hectares of dryland soils with severe site restrictions for agronomicand forest species growth. However, these soils can be used to establish energy crops, using forest species specially adapted to this condition. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the potential land availability in the drylands of central Chile for establishing short rotation forestry crops, with low water consumption species. The species Acacia saligna, Atriplex nummularia, Robinia pseudoacacia, Eucalyptus rudis, Eucalyptus globulus subspecies biscotata, Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Eucalyptus occidentalis, based on characteristics such as dry biomass yield, water requirements, tolerance to frost and calorimetric properties, were evaluated. The study area corresponds to Mediterranean drylands of Maule Region in Chile, with a total area of 544 thousand hectares. The results indicate that the potential for the seven crop species considered is about 100,000 ha. It can be concluded that thousands of land hectares are potentially available for growing short rotation forestry crops in the Mediterranean drylands of central Chile.En Chile existen aproximadamente 1,8 millones de hectáreas de suelos considerados de secano, con severas restricciones de sitio para el crecimiento de especies agrícolas y forestales. Sin embargo, dichos suelos, pueden ser utilizados y existe un potencial para establecer cultivos energéticos empleando especies forestales especialmente adaptadas a esta condición. El propósito de este trabajo es estimar la superficie potencial para establecer plantaciones energéticas de corta rotación, con especies forestales de bajos requerimientos hídricos, en el secano mediterráneo de la zona central de Chile. Se utilizaron las especies Acacia saligna, Atriplex nummularia, Robinia pseudoacacia, Eucalyptus rudis, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Eucalyptus occidentalis y Eucalyptus globulus subespecie biscotata, en base a características como rendimiento de biomasa en secano, requerimientos hídricos, tolerancia a heladas y propiedades calorimétricas. El área de estudio corresponde al secano mediterráneo de la Región del Maule en Chile, con una superficie total de 544 mil hectáreas. Los resultados indican que el potencial de cultivo para las siete especies consideradas es de aproximadamente 100.000 ha. Se concluye que el secano mediterráneo de la Región del Maule en Chile presenta condiciones favorables para el establecimiento y desarrollo de plantaciones energéticas con cultivos de corta rotación