Coordinating biomass supply chains for remote communities : a comparative analysis of non-cooperative and cooperative scenarios

The absence of economies of scale is a major barrier in use of renewable energy sources in small and dispersed off-grid remote communities. For example, in northern Canada, diesel is currently the main source of electricity and heat generation. Coordination of biomass supply chains could play a key role in improving the cost efficiency and reliability of bioenergy generation through bundled ordering and creation of storage hubs. In this study, a supply chain management model with multiple suppliers and multiple end-user communities is formulated. The proposed model enables us to analyse and compare the outcomes of adopting a cooperative coordination strategy (with a joint pay-off for communities) versus a non-cooperative coordination strategy (with individual payoffs for communities). Other peculiar attributes of the proposed model rest in the addressing of restricted ordering schedules and quantities (due to unavailability of pathways) by advocating nonlinear ordering and distribution costs (to incorporate quantity discounts) achieved through coordinated and/or collective inventories. A real biomass supply chain case study of three northernmost Nunavik communities in Quebec is considered to show the applicability of the model and provide insights for uptake of bioenergy sources in remote off-grid communities

A System Dynamics Approach to Comparative Analysis of Biomass Supply Chain Coordination Strategies

Biomass is one of the most efficient renewable energy sources to increase energy security and reduce the environmental issues. It could be utilised as back-up or main source of energy in off-grid remote northern communities of Canada, which are currently rely on fossil-fuels. However, small scale of energy demand, necessity of continuous energy supply, and spatial dispersion of such remote communities restrict the competitiveness and efficiency of bioenergy. Managing bioenergy supply chain from supplying biomass to conversion facilities is vital to overcome the challenges in expanding bioenergy production. In this sense, forming collaboration among the entities plays a key role to improve the economy of scale and efficiency of bioenergy production. In the literature, several coordination strategies resulted in varying impacts on entities’ profit or cost. As such, analyzing and comparing them in various conditions could assure selecting the most efficient one. This study recommends quantity discounts and cost-sharing coordination policies to promote the biomass level at communities in a cost-efficient manner through establishing bundling orders and benefiting the lower cost. This dissertation employs a system dynamics approach to simulate coordination scenarios and make the optimal decisions in a biomass supply chain including suppliers, hubs, and end-user. On that basis, performing a comparative analysis under various conditions and assumptions provide insights into the impact of coordination and selecting the preferred choice of coordination strategy for each player. The simulation-based optimization model is applied to a bioenergy supply chain case study in Canada’s off‐grid northern communities. The results of this research point to a significant role of coordination in improving the cost efficiency as well as the level of biomass-based energy production

Green Technologies for Production Processes

This book focuses on original research works about Green Technologies for Production Processes, including discrete production processes and process production processes, from various aspects that tackle product, process, and system issues in production. The aim is to report the state-of-the-art on relevant research topics and highlight the barriers, challenges, and opportunities we are facing. This book includes 22 research papers and involves energy-saving and waste reduction in production processes, design and manufacturing of green products, low carbon manufacturing and remanufacturing, management and policy for sustainable production, technologies of mitigating CO2 emissions, and other green technologies

Peer-to-peer, community self-consumption, and transactive energy: A systematic literature review of local energy market models

Peer-to-peer, community or collective self-consumption, and transactive energy markets offer new models for trading energy locally. Over the past five years, there has been significant growth in the amount of academic literature examining how these local energy markets might function. This systematic literature review of 139 peer-reviewed journal articles examines the market designs used in these energy trading models. A modified version of the Business Ecosystem Architecture Modelling framework is used to extract market model information from the literature, and to identify differences and similarities between the models. This paper examines how peer-to-peer, community self-consumption and transactive energy markets are described in current literature. It explores the similarities and differences between these markets in terms of participation, governance structure, topology, and design. This paper systematises peer-to-peer, community self-consumption and transactive energy market designs, identifying six archetypes. Finally, it identifies five evidence gaps which require future research before these markets could be widely adopted. These evidence gaps are the lack of: consideration of physical constraints; a holistic approach to market design and operation; consideration about how these market designs will scale; consideration of information security; and, consideration of market participant privacy

Governance for increased CHP District Heating diffusion in the UK

Combined Heat and Power and District Heating technology systems (CHP-DH) is a network-based infrastructure known to offer a more efficient and more sustainable option for meeting society’s energy needs with reduced emission production in the face of increasing population and energy demand compared to other forms of conventional thermal plants. Specifically, this brings to the fore the potential importance of these systems, their rate of penetration and what factors are militating against their diffusion. The United Kingdom (UK) currently exhibits a low penetration of CHP and particularly CHP-DH systems in terms of contribution to both electricity and heat generation profile with the adoption of these systems failing to meet their potential over decades. This is despite Government commitments to meeting environmental targets for emission reduction and 2020 energy targets from renewable energy by introducing several governance mechanisms. This failure suggests that these mechanisms have not fully captured the potential of CHP-DH systems to achieve these targets. Secondly, it is also not clear that the UK has adequately considered heat energy as a critical aspect of the energy vector to meet its energy target, based upon the limited governance infrastructures to facilitate the efficient generation and distribution of heat. This thesis focuses on investigating the inducing and blocking mechanisms that influence the diffusion of CHP-DH systems in the UK using both a technological innovation system approach and governance theoretical concepts with a view to proposing alternative governance pathways to influence the CHP-DH penetration. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies are adopted here. A wide selection of stakeholders is consulted to identify barriers and assess potential solutions with a view to examining possible strategies for both communities and society at large to harness the potential of CHP-DH in meeting energy, environmental and social targets. The results suggest several governance options that seek to influence the diffusion of CHP-DH systems in the UK. Summarily, it highlights the roles that hierarchies of governance (State and Local Authorities) can play in influencing the diffusion of the technology, with the state to evolve a joined-up policy portfolio to stimulate investment and growth of CHP-DH systems and the LAs as prime movers of the CHP-DH TIS taking up “doers and enablers” roles in the penetration of the technology. Thereby contributing to the energy policy debate by persuading the hierarchies of governance to see CHP-DH systems through the lenses of a network-based infrastructure and consider alternative governance mechanisms that may ultimately enhance the selection environment of CHP-DH systems in the UK

Business Models for SEEV4-City Operational Pilots: From a generic SEEV4-City business model towards improved specific OP business models

This report, led by Northumbria University, provides a final analysis by project partners regarding Business Models for SEEV4-City Operational pilots. It is part of a collection of reports published by the project covering a variation of specific and cross-cutting analysis and evaluation perspectives and spans 6 operational pilots

Solving Multi-objective Integer Programs using Convex Preference Cones

Esta encuesta tiene dos objetivos: en primer lugar, identificar a los individuos que fueron víctimas de algún tipo de delito y la manera en que ocurrió el mismo. En segundo lugar, medir la eficacia de las distintas autoridades competentes una vez que los individuos denunciaron el delito que sufrieron. Adicionalmente la ENVEI busca indagar las percepciones que los ciudadanos tienen sobre las instituciones de justicia y el estado de derecho en Méxic