A Mixed Integer and Multiple Objective Programming Model to Analyze Coal Handling in New England

Mandated electric generation coal conversions in New England could place a severe strain on the coal handling and transportation facilities in New England ports. This paper presents an analytical scheme leading to the development of optimal plans for the reuse and redevelopment of marine transport networks in New England. Utilizing the port inventory that provides information on existing coal handling facilities and the capability of the ports to increase capacity of existing facilities or locating new facilities, a mathematical programming model is used to determine the optimal capacity, placement and railrod and marine interface of coal handling facilities within and between the New England ports and converting power plants. Initially a mixed integer programming model with a least cost objective is formulated. It is then expanded to a multiobjective programming problem in order to provide information to the port planners and decision makers on the tradeoffs between the costs and temporal efficiency of coal transporation and handling for various locational configurations. © 1983

Optimizing Freight Transshipments: An Evaluation of East Coast Coal Export Options

Many factors will determine the extent to which the U.S. will be a significant supplier of coal to world markets. Important among these factors is the ability of the domestic coal transport system to move coal from mines to export ports and the capability of these ports to efficiently transship the coal to export markets. This paper describes the use of a mixed-integer mathematical programming model, called the Coal Logistics System (COLS), to provide information for transportation infrastructure planning with regard to increasing U.S. coal exports. COLS is a comprehensive coal transportation model that includes the location and activity levels for coal handling technology. It is used in this study to evaluate potential patterns of export coal movements in the Eastern U.S. with respect to transportation costs, optimal location and activity levels for port coal handling facilities and related investment expenditures. © 1983

Mexican natural gas implications for the US market

Despite the current glut of natural gas in the USA, much future demand may not be met unless supplementary sources of supply are developed. Mexico is not now an important supply source but a September 1979 agreement may mean that large volumes of Mexican gas will be exported to the USA in the future. This paper presents a modified version of the out-of-kilter algorithm used to examine the possible impacts of this gas, with particular attention given to identification of those areas most likely to benefit from these supplemental supplies. The results indicate that if Mexican natural gas is introduced to the US pipeline network in either southern Texas or southern New Mexico in large quantities, serious pipeline capacity problems may inhibit the use of Mexican supplies as a supplementary source

A Dynamic Location‐Allocation Model for Evaluating the Spatial Impacts for Just‐in‐Time Planning

This paper presents an interperiod network storage location‐allocation (INSLA) model to solve the just‐in‐time production planning problem. The model is extended to a multiobjective problem in which trade‐offs between delivery time and transportation costs are analyzed. The results for a hypothetical problem show that in an attempt to reduce inventories on the part of the primary purchaser of raw materials, the possibility exists for less than optimal behavior in the system. 1990 The Ohio State Universit

An Equity Model for Locating Environmentally Hazardous Facilities

This paper develops a multiobjective mathematical location model to identify possible locations for environmentally hazardous facilities. Risk and equity are recognized as the most important criteria in determining site selection. In contrast to earlier models, the equity objective explicitly considers the existing distribution of environmental burdens when siting new hazardous facilities. Proposed environmentally hazardous facilities are located so that the burdens associated with new and existing hazards are shared as equally as possible among all areas. The application of the model, in a case study of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, illustrates the trade-offs associated with various risk and equity scenarios. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate how the existing distribution of environmental burdens may act as a constraint and limit the degree of equity that may be obtained when locating new facilities

Measuring the Vulnerability of Populations Susceptible to Lead Contamination in the Dominican Republic: Evaluating Composite Index Construction Methods

There are several suspected sources of lead contamination in the Dominican Republic (DR) to which populations, to a greater or lesser extent, may be exposed. These sources include: a lead battery recycling plant, a gold mine and vehicles using leaded gasoline. In this paper we create and compare indices of spatial vulnerability using different index construction methods including: the weighted average, ordered weighted average, and Data Envelopment Analysis. The vulnerability attributes used to create these indices include: exposure to lead effluents in water from the gold mine as measured by distance from potentially contaminated water, point source lead air emissions from the battery recycling plant estimated by air plume analysis; and mobile source exposure to lead emissions from road transportation measured by potential traffic impacts. The intensities of vulnerability to lead of the towns and cities in the DR, produced by each of the different index construction methods, are compared and evaluated. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

An Interperiod Network Storage Location-Allocation (INSLA) Model for Rail Distribution of Ethanol Biofuels

In response to the US federal renewable fuels standards, new ethanol plants of varying sizes are being established in the US. The transportation challenge is to decide on how best to move raw materials to these existing and new ethanol plants, and to ship the fuel from the ethanol plants to markets around the country. In this paper, we extend the Interperiod Network Storage Location-Allocation (INSLA) model formulation into a Rail-INSLA model to address the transportation/transshipment issues associated with the rail distribution of ethanol biofuels that include: transporting less than unit train quantities from each plant, developing new sidings at ethanol plants to accommodate a unit train, and determining the optimal number and locations for carrier operated terminals for the agglomeration of less than unit train size shipments into unit train shipments. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd