Masters Thesis

Logistics of integrating a biomass conversion technology into a centralized biomass recovery operation supply chain

Appropriate pre-treatment steps coupled with the production of advanced biofuels such as biochar or torrefied wood chips within a supply chain can ease the economic transportation limitations of a biomass recovery operation. Potential benefits include local energy independence from fossil fuels as well as newly accessible international markets for advanced feedstocks. The objectives of this study were to examine the logistic effects of integrating a BCT into a Centralized Biomass Recovery Operation (CBRO). Concurrently, this study examined two different CBRO workflows/supply chains in order to facilitate integration into a variety of supply chains. Centralized pre-treatment and conversion sites range from 0.22 acres to 3.57 acres of land available. This study used the Location-Allocation tool within the Network Analyst extension to generate total and average one-way travel times for analysis of each model. The models used the Maximize Market Share problem type. A sensitivity analysis was conducted in order to explore the effect that having multiple BCT sites has on the total and average one-way travel time of either model. System balance was determined for all iterations of both logistics models which all scenarios within a given Logistics model exhibited shorter travel times than the other. Logistically, arranging comminution and BCT operations to occur at the same in-woods site returned shorter total and average travel times than arranging the two activities to occur at separate in-woods sites.

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