Design of bioethanol green supply chain - Comparison between first and second generation biomass concerning economic, environmental and social impact

Abstract

The main objective of this project is to find a solution that reaches a compromise between three criteria (economic, environmental and social) to establish one or some biorefineries in southwest France. Using a Mixed Integer Linear Programming model, economic, environmental and social aspects are evaluated and compared in order to justify the reasons to choose how many refineries should be established and where. At first, only corn is considered as raw material because of its abundance in the region. The model is designed and solved to determine the economic cost, the eco-cost [13] and the number of jobs created to procure, harvest, store, transport and treat a flow of corn biomass to an optimally located set of biorefineries. In this case, the amount of corn collected is imposed so that it is proportional to the total crop in each region and bioethanol demand is met. Binary variables are included to enable the model to determine the most suitable plant locations to reach a balance between the three criteria. The model was solved using the program ILOG with the CPLEX solver. A superstructure model is created to define the whole process from the harvest to the transport of the final product, bioethanol, to the fuel depots.