Operations Research for Green Logistics – An Overview of Aspects, Issues, Contributions and Challenges

Biomass-to-bioenergy and biofuel supply chain optimization: Overview, key issues and challenges

Biofuel energy as an alternative and additive form of energy to fossil fuel has gained much attention in recent times. In order to sustain such a vision, a robust supply chain is of extreme importance in helping to deliver competitive biofuel to the end user markets. In this paper, firstly, an introduction of the evolution of biofuels and the general structure of the biofuel supply chain are presented. Secondly, the three types of decision making levels and uncertainties that are inherent within the biofuel supply chain are discussed. Thirdly, important methodologies for modeling uncertainties in the decision making process are provided. Fourthly, sustainability concepts and models that give perspectives to the social, economical and environmental concepts are reviewed. Finally, conclusions and future research based on incorporating uncertainties and sustainability concepts within the biofuel supply chain are drawn and suggested, respectively.

Uncertainties and sustainability concepts in biofuel supply chain management: A review

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been proposed as a key technology to help cut down the massive greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. Unfortunately, because of the limited capacity of batteries, typical EVs can only travel for about 100 miles on a single charge and require hours to be recharged. The industry has proposed a novel solution centered around the use of “swapping stations,” at which depleted batteries can be exchanged for recharged ones in the middle of long trips. The possible success of this solution hinges on the ability of the charging service provider to deploy a cost-effective infrastructure network, given only limited information regarding adoption rates. We develop robust optimization models that aid the planning process for deploying battery-swapping infrastructure. Using these models, we study the potential impacts of battery standardization and technology advancements on the optimal infrastructure deployment strategy. This paper was accepted by Dimitris Bertsimas, opti...

Infrastructure Planning for Electric Vehicles with Battery Swapping

Biofuels are identified as the potential solution for depleting fossil fuel reserves, increasing oil prices, and providing a clean, renewable energy source The major barrier preventing the commercialization of lignocellulosic biorefineries is the complex conversion process and their respective supply chain Efficient supply chain management of a lignocellulosic biomass is crucial for success of second generation biofuels This paper systematically describes energy needs, energy targets, biofuel feedstocks, conversion processes, and finally provides a comprehensive review of Biomass Supply Chain (BSC) design and modeling Specifically, the paper presents a detailed review of mathematical programming models developed for BSC and identifies key challenges and potential future work This review will provide readers with a starting point for understanding biomass feedstocks and biofuel production as well as detailed analysis of the BSC modeling and design

Biomass supply chain design and analysis: Basis, overview, modeling, challenges, and future

This research focuses on planning biofuel refinery locations where the total system cost for refinery investment, feedstock and product transportation and public travel is minimized. Shipment routing of both feedstock and product in the biofuel supply chain and the resulting traffic congestion impact are incorporated into the model to decide optimal locations of biofuel refineries. A Lagrangian relaxation based heuristic algorithm is introduced to obtain near-optimum feasible solutions efficiently. To further improve optimality, a branch-and-bound framework (with linear programming relaxation and Lagrangian relaxation bounding procedures) is developed. Numerical experiments with several testing examples demonstrate that the proposed algorithms solve the problem effectively. An empirical Illinois case study and a series of sensitivity analyses are conducted to show the effects of highway congestion on refinery location design and total system costs.

Biofuel refinery location and supply chain planning under traffic congestion

: Every year, billions of dollars are spent on rail track maintenance to keep the serviceability of the railroad network. These maintenance projects (of different types) must be performed by suitable maintenance teams within a planning horizon. This article presents a time-space network model to solve the track maintenance scheduling problem (TMSP). The objective is to minimize the total travel costs of the maintenance teams as well as the impact of maintenance projects on railroad operation, which are formulated by three types of side constraints: mutually exclusive, time window, and precedence constraints. An iterative heuristic solution approach is proposed to solve the large-scale TMSP model with a large number of side constraints. The proposed model and solution approach are applied to a large-scale real-world problem. Compared to the current industry practice the model outcome eliminated all hard side-constraint violations and reduced the total objective value (travel costs and soft side-constraint violation penalties) by 66.8%.

A Heuristic Approach to the Railroad Track Maintenance Scheduling Problem

This paper presents mathematical models that optimize the size of transportation fleet (cranes and trucks) for unloading operations at container terminals. A cyclic queue model is used to study the steady-state port throughput, which then yields the optimum fleet size for long-term operations. This model allows for stochastic operations such as exponentially distributed crane service times. In order to allow for generally distributed crane service times and truck travel times, an approach based on Markovian decision process is also proposed. This model provides dynamic operational policies for fleet management. Both models are implemented and examined with empirical data from the Port of Balboa, Panama. These models are also extended to unloading operations that involve multiple berths.

Optimal operations of transportation fleet for unloading activities at container ports

Growing biofuel mandates pose considerable challenges to the infrastructure needed across all stages of the supply chain − from crop production, feedstock harvesting, storage, transportation, and processing to biofuel distribution and use This chapter focuses on the biofuel transportation and distribution network infrastructure, using Illinois as a case study Building on an optimal land use allocation model for feedstock production, a mathematical programming model is used to determine optimal locations and capacities of biorefineries, delivery of bioenergy crops to biorefineries, and processing and distribution of ethanol and co-products (DDGS) The model aims to minimize total system costs in a multiyear planning horizon for the period of 2007–2022 Certain locations may be more suitable for corn and corn stover-based ethanol plants, others more for producing ethanol using perennial grasses (miscanthus)

Seungmo Kang

Papers

Biofuel refinery location and supply chain planning under traffic congestion

A Heuristic Approach to the Railroad Track Maintenance Scheduling Problem

Optimal operations of transportation fleet for unloading activities at container ports

Optimizing the Biofuels Infrastructure: Transportation Networks and Biorefinery Locations in Illinois

Impact of traffic states on freeway crash involvement rates