Advanced Methodologies for Biomass Supply Chain Planning

Renewable energy resources have received increasing attention due to environmental concerns. Biomass, one of the most important renewable energy resources, is abundant in agricultural-based countries. Typically, the biomass supply chain is large due to the huge amount of relevant data required for building the model. As a result, using a standard optimization package to determine the solution for the biomass supply chain model might not be practical. In this study, the focus is on developing and applying advanced methodologies that can be used to determine a solution for the biomass supply chain model efficiently. The decisions related to plant selection, and distribution of biomass from suppliers to plants require optimization. The methodologies considered in this research are based on stochastic programming, parameter search, and simulation-based optimization. Computational results and managerial insights based on case studies from different regions of Vietnam are provided. The results show that parameter search is suitable for small problems only, while stochastic programming is suitable for small and medium problems. For large problem, simulation-based optimization performs better when considering the quality of the solution and the run time, although, this method does not guarantee an optimal solution. It provides good solutions where the gaps to the optimal solutions are between 0.59% and 8.41%.