Regional Biomass Supply Chains

Biomass is one of the key renewable energy sources, offering the potential for reducing environmental impact regarding energy supplies. It is a versatile source from which heat, electricity, and liquid biofuels can be generated. Its utilization can also improve energy security, the development of rural regions, and employment. The exploitation of the energy potential in biomass in a specific geographical region is frequently constrained by high production costs and the amount of land required per unit of energy generated. In addition, the distributed nature of the biomass resource and its normally low energy density may result in large transportation costs. Biomass also requires large land areas to collect and process the incoming solar radiation before the energy can be harvested. In line with this, there has been a growing interest, discussions, and publications of green technologies, concepts, and approaches for sustainable design and reduction. To link-up these green technologies from pretreatment to process and delivery, a green supply chain development is a key point in this green belt. Green biomass supply chain or sustainable network could be defined as the operational management method and optimization approach to reduce the environmental impact along the life cycle of the green product: from the raw material to the end product. These activities should lead to economic growth, environmental protection, and social progress in a region. To achieve a sustainable development, the supply chain not only focuses on transportation/logistic task. The special focus must be given to the latest conservation of biomass (mass and energy) used in the process, the possibility of integrating green resources, the consideration of industrial symbiosis relationship, and the network synthesis with multiobjectives of environmental, technical, economic, safety, and social factors.