Optimization Of Feedstock Inventory In Biomass To Ethanol Supply Chain

The increasingly gradual depletion of world fossil energy resourcesmakes the energy tense situation become worse. As a renewable energy,bioethanol has received wide attention. However, the biomass feedstockused to produce bioethanol is difficult to storage, which brings challengefor bioethanol refinery optimization operation. More importantly, theimproper storage will have negative effect on the production process ofbioethanol. Thus jointly analyzing the production and inventory ofbioethanol production problem is vital for reducing the inventory loss andimprove the industry’s profitability. In addition, with the promotion ofenergy saving policies, consider the emission camp and carbon tax policyto control the greenhouse gas in the production process is a directionworth exploring.In this thesis, the focus of research is the whole chain from rawmaterials inventory process, refine process to the bioethanol product andbyproduct. The biomass inventory and ethanol production were jointlyanalyzed. And a stochastic programming model was presented tomaximize the supply chain revenue and got the optimal inventoryquantity on the condition of storage methods might affect the productivity. By calculation, the optimal inventory and production quantity as well asthe profits for normal distribution demand were found. Furthermore, viasensitivity analysis, some conclusions were got among the price offeedstock, storage methods, the storage costs and revenue:1. Whenfeedstock price and storage costs increase, the overall inventory andprofit of biorefinery may decrease.2. When the storage loss decreases,adding feedstock inventory quantity may significantly improve theoverall profit of biorefinery.Meanwhile, under the background of the emission reduction issueincreasingly draws more and more attention, the thesis considered theEmission Cap policy and the carbon tax policy into the inventory model,discuss the optimal production of bioethanol supply chain and inventorylevels for both cases. Furthermore, by sensitivity analysis, the impact ofcarbon tax change on various decision variables were analyzed and therelationships of reduction rate of carbon emissions and the carbon tax,production, inventory was obtained. When the optimal yield of theproduct is greater than the mean value of the demand distribution, reducethe product’s yield may decrease the reduction of carbon emission;Otherwise, it will increase constantly.