Chapter 1 - Introduction

Abstract

Biorefineries appear to be a way to replace fossil fuels. In the implementation of a biorefinery several options need to be explored, including the selection of feedstocks, processing routes, products, sites for harvesting, processing, and markets, in addition to different sustainability criteria. The optimal solution to this problem is not obvious. Thus, this book presents several optimization models for the design and planning of sustainable biorefinery supply chains (SCs) taking into account relevant issues such as several potential biomass feedstocks available in multiple harvesting sites, availability and seasonality of biomass resources, different potential geographical locations for processing plants that produce multiple products using diverse production technologies, economies of scale for the production technologies, demands and prices of multiple products in each market, locations of storage facilities, and a number of transportation modes between the SC components. Sustainability considerations are incorporated into the proposed models by including simultaneous economic, environmental, and social performance in the evaluation of the SC designs.