Simulation of logistics to supply Corn Stover to the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) Plant in Lambton, Ontario.

Abstract

The overall goal of this research is to investigate the logistics of agricultural biomass in Ontario, Canada using the Integrated Biomass Supply Analysis and Logistics Model (IBSAL). The supply of corn stover to the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) power plant in Lambton is simulated. This coal-fired power plant is currently not operating and there are no active plans by OPG to fuel it with biomass. Rather, this scenario is considered only to demonstrate the application of the IBSAL Model to this type of scenario. Five scenarios of delivering corn stover to the Lambton Generating Station (GS) power plant in Lambton Ontario are modeled: (1) truck transport from field edge to OPG (base scenario); (2) farm to central storage located on the highway, then truck transport bales to OPG; (3) direct truck transport from farm (no-stacking) to OPG; (4) farm to a loading port on Lake Huron and from there on a barge to OPG; and (5) farm to a railhead and then to OPG by rail. The net amount of annual biomass demand at the power plant was set to be 124,264 dry tonnes (dt) to produce 5% of the baseload fuel requirement of the power plant. For Scenario 1 the amount of biomass required to be harvested is 160,123 dt per year with delivery cost of $37/t. For Scenario 2 the amount of biomass is 155,730 dt per year with delivery cost of $48/t. For Scenario 3 the amount of biomass is 151,141t per year with delivery cost of $33/t. The differences in the amount of biomass and cost are due to dry matter loss and transport distance. For Scenario 4 the amount of biomass is 172,480 t per year with delivery cost of $94/t. Eight barges are required to deliver the entire supply of biomass to the power plant within a time period of 6 months. For Scenario 5 the amount of biomass is 170,686 t per year with delivery cost of $81/t. The required biomass could be delivered using 264 trips. The purchase cost of biomass is not included in this output.