The water-energy-food-land nexus at the sugarcane-to-bioenergy supply chain: A sustainable network design model

Abstract

In this paper, efforts have been devoted in tune with the voices for rights of nature and the pursuit of replacing traditional fossil energy with renewable energy for a safer global environment. A two phase-approach to design a sustainable sugarcane-to-bioenergy supply chain network is developed. In the first phase, a hybrid Best-Worst (BWM) and Combinative Distance-Based Assessment (CODAS) method is utilized for finding the most suitable regions for sugarcane cultivation according to climatic, ecological and social criteria. In the second phase, a novel multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MOMILP) model is formulated considering the Water-Energy-Food-Land (WEFL) nexus. A hybrid solution method of augmented ɛ-constraint (AUGMECON) and CODAS method is finally developed to solve the model. This method is utilized for obtaining Pareto solutions of three-objective functions; profit, Co2-equivalent emissions (Co2eq emissions), and water consumption. To evaluate the efficiency of the developed methodology, a real case study in Iraq is applied. The results show that the sugarcane can be cultivated on the available arable land area by 98.9%.