Location Of Storage Facilities Research Articles

On the Distributed Energy Storage Investment and Operations

Problem definition: Energy storage has become an indispensable part of power distribution systems, necessitating prudent investment decisions. We analyze an energy storage facility location problem and compare the benefits of centralized storage (adjacent to a central energy generation site) versus distributed storage (localized at demand sites). This problem encompasses optimizing storage capacities across all locations, with the objective of minimizing the total storage investment and energy generation costs. Methodology/results: We employ a stylized model that captures essential features of an energy distribution system, including convex costs, stochastic demand, storage efficiency, and line losses. Using dynamic programming, we optimize storage operations and derive value function properties that are key to analyzing the storage investment decisions. We discern fundamental differences between centralization/localization decisions at the capacity investment stage and the centralization/localization decisions at the storage operations level. Operationally, centrally stored energy offers more flexibility, which is consistent with the conventional understanding of inventory pooling. However, we find that localized storage often emerges as the preferred option at the investment stage under various circumstances. Managerial implications: Storage investment should first be made at the demand locations with positive minimum demand regardless of the level of demand variability. Subsequent storage investment should consider the tradeoffs between centralized versus localized investment. Operationally, the relative magnitudes of storage and line losses drive different optimal storage policies. Despite the differences, these policies are guided by common principles such as pooling inventory and balancing local storage levels. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2020.0652 .

Emergency resource storage facility location problem considering domino effect after a disaster

PurposeThe earth is facing challenges to work for the survival of human life during domino effect disasters. The emergency resource storage locations should be selected considering the probability of domino effect disasters. The first purpose of this study is to select the storage locations where domino effect probability is less. And second, facility development cost and transportation costs and costs for unutilized capacity have been optimized.Design/methodology/approachThe work is a multiobjective optimization problem and solved with weighted sum approach. At first, the probabilities of domino effect due to natural disasters are calculated based on the earthquake zones. Then with that result along with other necessary data, the location to set up storage facilities and the quantities of resources that need to be transported has been determined.FindingsThe work targeted a country, Bangladesh for example. The authors have noticed that Bangladesh is currently storing relief items at warehouse which is under the domino effect prone region. The authors are proposing to avoid this location and identified the optimized cost for setting up the facilities. In this work, the authors pointed out which location has high probability of domino effect and after avoiding this location whether cost can be optimized, and the result demonstrated that this decision can be economical.Originality/valueDisaster response authorities should try to take necessary proactive steps during cascading disasters. The novelty of this work is determining the locations to select storage facilities if the authors consider the probability of the domino effect. Then a facility location optimization model has been developed to minimize the costs. This paper can support policymakers to assess the strategies for selecting the location of emergency resource facilities.

A numerical and experimental study of hydronic heating for road deicing and its energy flexibility

The use of deicing salts and other anti-skid measures typically adopted by highway maintenance services have many limitations such as applicable temperatures, location of storage facilities, ease of access to road section and, in the case of salts, infrastructure and environmental damage. An alternative solution that offers several advantages is the implementation of hydronic heating systems implemented under the road surfaces. Hydronic deicing may eliminate the need to add salts to road surfaces, thus prolonging the lifetime of infrastructure and significantly reducing maintenance costs. This article presents a methodology to develop low-order models for hydronic deicing slabs with significant thermal mass along with validation in an environmental chamber. The models are utilized to analyze the thermal dynamics of different pipe depths for hydronic deicing slab of a transportation infrastructure in Montreal, Canada. A key objective of the presented study is preheating the slab to reach a surface temperature of about 2 °C before the precipitation to greatly reduce the risk of ice formation. The magnitude of time delay to reach the required surface temperature for deicing for different slab piping configurations and system capacity is evaluated by means of a reduced-order lumped parameter model. The model is then utilized to study an energy flexibility strategy based on thermal response delay of the slab as a function of piping distance from surface to significantly reduce the heating load during the peak demand period.

Analysis of the optimal spatial distribution of natural gas under ‘transition from coal to gas’ in China

China has been attempting to realise green sustainable economic development. Thus, China has proposed and begun to implement the ‘switching from coal to gas’ policy to realise the energy structure transition but neglected to consider seasonal natural gas demand fluctuations, gas supply shortages, the backward gas transportation and storage infrastructure. This paper constructs a model of China’s natural gas distribution system by incorporating these four factors: ① supply factors including domestic natural gas fields, liquid natural gas receiving stations, internationally piped gas sources, ② demand factors including domestic regional demands, ③ real natural gas transportation pipeline systems in the country, and ④ the pricing mechanism of natural gas. Optimal spatial natural gas distribution with maximum social welfare under the three conditions are simulated, respectively: the ① fixed price system, ② market pricing mechanism, and ③ seasonal fluctuations. The simulation results indicate substantial changes would occur in China’s natural gas system during the switch from coal to gas, and the natural gas infrastructure requires further improvement. This paper also provides references for the natural gas storage facility location selection in China.

Sustainable facility relocation in agriculture systems using the GIS and best–worst method

PurposeTo avoid sub-optimization in wheat storage centers, one of the most strategic facilities, it is necessary to review and relocate them to be optimized regularly. The present study aims to propose an integrated method using geographic information systems (GISs) and an appropriate weighting algorithm for the relocation of wheat storage facilities.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the goal mentioned above, sustainability pillars in facility location and relocation are initially developed; afterward, a set of suitable criteria are obtained from various scientific resources. Then, the weight of each sustainable development pillar and its corresponding sub-criteria were identified through utilizing the best–worst method (BWM). By applying the obtained weights in the ArcGIS software package, various geographical layers were designed, and land-use planning, logistics planning and sustainable logistics planning are carried out in the regions. The regions are ranked based on the scores obtained in the processes, and the best regions are selected for sustainable relocation problem.FindingsA case study including 430 regions (counties) in Iran is conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the suggested approach. The study results indicate that Iran possesses a superior state for establishing wheat storage centers in terms of infrastructural and social aspects. Also, it is established that 16% of counties are recognized as sustainable locations for relocating the wheat storage facilities.Research limitations/implicationsThere is no most suitable analysis of the wheat storage facilities, as well as their strategic position in the supply chain, and there is a lack of considering sustainability in wheat storage facility location, despite the particular importance of it to the supply chain.Practical implicationsThis framework is applied in an Iranian wheat-bread supply chain to find the best sustainable facilities. It is noted that this algorithm can be applied in other strategic facilities by minor and some major changes.Originality/valueDecision-makers can apply the proposed methodology to find the best relocation sites for wheat storage facilities as the main part of wheat-bread supply chain in order to prevent sub-optimization and improve the efficiency of their supply chain.

Emergency Supply Facility Location Design under Disaster Conditions: Emerging Modeling Techniques and Algorithms

The sudden and frequent natural disasters have brought a series of damages to both the economy and society of all countries in the world and made people to suffer a double loss of life and property. In this context, it raises a claim for emergency rescue activities in terms of more scientific, more accurate and quicker responses. Emergency rescue is taken as one of the most important ways to save lives and reduce losses when natural disasters attack; while proper emergency supply storage facility location is the key to guarantee the effectiveness and efficiency of emergency rescue operations. Based on the characteristics of emergency rescue activities, this paper analyzes the scientific problems in the field of emergency rescue and summarizes the current progress of emergency supply facility location modeling and algorithms with the purpose of laying a theoretical foundation for the future research.

Применение тепловизионного мониторинга при идентификации утечек на объектах подземного хранения газа

Currently, the unified gas supply system is functioning in Russia, the key element of ensuring reliability of which is the underground gas storage system. Presence of large volumes of gas at these production facilities and close location of storage facilities to the settlements predetermine their danger. From which it follows that during operation of such facilities a special attention is required to be paid to safety issues. The article considers the problem of monitoring of the equipment technical condition and identifying leaks at hazardous production facilities of the underground gas storage. Existing methods do not allow quickly and with a high degree of reliability to detect hidden damages to the operating equipment, to accurately determine and record gas leaks location. The greatest danger is posed by the pipelines and shutoff valves, which is established based on the analysis of statistical data on accident rate at the oil and gas facilities. The performed analysis showed that the technical condition of pipelines is the main cause of most accidents. The main method of non-destructive testing of the technical condition of this equipment is in-line inspection. Due to the fact, that in-line inspections are not provided for the underground gas storage facilities the thermal imaging monitoring was proposed in order to improving the quality of the work during industrial control at such facilities.  The efficiency of this method is confirmed by practical tests at the production sites of a hazardous underground gas storage facility. During the experiment, the possibility of using two types of thermal imagers was studied: classic and cooled. The classic thermal imager operates in the far infrared range and allows to assess the state of the object by the temperature gradient of its surface. The second type — a cooled thermal imager, it operates in the mid-infrared range and allows to visualize the gas leaks. Based on the performed study, the capabilities of each device were evaluated, and the area of their application was identified.

Warehouse location problem in supply chain designing: a simulation analysis

The facility location problem is a popular issue in the literature. The current development of world economies and globalization of the market requires continuous improvement of methods and research in this field. The location of the object determines the time of transport, affects the operational costs of the supply chain, and determines the possible amount of inventory or minimum inventory levels. These are critical issues from the point of view of designing an effective logistics system. The degree of complexity of current decision-making problems requires the construction of mathematical models and support for the decision-maker by optimization and simulation methods. A comprehensive and systemic approach to the problem allows the effective planning of supply chains. The purpose of this article was to study the sensitivity of the warehouse location problem in the supply chain. The solution was obtained based on the methodology developed under the SIMMAG3D project. The article presents the characteristics of the issue of the location of warehouse objects, the mathematical formulation of the solved problem of location and the method of its solution based on the heuristic algorithm using the modification of the Busacker-Gowen method. Then, a supply chain simulation model was developed in the FLEXSIM environment and scenario studies were performed for various input data and model parameters. The analysis and assessment of the solution based on parameters such as utilization of the potential of warehouse objects object were presented. Random change in demand described by Erlang distribution and normal distribution was considered. The analysis showed how the selection of a statistical distribution to describe the input data can affect the shape of the logistics system. The article ends with a summary of considerations and a plan for further research in the use of the simulation environment to support the decision-making process of the location of storage facilities and the functioning of supply chains.

Supply chain and logistic optimization of industrial Spent Microbial Biomass distribution as a soil amendment for field crop production

Advancement of a sustainable bioeconomy requires strategic planning and development of new markets for coproducts. This research develops a least cost transportation model to deliver Spent Microbial Biomass (SMB) to farm fields as a soil amendment and fertilizer substitute. SMB is a coproduct resulting from the production of Bio-PDO™ – a certified biobased 1,3-propanediol made from corn glucose. SMB is bulky, but high in organic matter and other important plant nutrients. Distribution of SMB requires storage sites and truck transportation. The location of storage sites and serviceable coverage area are important factors determining supply logistic costs. This case study focuses on a Bio-PDO™ processing facility in East Tennessee. Stochastic programming and Monte Carlo simulation were used to evaluate the least-cost distribution of SMB under uncertain farmer demand. Farmer interest and participation rates affect the number and location of storage facilities, the system’s total storage capacity and costs, and transportation costs. The results suggest that on-farm storage of SMB minimizes material transport and storage costs.

Web processing service integrated with mobile application to identify suitable grain storage facility location

Heavy rains causing a flood like situation affect the grains stored in godowns. To save the grains from floods, they have to be transferred to safer places. Historical flood layers derived using the remote sensing data can be helpful in determining the safe place for transferring the grains from the flood affected godowns. Analyzing of satellite data for determining the safer locations needs specialized skills and GIS software’s. To overcome this, a web based information system, capable of organizing, hosting, and sharing of the flood layers and other spatial datasets as open geospatial consortium compatible web processing services is needed. For transferring the grains, the management must have the existing stock information of the flood affected godown as well as stock information of the godown where the grains are planned to be shifted. Mobile application, capable of reporting the stock information along with the godown location and ground photographs can be an efficient solution to do so. This paper presents work on web processing services integrated with mobile application using open source technologies to identify suitable grain godowns location.

Determining optimal locations for rainwater storage sites with the goal of reducing urban inundation damage costs

Because of climate change, severe rainfall events that lead to lowland flooding and inundation problems are occurring more frequently, especially in urban areas, which have high population densities. In order to prevent inundation of urban areas, authorities in the Korean Government have set up integrated flood management plans and established spatial targets for rainfall runoff. These disaster prevention plans include measures such as improvements to the sewer pipe capacity and the construction of downstream pump stations, rainwater storage sites, and infiltration facilities. The main purpose of pervious design plans is to reduce the flood volume in target areas, and this research presents a new method for developing rainwater storage design plans while considering potential flood damage costs in urban areas. The new planning method for storage facility design was applied to a single watershed in the Sintaein basin in the city of Jeongeup, Jeonbuk, South Korea. The results indicated that flood damage costs could be reduced when this new concept for determining the location of storage facilities is used.

A mixed-integer dynamic optimization approach for the optimal planning of distributed biorefineries

The implementation of supply chains based on biomass conversion requires the exploration of various aspects, including the selection of processing technologies, configuration of the supply chain, portfolio of products as well as the feedstock selection. One important feature of this system is that the composition of the available biomass changes drastically through the year because this depends significantly on the climatic conditions; this way, the dynamic behavior of this process is an important issue that must be considered. This study presents a dynamic optimization model for the optimal planning of a distributed biorefinery system taking into account the time dependence of the involved variables and parameters. In addition, this paper incorporates a model predictive control methodology to obtain the behavior of the storages and orders of the supply chain; where the objective function is the difference between the required and satisfied demands in the markets. Therefore, this study considers relevant issues, which include the multiple available biomass feedstocks at various harvesting sites, the availability and seasonality of biomass resources, 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 consumer, locations of storage facilities and a number of transportation modes between the supply chain components. The model was applied to a case study for a distributed biorefinery system in Mexico. Results show that is possible to get the configuration and the behavior of the supply chain considering its dynamic behavior in a rigorous way; furthermore, the solutions obtained by the model illustrate that the supply chains based on biomass conversion are seriously affected by the availability of bioresources over the time.

Optimal planning and site selection for distributed multiproduct biorefineries involving economic, environmental and social objectives

Abstract Biorefineries appear to be a viable solution to replace traditional fossil fuel refineries, but their implementation requires the exploration of several aspects, including feedstock selection, processing routes, products, harvesting sites, processing and markets, as well as numerous other sustainability criteria. The optimal solution to these problems is not immediately obvious. Therefore, this study presents an optimization model to design and plan sustainable biorefinery supply chains that considers numerous relevant issues. These issues include the multiple available biomass feedstocks at various harvesting sites, the 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 supply chain components. Sustainability considerations are incorporated into the proposed model by including simultaneous economic, environmental and social performance data in the evaluation of the supply chain designs. The problem was formulated as a multi-objective, multi-period, mixed-integer linear program that seeks to maximize the profit of the supply chain, minimize its environmental impact and maximize the number of jobs generated by its implementation. The environmental impact was measured by the Eco-indicator99 according to the life-cycle assessment technique, and the social objective was quantified by the number of jobs generated. The Pareto-optimal solutions were obtained using the e-constraint method. To illustrate the capabilities of the proposed multi-site system model, a case study was presented that addresses the optimal design and planning of a biorefinery supply chain to fulfill the expected ethanol and biodiesel demands in Mexico. The results indicate that cost-effective and sustainable solutions can be obtained that satisfy Mexican demand by choosing feedstocks that are available year-round and do not significantly adversely impact the environment. Furthermore, the number of jobs generated by implementing the biorefinery supply chain would have a significant social impact.

Optimal Location of an Oil Storage Facility

Given three oil drilling sites, we devise a method to determine the optimal location for a storage facility such that the total length of pipeline required to connect each site to the facility is minimized. First we represent the total distance of piping as the sum of the individual distances between the storage facility and each oil well. From this, both the optimal overall pipeline length and the location of the storage facility which realizes the minimal length can be determined through the first and second partial derivative tests.

Prioritization of disaster risk in a community using GIS

Prioritization of disaster risk was carried out for a community in Toronto, Canada. Geographic information systems (GIS) were used for spatial analysis, including spatial overlays and clipping for extracting spatial and attribute information related to people’s vulnerability, critical infrastructure and landuse. In order to determine disaster risk, the overall community vulnerability was evaluated by combining social, economic, physical and environmental vulnerabilities. This paper uses the propane explosion incident as the case in point to demonstrate the methodology and procedure used to evaluate risk using GIS techniques. City of Toronto spatial data have been integrated with the study area to gather landuse information, identify risk zones based on the propane storage facility location and evaluate risks. Statistics Canada 2006 census data have been used for area demographics and people’s social and economic status. Vulnerability indicators were determined based on the GIS-derived spatial and attribute data for the hazard and evacuation zones followed by a quantitative spatial risk estimation and ranking. The methodology of this study, based on the risk evaluation and prioritization conducted, can be applied to future decision making in effective landuse planning and the development of risk management strategies.

Containers and grains: food storage and symbolism in the Central Balkans (Vinča period)

Since Flannery, who showed that types and locations of storage facilities provide a variety of associations for explaining social change, the economic and social role of storage has been reviewed numerous times. So far, no research pertaining to storage practice has been conducted in the Central Balkans. However, storage strategies play an important role in the agricultural history of the region. Similar, or exactly the same storage techniques have been practiced from the Early Neolithic until modern times, and even today some are practiced by traditional farming communities. Hence this article, which is intended to lay the foundations for understanding the relation between economic and social processes as reflected by storage behaviour in the Late Neolithic-Early Eneolithic in the Central Balkans region.

ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSPORTATION LOGISTICS FOR SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL IN KOREA

As a part of the back-end fuel cycle, transportation of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear power plants (NPPs) to a fuel storage facility is very important in establishing a nuclear fuel cycle. In Korea, the accumulated amount of SNF in the NPP pools is troublesome since the temporary storage facilities at these NPP pools are expected to be full of SNF within ten years. Therefore, Korea cannot help but plan for the construction of an interim storage facility to solve this problem in the near future. Especially, a decision on several factors, such as where the interim storage facility should be located, how many casks a transport ship can carry at a time and how many casks are initially required, affect the configuration of the transportation system. In order to analyze the various possible candidate scenarios, we assumed four cases for the interim storage facility location, three cases for the load capacity that a transport ship can carry and two cases for the total amount of casks used for transportation. First, this study considered the currently accumulated amount of SNF in Korea, and the amount of SNF generated from NPPs until all NPPs are shut down. Then, how much SNF per year must be transported from the NPPs to an interim storage facility was calculated during an assumed transportation period. Second, 24 candidate transportation scenarios were constructed by a combination of the decision factors. To construct viable yearly transportation schedules for the selected 24 scenarios, we created a spreadsheet program named TranScenario, which was developed by using MS EXCEL. TranScenario can help schedulers input shipping routes and allocate transportation casks. Also, TranScenario provides information on the cask distribution in the NPPs and in the interim storage facility automatically, by displaying it in real time according to the shipping routes, cask types and cask numbers that the user generates. Once a yearly transportation schedule is established, TranScenario provides some statistical information, such as the voyage time, the availability of the interim storage facility, the number of transported casks sent from the NPPs, and the number of transported casks received at the interim storage facility. By using this information, users can verify and validate a yearly transportation schedule. In this way, the 24 candidate scenarios could be constructed easily. Finally, these 24 scenarios were compared in terms of their operation cost.

Preserving Quality a Key Component of System Operation

Water professionals know that water quality in the distribution system can be compromised by any number of variables. This month's articles address several of these parameters, including specific behaviors of large‐diameter pipes, water flow through pipes, system effects of the types and locations of storage facilities, main repairs, and cross‐connections and other types of contamination. In addition, the potential cost associated with a distribution system rule, being considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), is also examined.

Blood transfusion service faces change

The National Blood Authority has proposed a restructuring of the blood transfusion service in England, including the closure of one third of the 15 regional blood transfusion centres. The authority also wants to introduce a computer system to monitor all blood stocks and to reorganise the location of storage facilities so that all hospitals are within two hours' travelling time for emergency deliveries. The proposed changes would mainly affect the testing, processing, and storage of donated blood. Arrangements for collecting blood …

A simulator for multilevel distribution systems

This article describes the use of simulation to de sign a multilevel distribution system which is supplied by one manufacturing plant and several local suppliers. The program is written in SIMSCRIPT. Each regional warehouse is assumed to obtain most of its product from one distribution center, which is in turn supplied by the manufacturer. The model generates forecasts at each level based on demand data which is randomized in accordance with empirical distributions. If the manufacturing capacities, which in the simula tion are user-specified, are too small to meet the demand, the model adjusts the distribution schedule. Each warehouse is provided the opportunity to pur chase some fraction of its demand for any item from a local independent supplier on a routine basis and on an extra-purchase basis when the manufacturer can not supply the item through his distribution centers. The article discusses model validation and an appli cation of the simulator to determine the optimum number and the locations of storage facilities and to improve inventory control.