Journal article
Controlling moisture content and truck configurations to model and optimise biomass supply chain logistics in Ireland
Applied Energy, Vol.137, pp.338-351
2015
Abstract
In the coming years, Ireland will continue to face an increasing demand for wood biomass as a renewable source of energy. This will result in strained supply/demand scenarios, which will call for new planning and logistics systems capable of optimizing the efficient use of the biomass resources. In this study, a linear programming tool was developed which includes moisture content (MC) as a driving factor for the cost optimisation of two supply chains that use short wood and whole trees from thinnings as material feedstock. The tool was designed and implemented to analyse the impact of moisture content and truck configurations (5-axle and 6-axle trucks) on supply chain costs and spatial distribution of the supply materials. The results indicate that the inclusion of wood chips from whole trees reduces the costs of wood energy supply in comparison with only producing wood chips from short wood to satisfy the demand, with 9.8% and 10.2% cost reduction when transported with 5-axle and 6-axle trucks respectively. Constraining the MC of the wood chips delivered to the power plant increases both transport and overall supply chain costs, due, firstly to an increase in the haulage distance and secondly, to the number of counties providing the biomass material. In terms of truck configuration, the use of 6-axle trucks resulted in a 14.8% reduction in the number of truckloads and a 12.3% reduction in haulage costs in comparison to the use of 5-axle trucks across the MC scenarios analysed.
Details
- Title
- Controlling moisture content and truck configurations to model and optimise biomass supply chain logistics in Ireland
- Authors
- Amanda Sosa (Author) - University College of Dublin, IrelandMauricio Acuna (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastKevin McDonnell (Author) - University College of Dublin, IrelandGer Devlin (Author) - University College of Dublin, Ireland
- Publication details
- Applied Energy, Vol.137, pp.338-351
- Publisher
- Pergamon
- Date published
- 2015
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.10.018
- ISSN
- 0306-2619
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Industries Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99448639702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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