Improving the Logistics of Biofuel Reception at the Power Plant of Kuopio City
Authors
Kari Väätäinen
Antti Asikainen
Jukka Eronen
Abstract
In Finland, many bio power and heating plants have been recently built and existing power plants have been improved to allow increased energy production. To meet the increasing demand of solid fuel at bio power plants, a large transportation fleet is needed and both the logistics of solid fuel transportation and power plant fuel reception must be improved. This study investigated fuel truck arrival and unloading processes at a power plant which produces heat for the city of Kuopio and electricity for the national grid. The aim of this study was to minimize fuel truck queuing times, and balance the use of two delivery bays by improving the logistics of fuel handling at the receiving station and by distributing truck arrivals at the power plant more uniformly throughout the day. Discrete-event simulation was implemented as a method for analyzing the system. To balance the utilization of both delivery bays at the power plant and shorten the queuing times, the most feasible solution was for more effective control of truck interaction with the delivery bays: having the shortest queue and faster fuel flow from delivery bay to combustion by arranging fuel transport with a new conveyor to the boiler. Adaptable scheduling of truck arrivals was found to be feasible during the morning to smooth out the peaks of the truck arrivals in cold periods when fuel consumption at the power plant is at its highest.
