Biomass Utilization Allocation in Biofuel Production: Model and Application
Authors
Jianbang Gan
C. T. Smith
Abstract
Various biomass sources can potentially be used for biofuel production, and many of these same biomass sources also have other uses. This raises an important question about biomass utilization allocation. We demonstrate an economic principle for biomass allocation by examining the profitability of woody biomass utilization in a simple two-product case. We then develop a mixed-integer programming model for allocating multiple biomass resources in the production of different biofuels and bioproducts. Our model combines biomass utilization allocation with biofuel supply chain optimization. The model is applied to solving the forest biomass utilization allocation problem for East Texas in the southern United States. We find that besides biofuel prices, production scale and CO2 offset credits also significantly affect biomass utilization allocation. Our findings validate our integrative model approach to addressing biomass allocation and provide useful implications for enhancing the efficient utilization of forest biomass. Keywords: forest biomass, biofuel supply chain, greenhouse gas offset, mathematical programming, southern United States. Received 10 October 2010, Revised 20 July 2012, Accepted 24 October 2012.
