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Designing Energy Supply Chains with the P-graph Framework under Cost Constraints and Sustainability Considerations
Citation:
Vance, L., I. Heckl, B. Bertok, H. Cabezas, AND F. Friedler. Designing Energy Supply Chains with the P-graph Framework under Cost Constraints and Sustainability Considerations. Computer Aided Chemical Engineering. Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, 33:1009-1014, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
This is an article for Chemical Engineering Progress summiriizng a puvblished body on the application of the p-graph methodology to design of work sustainable supply chain structures.
Description:
A computer-aided methodology for designing sustainable supply chains is presented using the P-graph framework to develop supply chain structures which are analyzed using cost, the cost of producing electricity, and two sustainability metrics: ecological footprint and emergy. They represent environmental burden in terms of land use and energy resources. The P-graph framework provides a mathematically rigorous procedure for synthesizing optimal and alternative networks subject to profitability considering ecological footprint and emergy inputs. Emergy is a measure of energy used in transformations directly and indirectly to make a product or maintain a service, or in our case, energy production. Emergy and ecological footprint complement each other because they represent very different aspects of sustainability. The proposed methodology is demonstrated with a supply chain whichprovides electric power and heat to an agricultural region utilizing agricultural wastes as renewable resources. The results indicate that, compared to electricity from the grid and/or natural gas, renewable energy resources can yield cost reductions of up to 17 % as well as ecological footprint and emergy reductions. This allows the design of more sustainable supply chains that are both cost-effective and less environmentally damaging.
