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Designing Sustainable Supply Chains for Biofuels
Citation:
YOUNG, D. M. Designing Sustainable Supply Chains for Biofuels. Presented at University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, June 04, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Driven by the Energy and Independence Act of 2007 mandate to increase production of alternative fuels and to ensure that this increase causes minimal environmental impact, a project to design sustainable biofuel supply chains has been developed. This effort uses life cycle assessment, the market allocation (MARKAL) model, and supply chain modeling methods in conjunction with sustainability metrics to determine design guidelines for expanding current biofuel supply chains and designing supply chains for new biofuel feedstocks. In the first year this project will focus on the most prominently used feedstock, i.e., the corn-to-ethanol supply chain, filling in gaps and expanding upon work already done. Information will be developed on additional environmental impact categories, sustainability metrics and indicators, and design guidelines. This initial effort will provide information that will be used to establish guidelines for other feedstocks. This ambitious effort necessitates collaboration across disciplines, internal and external to the Agency. Investigators from NRMRL, NCEA, NERL and academic institutions have agreed to collaborate on this effort providing expertise in LCA, process engineering, computer modeling, sustainability, and ecology. The goal is to provide a tool that can be used to design biofuel supply chains to achieve maximum sustainability from these alternative feedstocks.