Supply chain design for the generation of bioethanol from agricultural biomass

Biomass residues generated from agricultural production (corn and barley) represent an important source of potentially sustainable raw material for the production of bioethanol. However, the use of agricultural waste for the production of alternative fuels will only be successful if sufficient biomass can be guaranteed for bioethanol generation. This paper studies the problem of designing a supply chain to produce bioethanol through the use of agricultural biomass (corn and barley) with a four-echelon approach, a transport channel and two agricultural raw materials (corn and barley). The decisions to be made are the opening of storage centers, biorefineries, mixing plants and finding the optimal biomass and bioethanol flow between the facilities. The proposed approach is presented as a mixed integer mathematical programming model (MILP); additionally, a practical case study is presented for the area of Tulancingo, Hidalgo, in Mexico, which is solved with CPLEX (Version 12.5). Finally, an analysis of results and conclusions are presented.