Integrated and sustainable forest biomass supply chain planning

在加拿大，人们对利用森林生物质生产生物能源的兴趣日益浓厚。森林生物质是一种可再生的清洁能源。它的能源生产利用减少了对化石燃料的依赖及其对环境的负面影响，创造了就业机会，并为社区提供了可持续的国内能源。此外，利用森林生物质的好处是为加拿大的林业提供了新的收入来源，尽管它对我们的经济产生了重大影响，但在过去20年里一直面临着许多挑战。加拿大，特别是不列颠哥伦比亚省拥有大量的森林生物量。最近在不列颠哥伦比亚省内陆森林中发生的山松甲虫灾害已导致累计7.23亿立方米的枯木。为使森林业保持竞争力，一个拟议的解决方案是利用大量可用森林生物质来生产生物能源和生物制品。生物能源/生物制品项目的可行性取决于森林生物质能否以具有竞争力的成本和所需质量长期获得。森林生物质供应的数量和质量(含水率和热值)随时间变化。它的运输成本很高，而且有一个复杂的供应链。考虑和优化整个森林生物质供应链的数学模型有助于确保以低成本持续提供所需的原料。一些研究已经对森林生物质供应链的经济效益进行了建模和优化。除了经济效益外，供应链模型还必须考虑社会和环境目标，以实现可持续发展。另一个关键方面是确保多目标模型的长期决策可以在业务层面上实现。文献综述揭示了研究人员在可持续发展模型中使用确定性数学规划方法来优化供应链、随机规划和模拟来纳入不确定性、以及多目标优化以在经济利益之外考虑社会和环境目标的主要尝试。随着生物质在供应链中的流动，在优化模型中纳入生物质质量的变化是一个挑战。此外，由于实际案例场景的优化模型通常是非常大的问题，因此存在与求解优化模型相关的计算复杂性。迄今为止，还没有关于考虑供应链中的可持续性因素(经济、社会和环境影响)以及不确定因素，特别是与森林生物质质量有关的不确定因素，对森林生物质供应链的设计和管理进行建模和优化的出版工作。此外，还没有综合研究来确保通过优化模型进行的森林生物质供应链的规定设计在操作层面上是可行的和可实现的。由于参数的可变性和不确定性，战略或战术模型所规定的决策在业务层面上可能不可行或无法实现。因此，以森林生物质供应链为研究对象，建立一体化、可持续的优化模型是当务之急。拟议的提案将解决这一差距和具有挑战性的问题。拟议研究的目标是1)在考虑参数和可持续性因素的不确定性的情况下，优化可在业务层面上实现的森林生物质供应链的设计(这将通过开发新的综合模拟和优化模型来实现)，2)求解综合模型，以及3)将其应用于加拿大的实际情况。

There is a growing interest in using forest biomass to generate bioenergy in Canada. Forest biomass is a renewable and clean source of energy. Its utilization for energy production reduces dependency on fossil fuels and their negative environmental impacts, creates jobs and provides sustainable and domestic energy for communities. Moreover, utilizing forest biomass has the benefit of providing a new revenue stream for the forest industry in Canada, which despite its significant impact on our economy has been facing many challenges during the past two decades. Canada and especially British Columbia have large amount of forest biomass. The recent infestation of mountain pine beetle within the forests of interior BC has resulted in a cumulative total of 723 million cubic meters of dead wood. One proposed solution for the forest industry to remain competitive is to utilize the large amount of available forest biomass to produce bioenergy and bioproducts. The feasibility of bioenergy/ bioproducts projects depends on the long-term availability of forest biomass at a competitive cost and desired quality. There is variability in the amount and quality (moisture content and heating value) of forest biomass supply over time. Its transportation is costly and it has a complex supply chain. Mathematical models that consider and optimize the entire forest biomass supply chain are helpful to ensure consistent delivery of desired feedstock is possible at a low cost. A few studies have modeled and optimized the economic benefits of forest biomass supply chain for bioenergy production. In addition to economic benefits, social and environmental objectives have to be considered in the supply chain models in order to have sustainable development. Another key aspect is to make sure that the long-term decisions from multi-objective models are attainable at the operational level. The review of literature reveals the key attempts by researchers to use deterministic mathematical programming approaches to optimize the supply chains, stochastic programming and simulation to incorporate uncertainties, and multi-objective optimization to consider social and environmental objectives in addition to economic benefits in the models for sustainable development. It is a challenge to incorporate variations in biomass quality as biomass moves through the supply chain in optimization models. In addition, there are computational complexities associated with solving optimization models for real case scenarios as they are usually very large sized problems. To date, there is no published work on modeling and optimizing the design and management of forest biomass supply chains considering sustainability factors (economic, social and environmental impacts) as well as uncertainties, especially those related to the quality of forest biomass, in the supply chains. Moreover, there is no integrated study to ensure that the prescribed design of forest biomass supply chains by optimization models is practical and attainable at the operational level. Due to variability and uncertainty in parameters, decisions prescribed by strategic or tactical models may not be feasible or achievable at the operational level. Therefore, it is timely to focus on forest biomass supply chain and develop integrated and sustainable optimization models. The proposed proposal will address this gap and challenging problem. The objectives of the proposed research are 1) to optimize the design of forest biomass supply chains that are achievable at the operational level considering uncertainties in the parameters and sustainability factors (this will be done by developing new integrated simulation and optimization models), 2) solve the integrated models, and 3) apply them to real case scenarios in Canada.