Optimal integration of the forest supply chain with ethanol bio-refineries

RODRIGUEZ, MARIA ANALIA; ALASINO, N.; VECCHIETTI, ALDO

Santiago

Conferencia; XVIII CLAIO, the Latin-Iberoamerican Conference on Operations Research; 2016

Association of Latin-Iberoamerican Operational Research Societies

The forest supply chain (FSC) faces many challenges in Argentina. To remain competitive, the FSC must increase installed capacities and develop a product portfolio with higher added value. With this objective, the integration of ethanol bio-refineries into the FSC is evaluated in this work. The FSC involves forest sites that can be expanded, installed and potential pulp and paper plants, timber mills, new cellulosic bio-ethanol plants and demand nodes. Different types of wood species and residues from trees felling and industrial processes are considered to select the most convenient. Operating nodes can be expanded and new ones installed. Four processes are proposed for the bio-ethanol plants with different operational and investment costs as well as production yields for each raw material. The objective is to determine the optimal location of nodes, links, technologies and feedstock minimizing total costs. The problem is formulated as an MILP and implemented in GAMS 24.1 system.