Transportation - Engineering and Science of Biomass Feedstock Production and Provision - page 154

vehicles, processing and handling equipment, labor requirements and personnel
costs, route selection, as well contingency scenarios. In the sugar industry, various
analysis tools for harvest, transportation and processing have been developed [ 45 ].

6.5 Future Directions

This section addresses some concepts that may hold promise in the future, but are
currently under research.

6.5.1 Modeling

Systems analysis involving techniques of modeling, simulation and optimization
can be used to study the complete feedstock provision chain, while circumventing
experimentation. There are multiple levels to perform such analyses. Modeling can
be used for strategic optimization, such as to determine the optimal locations to
produce a bioenergy crop in relation to agronomic and environmental parameters,
and social and economic driving forces, as well as to determine the optimal place-
ment of CSPs and conversion plants related to land use policy and infrastructure
availability. At a tactical level, models can be used to predict the utilization of the
storage and transportation infrastructure over time. At an operational level, models
can be used for real-time logistics, transportation fleet tracking, and to manage
uncertainties such as adverse traffic and weather events. The main bottleneck is not
the modeling effort itself, but rather the lack of pertinent data needed to drive the
models, in addition to the potential unwarranted use of outputs of models that have
not been properly validated [ 46 ].

6.5.2 Standardization

For a medium or large commercial biofuel plant, biomass forms and equipment
performance could be standardized to streamline supply logistics and improve
efficiency of biomass supply systems [ 11 , 47 ]. For small-scale pilot biofuel plants,
existing agricultural equipment and facilities for biomass feedstock preprocessing,
storage, and transportation may be feasible. However, for medium or large commercial
biofuel plants, standardized harvest, preprocessing, and supply equipment need to be
developed. An example of this is the development of self-propelled bale loading/
unloading equipment by the US Department of Energy's Biomass program [ 2 ].
The quality of feedstock is currently poorly defined, and a standard is needed
here as well. This quality parameter should include not only feedstock composition
and energy density, but also grindability, flowability, storability and, most impor-
tantly, convertibility potential.