Current trends and directions in achieving sustainability in the biofuel and bioenergy supply chain

• Latest trends in systems based approaches including supply chain modeling and optimization.
• Latest trends in risk assessment and modeling.
• Latest trends in decision support analysis and discrete event simulation.
• Barriers to sustainable biomass supply chains.
• A recently published case study applying these techniques to integrated biorefining is included.

A major obstacle to sustainable biofuel production is the sheer complexity of the decisions facing producers and stakeholders. Integrated biorefining is a viable technology for converting a wide range of resources — biomass waste materials, dedicated energy crops, municipal solid waste, animal waste and forest products — into fuels and chemicals. But making the best choice among various available resources, process technologies and supply chain designs is no simple task, especially when sustainability is a criterion. Additional complexity arises because the relevant factors will be weighted differently by different constituencies. The risk of unintended consequences must also be considered: what can seem to be good decisions may prove unsustainable in the long term unless all potential implications can be assessed. To addresses these challenges an integrated approach including discrete event simulation is required due to the necessity to evaluate the effects of uncertainty over an extended time horizon.