The Economics of Biomass Logistics and Conversion Facility Mobility: An Oregon Case Study
Abstract
This article presents an analysis of transportable biomass conversion facilities to evaluate the conceptual and economic viability of a highly mobile and modular biomass conversion supply chain in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The goal of this work is to support a broader effort to more effectively and sustainably use residual biomass from commercial harvesting operations that are currently piled and burned as part of site preparation. A structural representation is first developed to include sources of biomass feedstock, distributed preprocessing hubs (centralized landings), and centralized processing facilities (biomass to product conversion sites) to produce desired products and byproducts. A facility costing model was developed to evaluate potential economics of scale, which then informed the optimization study. A mixed integer linear programming model was developed to characterize, evaluate, and optimize biomass collection, extraction, logistics, and facility placement over a regional landscape from a strategic level to evaluate the mobility concept. The objective was to minimize supply chain operational costs in order to quantify financial advantages and identify challenges of the proposed system modularity and mobility. A Lakeview, Oregon case study was evaluated with an assumed modular biochar facility servicing the region. In particular, we review economies of scale, mobility, energy costs, and biomass availability tradeoffs. This analysis points toward…
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Use of portable systems for conversion of forest residues to biomass-based products at a point close to supply regions can potentially reduce biomass logistics costs.
“The use of portable systems for the conversion of forest residues to various biomass-based products at a point close to the supply regions can potentially reduce the biomass logistics costs [4,15].”
From Lifecycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Analysis of Biochar Pellet Production from Forest Residues and Field Application (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Berry, M. D., & Sessions, J.
- ORCID
- Sessions, John
- Venue
- Applied Engineering in Agriculture
- Published
- 2018
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 57-72
- ISSN
- 0883-8542 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-7838
- OpenAlex
- W2789868102
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 1.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Engineering in Agriculture (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE-EE0006297)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanics of Materials › Forest Biomass Utilization and Management
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Bioeconomy and Sustainability Development
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Forestry › Logistics and Infrastructure Analysis
- Keywords
- biomass logistics, biomass supply chain, facility location, economies of scale, mixed-integer linear programming, supply chain cost minimization
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