scholarly journals Estimating the Optimal Location for the Storage of Pellet Surplus

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (20) ◽  
pp. 6657
Author(s):  
Andrzej Bochniak ◽  
Monika Stoma

This paper deals with the problem of managing the surplus that arises during the seasonal production of pellets, which will be sold in the period of increased demand. Dijkstra’s algorithm is used in issues connected with finding a new storage place with a view of the optimisation of the transport costs of pellets produced by a company in 18 different towns in the Lubelskie Voivodeship in Poland. The most optimal location for the new pellet storage site has been determined, for which the total length of the traveled routes is the shortest, taking into account the actual shares of individual plants in the total production. The construction of the graph with the shortest paths was made on the basis of the existing network of available transport roads, and the nodes of the graph were their intersections. The most advantageous storage location of pellets was identified by the calculation the total transport cost using a minimum-cost tree of shortest paths. Based on the estimated transport assumptions, the lowest total cost of transport from all 18 plants was 3092.0 (km), which corresponds to an average distance to production plants of 89.7 km and 61.7 km to estimated selling distribution. The new storage point is suggested near the town of Piaski. Average cost of travel for all trees obtained for existing plant locations and subsequent distribution to points of sale was 4113.7 (km), while standard deviation 735.2 (km). Additionally, a relative increase in costs was estimated in the case of selecting other locations. Using spatial interpolation and geoprocessing tools, a map—showing the increase in pellet transport costs in relation to the most optimal solution—was developed. The constructed map allows for a better analysis of cost increases than a single point. It was stated that the increase in transport costs does not exceed 10% of lowest cost for 17.6% area of studied area. It was found that the most convenient area is shifted to the south of the voivodship and improperly adopted storage location can increase transport costs by up to 75%.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshuah K. Stolaroff ◽  
Simon H. Pang ◽  
Wenqin Li ◽  
Whitney G. Kirkendall ◽  
Hannah M. Goldstein ◽  
...  

Strategies to remove carbon from the atmosphere are needed to meet global climate goals. Promising strategies include the conversion of waste biomass to hydrogen, methane, liquid fuels, or electricity coupled with CO2 capture and storage (CCS). A key challenge for these projects is the need to connect geographically dispersed biomass supplies with geologic storage sites by either transporting biomass or CO2. We assess the cost of transport for biomass conversion projects with CCS using publicly available cost data for trucking, rail, and CO2 pipelines in the United States. We find that for large projects (order of 1 Mt/yr CO2 or greater), CO2 by pipeline is the lowest cost option. However, for projects that send most of the biomass carbon to storage, such as gasification to hydrogen or electricity production, biomass by rail is a competitive option. For smaller projects and lower fractions of carbon sent to storage, such as for pyrolysis to liquid fuels, CO2 by rail is the lowest cost option. Assessing three plausible example projects in the United States, we estimate that total transport costs range from $24/t-CO2 stored for a gasification to hydrogen project traversing 670 km to $36/t for a gasification to renewable natural gas project traversing 530 km. In general, if developers have flexibility in choosing transport mode and project type, biomass sources and storage sites can be connected across hundreds of kilometers for transport costs in the range of $20-40/t-CO2 stored. Truck and rail are often viable modes when pipelines cannot be constructed. Distances of 1,000 km or more can be connected in the same cost range when shared CO2 pipelines are employed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Giulio Sperandio ◽  
Andrea Acampora ◽  
Vincenzo Civitarese ◽  
Sofia Bajocco ◽  
Marco Bascietto

The delivery of biomass products from the production place to the point of final use is of fundamental importance within the constitution of energy chains based on biomass use as renewable energy source. In fact, transport can be one of the most economically expensive operations of the entire biomass energy production process. In this work, a geographic identification, through remote sensing and photo-interpretation, of the different biomass sources was used to estimate the potential available biomass for energy in a small-scale supply chain. The economic sustainability of transport costs was calculated for different types of biomass sources available close to a biomass power plant of a small-scale energy supply chain, in central Italy. The proposed analysis allows us to highlight and visualize on the map the areas of the territory characterized by greater economic sustainability in terms of lower transport costs of residual agroforestry biomass from the collection point to the final point identified with the biomass power plant. The higher transport cost was around € 40 Mg−1, compared to the lowest of € 12 Mg−1.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matías Herrera Dappe ◽  
Tomás Serebrisky ◽  
Ancor Suárez-Alemán

Do differences in port performance explain differences in maritime transport costs? How much would improvements in port performance reduce maritime transport costs in developing countries? To answer this question, we use a widely used transport cost model, but we provide a new measure of port efficiency, estimated through a non-parametric approach. Relying on data from the early 2000s, this paper shows that for a sample of 115 container ports in 39 developing countries, becoming as efficient as the country with the most efficient port sector would reduce average maritime transport costs by 5 percent. For the most inefficient country, the reduction in transport costs could reach 15 percent. These findings point out the potential gains that can be achieved from the combination of betterquality investment and more efficient service provision in the port sector. The estimates in this paper cannot be updated because the databases were discontinued and it therefore highlights the need to generate data to evaluate the effectiveness of public policies that are key to competitiveness.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wei ◽  
Erin J. Belval ◽  
Matthew P. Thompson ◽  
Dave E. Calkin ◽  
Crystal S. Stonesifer

Sharing fire engines and crews between fire suppression dispatch zones may help improve the utilisation of fire suppression resources. Using the Resource Ordering and Status System, the Predictive Services’ Fire Potential Outlooks and the Rocky Mountain Region Preparedness Levels from 2010 to 2013, we tested a simulation and optimisation procedure to transfer crews and engines between dispatch zones in Colorado (central United States) and into Colorado from out-of-state. We used this model to examine how resource transfers may be influenced by assignment shift length, resource demand prediction accuracy, resource drawdown restrictions and the compounding effects of resource shortages. Test results show that, in certain years, shortening the crew shift length from 14 days to 4 days doubles the yearly transport cost. Results also show that improving the accuracy in predicting daily resource demands decreases the engine and crew transport costs by up to 40%. Other test results show that relaxing resource drawdown restrictions could decrease resource transport costs and the reliance on out-of-state resources. The model-suggested assignments result in lower transport costs than did historical assignments.


Author(s):  
Jagannadha Rao Naraparaju ◽  
Raghunandan A. Karamcheti ◽  
Z. Y. Wang

In this paper, a procedure to determine the optimal location of a distribution warehouse, from which products are sent out to a group of companies has been studied. The goal was to minimize annual transportation distance between the warehouse and the customers. Fundamentals of mathematics have been used to formulate a virtual map showing the location of the present customers. Mathematical models and equations were developed making certain assumptions and an optimal location for the warehouse has been determined. Various factors that are involved in relocating the warehouse have been considered. Also a solution is given for the optimal location of a satellite or an auxiliary warehouse in addition to the existing one. A case study has been conducted on the model with the help of various numerical examples. Based on the optimal location of the relocated warehouse and the satellite warehouse obtained, the reductions in the transport costs were estimated. Once the optimal warehouse location has been found out, the next step was to find out an optimal route (least travel distance) for a practical case in which several companies have to be supplied with necessary products from one warehouse in a single trip. For this purpose, mathematical models were created and optimal routing algorithms were developed. Case studies have been conducted with the help of numerical examples. High amounts of savings in terms of travel distances, costs and time could be observed by the implementation of these algorithms.


Transport ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 229-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita Išoraitė

The accepted accession to the European Union in Lithuanian internal transportation is regulated by the coordination of national legal acts with the international conventions arid documents of various international organisations. This process was particularly accelerated when Lithuania started negotiations on the accession to the European Union. Future transport pricing policy of Lithuania has two objectives — to guarantee the covering of operational costs and to strive for economic efficiency. These objectives should not be coincident. Economic, institutional and legal refonns in Lithuania are implemented with the aim to co-ordinate the standards and regulations effective in Lithuania with the acts of the European Union. In the article on the basis of pricing of the peak, the social marginal, the environmental costs referring to the advanced research of Western and US scientists, were analysed and improved the evaluation of external Lithuanian transport costs and economic methods enabling the integration of external transport costs into the internal costs were offered. The improvement of external cost evaluation will enable the integration of external transport costs in line with the EU standards. One of the most actual problems of Lithuania is the growth of environmental impact and social subsequences caused by the increase of transport in Lithuania: Increasing traffic jams, air pollution, growing rates of accidents and noise emission are the main problems of the Lithuanian transport system. Thus, in transport system, besides the internal costs, there exist the external costs that are not reflected in transport cost price. These costs are caused by air pollution, worsened health condition of people, decreased agrarian fertility, increased water pollution, etc. Therefore it is necessary to evaluate these external transport costs and to propose the ways of their reduction as well as their inclusion into the transportation price. The methodological basis of the article is the method of systematic and multicriteria! analysis aiming at the evaluation of the necessity of the inclusion of external transport costs into the transport price with the attitude towards the national and the carrier's positions. Research work of Western and US scientists was referred to the grounding of the necessity of external transport costs in Lithuania. Having analysed the experience of the scientists of US and Western countries, as well as the practice of Lithuanian scientists, a methodology for the evaluation of external transport costs in the country was offered. The application of the EU standards is tackled as well. Most ideas suggested in the article could be valuable for further formation and enhancement of external costs of economic technique in Lithuania thus approaching the national pricing to the EU standard system. The evaluation made in the article shall be applied for the implementation of external transport cost evaluation technique in Lithuanian transport.


Author(s):  
M. Mohitpour ◽  
Trent van Egmond ◽  
W. L. Wright

The end of the 20th century has seen some major developments to the business of pipelines worldwide. In North America and Europe the trend has been toward deregulation of the industry. In other markets the trend has been toward the use of fixed transport cost contracts between shippers and the pipeline company. The net effect of these changes is increased competition in the transport of energy with the resulting requirement to provide the lowest cost of transport. At the same time pipelines need to maintain the traditionally high levels of safety and reliability that customers, the public and regulators have been accustomed to. The pipeline industry has responded to the challenge to reduce costs on a number of fronts. These include the areas of contracting, financing, planning, regulation, market development, and technical developments as well as many other areas. This paper will focus on technical developments that have allowed pipeline companies to reduce the cost of moving large volumes of natural gas at high pressures. Progress that the industry has made in the areas of capital cost reduction will be illustrated by an example of high pressure pipeline design. Capital costs will be compared for five system design pressures that all result in the same maximum flow rate. The optimum high-grade steel will be chosen for each pressure. This will also be compared to costs for using Composite Reinforced Line Pipe (CRLP) a new technology for the pipeline industry.


Author(s):  
Alain Bresson

This chapter examines the role of energy in the economic growth of ancient Greece, with particular emphasis on the impact of the cost of transportation. It first considers the different sources of energy in the Greek city-states, including heat generated by the sun, wood, and charcoal, before discussing the question regarding the cost of energy and the economic conditions for using steam engines during the period. It then explains how wind energy contributed to economic development in the ancient Mediterranean world, and especially in the Greek city-states, by dramatically lowering transport costs and transportation cycles. It also explores how connectivity emerged between Mediterranean countries and concludes with an analysis of overland transportation via roads, the role of ships and ports in maritime transportation, navigational techniques and the construction of artificial ports, and projects aimed at digging canals and building portage routes.


1997 ◽  
Vol 200 (20) ◽  
pp. 2647-2652 ◽  
Author(s):  
F E Fish ◽  
R V Baudinette ◽  
P B Frappell ◽  
M P Sarre

The metabolism of swimming in the platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus Shaw was studied by measurement of oxygen consumption in a recirculating water flume. Platypuses swam against a constant water current of 0.45-1.0 ms-1. Animals used a rowing stroke and alternated bouts of surface and submerged swimming. Metabolic rate remained constant over the range of swimming speeds tested. The cost of transport decreased with increasing velocity to a minimum of 0.51 at 1.0 ms-1. Metabolic rate and cost of transport for the platypus were lower than values for semiaquatic mammals that swim at the water surface using a paddling mode. However, relative to transport costs for fish, the platypus utilized energy at a similar level to highly derived aquatic mammals that use submerged swimming modes. The efficient aquatic locomotion of the platypus results from its specialised rowing mode in conjunction with enlarged and flexible forefeet for high thrust generation and a behavioral strategy that reduces drag and energy cost by submerged swimming.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-362
Author(s):  
Elisangela Fernandes da Silva Campana Possidônio ◽  
João Eduardo Azevedo Ramos da Silva ◽  
Eli Angela Vitor Toso

ABSTRACT The possibility to vary the energy matrix, thus reducing the dependency on fossil fuels, has amplified the acceptance of biomass as an alternative fuel. Despite being a cheap and renewable option and the fact that Brazil is a major producer of waste from agriculture and forestry activities, the use of these materials has barriers due to its low density and low energetic efficiency, which can raise the costs of its utilization. Biomass densification has drawn attention due to its advantage in comparison to in natura biomass due to its better physical and combustion characteristics. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of biomass densification in distribution and transport costs. To reach this objective, a mathematical model was used to represent decisions at a supply chain that coordinates the purchase and sale of forestry and wood waste. The model can evaluate the options to deliver biomass through the supply chain combining demand meeting and low cost. Results point to the possibility of an economy of 60% in transport cost and a reduction of 63% in the required quantity of trucks when densified waste is used. However, costs related to the densifying process lead to an increase of total supply costs of at least 37,8% in comparison to in natura waste. Summing up, the viability of biomass briquettes industry requires a cheaper densification process.


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