Biomass feedstock utilization has the potential to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and improve energy security while decarbonizing our energy needs. Energy crops, short rotation woody crops, municipal solid waste, and agricultural and forest residues are considered promising sources of renewable energy. Computer modeling has proven to be a key tool towards minimizing logistics cost. Designing an efficient and economic biomass supply chain model can be a highly challenging task due to biomass’ bulky nature, feedstock quality variability, uncertain supply conditions, and dispersed geographic location. It requires the integration of several operations including harvest, collection, storage, preprocessing, and transportation. Researchers posit that a sustainable biofuel supply chain includes an intermediate storage location to preprocess biomass for longer shelf life and delivery distances. In this presentation I will discuss different precision agricultural approaches for improving resource use efficiency, quality, profitability and sustainable production of fuels, products, and power.

Related links:

• Replacing liquid fossil fuels and hydrocarbon chemical feedstocks with liquid biofuels from large-scale nuclear biorefineries
  C.W. Forsberg, B.E. Dale, D.S. Jones, T. Hossain, A.R.C. Morais, L.M. Wendt, Applied Energy,  Vol 298, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117225
• The nth-plant scenario for blended feedstock conversion and preprocessing nationwide: Biorefineries and depots
  T. Hossain, D.S. Jones, D. Hartley, L.M. Griffel, Y. Lin, P. Burli, et al., Applied Energy, Vol. 294, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116946

Full details and speaker bio at https://research.ncsu.edu/ges/event/colloquium-2021-10-19/