Environmental and economic trade-offs of switchgrass supply chain for biofuel in Tennessee

Jia Zhong, Tun-hsiang Yu, Burton English and James Larson (jlarson2@utk.edu)

No 196898, 2015 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia from Southern Agricultural Economics Association

Abstract: The low efficiency of feedstock storage and transportation hinders commercialization of a switchgrass-based biofuel industry although the feedstock has various environmental benefits. This study develops a sustainable switchgrass supply chain that balances its economic and environmental performance, including soil erosion, and GHG emissions using a multi-objective optimization model based on high-resolution spatial data in Tennessee. Results suggest that the best preferred location for biorefinery, plantation area, and the type of land converted to switchgrass are crucial to trade-off relation between industrial cost and environmental performance of the feedstock supply chain.

Keywords: Environmental; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:saea15:196898

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.196898

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