The Effects of Material’s Transport on Various Steps of Production System on Energetic Efficiency of Biodiesel Production

Olga Orynycz and Antoni Świć
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Olga Orynycz: Department of Production Management, Bialystok University of Technology, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland
Antoni Świć: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Technological Information Systems, Lublin University of Technology, 20-618 Lublin, Poland

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: Rapeseed plantation biodiesel production systems require the transportation of goods, like raw materials, machines and tools, and products between various conversion stages of agricultural as well as industrial subsystems. Each transportation step requires the consumption of some energy. This consumption decreases the net amount of energy delivered out of the biofuel production system, and consequently decreases the energetic efficiency of the system. The majority of studies on biofuel sustainability are done by means of the LCA method with the use of a data average for some region and period of time. Such analyses do not reveal the possible causes of the conclusions determined. The present work deals with computer modelling of the influence of the energy consumed on those transport routes on the energetic efficiency of the production system. The model enables determination of the effects caused by changes introduced to technological parameters. The effects caused by variation of fuel consumption, the load capacity of transportation means, size of plantation, distribution and sizes of individual fields, distances between fields, plantation yield, and finally the distance between the plantation and the industrial facility are studied using the numerical model developed earlier. This approach is aimed towards identifying the reasons for the behavior of a system controlled by many somewhat coupled variables.

Keywords: biodiesel; energetic efficiency; modelling; transport; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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