A Diverse and Sustainable Biodiesel Supply Chain Optimisation Model Based on Properties Integration

Chun Hsion Lim, Wei Xin Chua, Yi Wen Pang, Bing Shen How, Wendy Pei Qin Ng, Sin Yong Teng, Wei Dong Leong, Sue Lin Ngan and Hon Loong Lam
Additional contact information
Chun Hsion Lim: Department of Chemical Engineering, University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Sungai Long, Bandar Sungai Long, Cheras, Kajang 43000, Malaysia
Wei Xin Chua: Department of Chemical Engineering, University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Sungai Long, Bandar Sungai Long, Cheras, Kajang 43000, Malaysia
Yi Wen Pang: Department of Chemical Engineering, University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Sungai Long, Bandar Sungai Long, Cheras, Kajang 43000, Malaysia
Bing Shen How: Research Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Jalan Simpang Tiga, Kuching 93350, Malaysia
Wendy Pei Qin Ng: Department of Chemical Engineering, Curtin University Malaysia, CDT 250, Miri 98009, Malaysia
Sin Yong Teng: Institute of Process Engineering & NETME Centre, Brno University of Technology, Technicka 2896/2, 61669 Brno, Czech Republic
Wei Dong Leong: Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih 43500, Malaysia
Sue Lin Ngan: UKM-Graduate School of Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia
Hon Loong Lam: Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih 43500, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-18

Abstract: Producing sustainable biodiesel from oil crops has been a great challenge, especially for oil crops plantations that involve various small and medium stakeholders. Differences in plantation activities and environments create a unique sustainability profile for each oil crop that may impose more sustainability issues such as deforestation problems in oil palm plantations. This paper embraced the unique sustainability index profile of each oil crop, and an investigation was performed to evaluate the feasibility of integrating multiple oil crops into the existing biodiesel refinery to improve its economic and sustainability performances. The selection of the process feed is proposed to be based on oil crop properties such as iodine value, peroxide value and saturated and unsaturated fatty acid contents. The sustainability profiles considered in the study include deforestation, oil yield, fertiliser impact, water impact and carbon footprint. Case studies demonstrated that a more balanced sustainability index profile could be achieved at a higher production cost—from USD 6.43 billion·y −1 in a cost-saving-centric solution to USD 39.90 billion·y −1 in a sustainability-improvement-centric solution. The study provided excellent insight into the impact on production cost to achieve sustainability which can help stakeholders to evaluate the feasibility of integrating multiple oil crops in the system.

Keywords: biodiesel supply chain optimisation; properties integration; sustainable biodiesel; sustainability optimisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8400/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8400/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8400-:d:426848

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().