If you missed the second episode of the FlexSNG webinar series, or you would like to watch it again, the full recording is available here: https://youtu.be/XZ08mdWwetk?si=Vk14E7ngQWkM8xiv
The webinar welcomed more than 80 guests online and received many questions from an active audience.
A recap of all the questions and answers can be found here:
1. Does your tool integrated other criteria than costs/price (that the user can integrate or not)? For example to minimize the environmental impact of biomass collection and supply.
At present it is optimized based on cost, but technically it is possible to include other aspects. Important area for the future is to include environment aspects as variables, constraints and objective function.
2. Thanks for your presentation! Have you done empirical study via Techno-economic assessment of any of your model? Thanks. Also, I also want to ask have you tested if the quantify of feedstock is enough to support commencial biobased production?
There will be techno-economical assessments carried out within the FLexSNG project. The model is tested in other business cases.
3. Is the wood waste you use non-hazardous ? If so, where can you find this data?
Wood waste can be of different classifications, some more like virgin wood, and some more contaminated.
4. Thank you for the great presentation. I was wondering how you deal with the problem of moisture content of biomass during the operational phase : do you use model or measurement on sites ? How do you deal with the inhomogeneity?
The inhomogeneity is always a challenge. In the operational phase different rules of thump can be used. We currently working with prognosis models for MC to aid the process of delivering the right material at the right time.
5. Very interesting presentation. With all possible parameters and options, how robust is an optimisation result?
The models require much data. There is, however, a great possibility to explore sensitiveness with the built-in functions for analysing scenarios. Where inaccuracy is expected, it is wise to study the consequences of deviations etc.
6. Thank you so much for nice presentation. which software you are using in your supply chain optimization research. if it is an open source, then do you have any github repositories?
We us Woodflow developed by Creative Optimization. It is not an open-source tool and it does require a license. For more information, please contact Creative Optimization directly.
7. Are the wood wastes you use non-hazardous? If so, where can you find this data? Do you take into account the % of wood waste used for new construction?
Se question 3. Plus availability, quantity and quality of wood waste varies over time and between regions.
8. Thanks for your answer! we all know transportation during the whole supply chain cause a lot of GHG emissions. I also want to know that how do you see the trade-off between the biomass we extracted and reused from the residues and the pollutions caused (especially the transportation part) during the bio-based products production activity? Do you also make Life Cycle assessment in your project? Thanks in advance!
There are many life cycle assessment carried out in the bioenergy area. Typically, GHG from the feedstock supply including transportation is relatively small. We do not have a full life cycle assessment in the value chain logistics in FlexSNG.
