A Review on Optimization Methods for Biomass Supply Chain: Models and Algorithms, Sustainable Issues, and Challenges and Opportunities

The urgent desire to relieve the pressure of dependence on petroleum in energy industry and the growing demand for protection of our environment stimulate the researches and practices in biomass supply chain management. Due to special characteristics of biomass, this particular kind of supply chain is different from the classic supply chains in different ways. The optimization methods, including mathematical programming and heuristic algorithms are widely used in the domain of biomass supply chain management in both tactical and practical manners. In this review, literatures are classified by different components throughout the entire supply chain: harvesting and collection, storage, transportation, pretreatment, and conversion. In order to achieve a robust biomass supply chain and also to enable wide applications of classic and well-studied optimization models, the connections between them are analyzed and reviewed. The classic optimization models include network design problem, scheduling problem, facility location problem, vehicle routing problem, and technology selection problem. Additionally, environmental and sustainable issues, uncertainties, and challenges and opportunities in biomass supply chain are discussed. A bibliometric analysis is also performed in this review to obtain comprehensive understanding of this area.