Abstract:

The vast majority of the energy consumed on Earth is derived from fossil fuels, which are not renewable sources of energy. According to the data of the International Energy Agency (UAE), the oil reserves that can meet the growing global oil demand are about 1.7 trillion barrels, which can meet the consumption of about 51 years. It is a known fact that, like all the fossil fuels, the effects of the harmful gases that oil displays during burning lead to environmental pollution and global warming. Therefore, alternative energy sources will gain greater importance in the near future. When researching alternative energy sources, we see the importance of biomass energy. Biodiesel is one of the most commonly used liquid biofuels because it is the best residential type of fuel for fossil fuels. It is necessary to design a cost-efficient supply chain in the first stage in order to produce biofuels and have an important place between renewable energies. In this study, a multi-period complex linear programming model has been developed with the aim of minimizing costs for the biodiesel supply chain network design. The developed model includes decision variables such as the location selection of the facility, the appropriate technology to be used in bioraphinery and the amount of material flow. The most important original contribution of this study is that according to our current summer scan, the first work on the subject was done in Turkey. To test the validity of the developed model in Turkey, the biodiesel supply chain network design problem has been solved using real data.

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