Sustainable Supply Chain Design: Biofuel Impacts, Indicators, and Metrics

A project within the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development is studying biofuel and petroleum supply chains.  The project is first considering corn-to-ethanol as the biofuel system of interest, with other systems studied in the future.  The analysis of the system will consider many environmental impacts which are included in the EPA’s Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other Impacts (TRACI).  Other analysis results will provide indicators and sustainability metrics to describe the system.  These sustainability metrics will include cumulative exergy and emergy, ecological footprint, renewability, and water use.  Additional metrics are being considered.  A second part of the work will consider the design of supply chains for improved sustainability.  The synthesis of these systems, along with analysis, will suggest potential improvements to future biofuel supply chains.  This presentation will provide a progress report and suggest directions of further work.