文章基本信息

标题：Modelling regional input markets with numerous processing plants: The case of green maize for biogas production in Germany
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作者：Delzeit, Ruth ; Britz, Wolfgang ; Holm-Müller, Karin 等
期刊名称：Journal of Food Distribution Research
印刷版ISSN：0047-245X
出版年度：2011
出版社：Food Distribution Research Society
摘要：The location of first generation processing plants for biogas using bulky inputs is a prominent example of locational decisions of plants that face high per unit transport costs of feedstock and simultaneously depend to a large extent on feedstock availability. Modelling the resulting regional feedstock markets then requires a spatially explicit representation of demand. With production capacities of plants small in comparison to market size, large numbers of possible type-location combinations need to be considered, requiring considerable computation time under existing integer programming-based approaches. Therefore, in this paper we aim to present an alternative, faster and more flexible iterative solution approach to simulate location decisions for processing plants. And with greater flexibility, this approach is able to take into account spatially heterogeneous transport costs depending on total demand. The approach is implemented in a modelling framework for biogas production from green maize in Germany, which currently accounts for ca. five percent of Germany's agricultural area. By modifying green maize prices, demand functions are derived and intersected with regional supply functions from an agricultural model to simulate market clearing prices and quantities. The application illustrates that our approach efficiently simulates markets characterised by small-scale demand units and high, spatially heterogeneous transport costs.
关键词：Competitive facility location;transport costs;modelling;biogas;biomass transportation