Modeling and Analysis of Energy Production Systems for Environmentally Conscious Supply Chain Management

摘要

Energy is a fundamental entity of modern life that is required by industrial and service organizations as well as individual customers. In industrial settings, most facilities are clustered in a certain geographical area known as industrial complexes. Since these industrial facilities are located in geographical proximity, process integration and collaboration among them is feasible. Industrial facilities require energy primarily in two forms: steam and electricity. Electricity production in cogeneration systems are known to be the most efficient thermal energy producing systems. The energy production systems emit environmentally harmful substances by fossil fuel consumption during energy generation. With the demanding environmental regulations, the energy production systems must find new solutions continuously to decrease emissions while satisfying the energy demand. A typical energy production system consists of storage tanks to inventory raw materials, boilers that convert fuel into steam at high pressures, turbines that expand higher pressure steam to lower pressure steam and convert the mechanical energy released during this expansion in the electricity and mixing equipment for mixing compatible materials originating from different sources in the system. Energy systems utilize fuel, air and other materials to generate electricity and steam. Companies can collaborate by exchanging steam. There is an investment cost for such inter-company material exchanges, i.e. pipeline construction. The energy production systems that collaborate in order to improve their financial and environmental performance can exchange steam while satisfying the demand for steam and electricity. If an energy production system produces excess electricity, it can sell this to utility company that serves the region. When enough electricity cannot be produced or if it is profitable, electricity can be purchased from the utility company. The impact of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions on global warming can be measured in units of metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO_2) equivalent units. The Kyoto protocol puts emission decrease targets from the year 1990 emission levels of countries to achieve and the governments put individual decrease targets on companies. In CO_2 trading markets companies can exchange their CO_2 release permits to achieve these reduction limits.