Engineering Commons^™

Equilibrium Modeling And Policy Analysis Of A Biofuel Supply Chain With A Hydroelectric Reservoir, Jinwoo Bae

Theses and Dissertations

This research proposesd a game theoretic model of a biofuel supply chain (BSC) where a utility company supplies reservoir water to two farmers, located in downstream and upstream of a hydropower dam. The decision-making process of the model is formulated as a three-stage Stackelberg game. We analyze the equilibrium of the decentralized systems and the effect of the government subsidy on energy crop (switchgrass) production for cellulosic biofuel industries, with two forms of subsidy: (1) discriminated subsidies and (2) equalized subsidies.

The results show that both forms of subsidy improve social welfare in the BSC unless the amount of subsidy …

A Biofuel Supply Chain Equilibrium Analysis With Subsidy Consideration, Amirsaman Hamzeh Bajgiran

Theses and Dissertations

Growing environmental concerns in the last few decades along with the energy security issues have led governments to take actions to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and enhance renewable energy usage, including biofuels. Enforcement of federal or state mandates and regulations that obligate a certain amount of biofuel production are one of the main levers that governments use to achieve their goals. In the U.S. as an example, Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requires the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, 21 billion gallons of which should be advanced biofuels derived from biostocks other than corn starch. …