John S. Cundiff

A linear programming approach for designing a herbaceous biomass delivery system

Abstract There are a number of systems-related issues associated with the harvest, storage, and transport of herbaceous biomass from on-farm storage locations to a centrally located plant. This modeling effort is directed toward the design of a biomass delivery system that considers storage, scheduling, and transportation issues. A statement of the problem, along with its salient characteristics, is presented, and a linear programming model is constructed. Uncertainty in production levels due to weather is addressed by reformulating the linear program as a two-stage problem with recourse. A specific case-study of a plant located in a country in the Piedmont of Virginia is described. The data for this study includes 20 producers having four to seven storage locations each. The model was solved using this data set and appropriate sensitivity analyses were conducted to illustrate the range of decision-making options that are available. The model minimized delivered cost by scheduling shipments from the various on-farm storage locations to meet a 5600 dry Mg monthly demand. The total cost (ownership+operating+labor) was

Harvest and storage costs for bales of switchgrass in the southeastern United States

500/day/truck, and the resultant average cost of transportation ranged from

Design, modeling, and analysis of a feedstock logistics system.

8 to

Energy analysis of ethanol production from sweet sorghum

10/dry Mg. The average travel distance (farm+secondary+primary roads) was found to be 22 km for delivering the 67 200 dry Mg required for a year-round operation.

Simulation of five large round bale harvesting systems for biomass

Abstract A simulation was done to compare harvest costs for large round bales (1·8 m diameter × 1·5 m wide) vs large square bales (1 m high × 1·2 m wide × 2·4 m long). Assumptions were made to give each system an idealized opportunity to harvest switchgrass yields of 4·5, 9 and 18 dry Mg/ha. Using the round bale, total harvest costs (mow-condition, rake, bale and move to an on-farm storage location) were

Work in progress - spiral curriculum approach to reformulate engineering curriculum

17·00,

Influence of sweet sorghum spacing on stalk pith yield

15·90 and

optimization of Sweet Sorghum Processing Parameters

19·15/dry Mg, respectively. For the square bale, they were

Sweet sorghum for ethanol industry for the Piedmont.

13·40,

Comparison of Bale Operations for Smaller Production Fields in the Southeast

12·25 and