Optimization of biomass utilization strategy for energy, chemicals, and plastics

Biomass is being considered as an alternative feedstock for many sectors in India such as power, liquid transportation fuels, plastics, and chemicals. This is due to its renewable nature and local availability. However, many questions are still not satisfactorily answered regarding large scale adoption of biomass feedstock. Which utilization pathways/sectors are most desirable in terms of economics? Is there a trade-off between economics and climate change mitigation potential among the various utilization options? What is the optimal regional mapping strategy of each type of biomass and each technology? Is there enough biomass to meet the projected demands for all the sectors? 

The goal of this project is to answer these questions using an optimization approach. We will develop a multi-objective optimization model at national scale to determine the most desirable strategy considering different objectives such as cost, climate change mitigation, water conservation and so on.

The project is completely computational. It will involve optimization modeling in GAMS. 

P.S.: This project requires "natural intelligence" and "human learning". There is no AI/ML component in this work.