| This research presents a discrete event simulation model to analyze biofuel supply chain and determine the best distribution practices. The increased demand for reducing the amounts of greenhouse gases being expelled into the environment, and the increased demand for reducing the dependency on foreign oil has augmented the US interest in alternative forms of fuels such as biofuels. As our demand for energy continues to increase and the government continues to implement policies to decrease fossil fuel burning, it is foreseeable that the biofuel industry will continue to expand. This will mainly be because biofuel is one of renewable energies that has promising potential to reduce dependency on foreign oil, especially in the transportation sector, without replacing the current vehicle fleet. A literature review suggests that the economic viability of biofuels is heavily affected by its logistics. There have been, however minimal attempts to determine the best distribution practices of the biofuel supply chain.;In this research, therefore, we present a simple yet practical approach that employs a valid and credible simulation modeling to handle this issue. We considered a finite number of possible future scenarios, which can deal with disruptions caused by unexpected and rare events. The applicability of the proposed model was demonstrated in the case study of the state of Nevada in the United States. The results demonstrate that the proposed model is a practical and flexible tool in analyzing realistic biofuel distribution. We believe that the proposed simulation model will serve as an effective decision support tool in the logistics operations of the biofuel industry. |
