An agent-based exploration of the effect of multi-criteria decisions on complex socio-technical heat transitions

Natural gas for heating is widespread in the built environment of The Netherlands, where the government aims at limiting heat demand and reducing natural gas consumption over the coming decades. In the owner-occupied residential sector, this transition is complex and requires cooperation and coordination of individuals and groups that make...

Modelling the interaction between policies and international trade flows for liquid biofuels: an agent-based modelling approach

World biofuel production and trade have grown exponentially in the last decade. Nevertheless, the interaction between the markets for oilseeds (food/feed/bioenergy) and liquid vegetable oil-based biofuels is overwhelmingly complex and thus not well understood. In this study, we developed a spatially explicit agent-based model to provide...

Exploring the emergence of a biojet fuel supply chain in Brazil: An agent-based modeling approach

The aviation industry accounts for more than 2% of global CO ₂ emissions. Biojet fuel is expected to make an essential contribution to the decarbonization of the aviation sector. Brazil is seen as a key player in developing sustainable aviation biofuels owing to its long-standing experience with biofuels. Nevertheless, a clear...

Exploring policy options to spur the expansion of ethanol production and consumption in Brazil: An agent-based modeling approach

The Brazilian government aims to increase the share of biofuels in the energy mix to around 18% by 2030, which implies an increase of ethanol production from currently 27 bln liters to over 50 bln liters per year. Biofuel policies play an important role in ethanol production, consumption, and investment in processing capacity. Nevertheless, a...

A conceptual framework for the analysis of the effect of institutions on biofuel supply chains

The economic performance of biofuels supply chains depends on the interaction of technical characteristics as technological pathways and logistics, and social structures as actor behavior, their interactions and institutions. Traditional approaches focus on the technical problems only. Little attention has been paid to the institutional...

Exploring path dependence, policy interactions, and actor behavior in the German biodiesel supply chain

Biofuel production is not cost competitive and thus requires governmental intervention. The effect of the institutional framework on the development of the biofuel sector is not yet well understood. This paper aims to analyze how biofuel production and production capacity could have evolved in Germany in the period 1992–2014. The effects of...

Daily storage management of hydroelectric facilities

This work presents a management procedure for hydroelectric facilities with daily storage. The water storage gives an additional degree of freedom allowing to shift in time power production when it is more convenient and to work at the maximum efficiency of hydraulic turbine. The management is optimized by coupling two different approaches:...

Shippers and Network Capacity Booking in the Dutch Gas Market

The main objectives of the Third Gas Directive (2009/73EC) approved by the European Union are: unbundling, creating an independent Transport Service Operator (TSO) and ensuring free access to the market. The separation of gas trading from transportation activities required new market rules and gas balancing. Thereby, the TSO's responsibilities...

Critical evaluation of paradigms for modelling integrated supply chains

Contemporary problems in process systems engineering often require model-based decision support tool. Among the various modelling paradigms, equation-based models and agent-based models are widely used to develop dynamic models of systems. Which is the most appropriate modelling paradigm for a supply chain? In this paper, we seek to address this...