Palm oil biomass global supply chain: environmental emissions vs. technology development of maritime transportation
Seyed Mojib Zahraee, Saeed Rahimpour Golroudbary, Nirajan Shiwakoti, Peter Stasinopoulos
Abstract
To accomplish the climate-neutrality objective by 2050, it is necessary to increase the share of renewable energy sources globally. A significant portion of this burden should be carried by palm oil biomass. However, the palm oil biomass supply may not be large enough to satisfy the rising demand worldwide. International trade and maritime transportation networks may play a significant role in satisfying the objectives defined for biomass renewable energy worldwide. In this context, seaports play a major part in developing palm oil global biomass supply chains (GBSC). This study aims to fill the research gap by investigating the effects of ship technology developments (capacity and size), shipment distance, and mass flow of the palm oil GBSC on environmental emissions. To achieve this goal, a novel dynamic simulation model is developed and tested on two leading palm oil suppliers: Malaysia and Indonesia. The results show to what extent container ship technologies such as size and capacity would affect the environmental emissions in the next 30 years.