Optimizing Multi-feedstock Supply For A New Territorial Biorefinery

We design a contract to create a feedstock supply area that could support the establishment of a territorial biorefinery, based on a principal-agent model. Feedstock includes industrial crops that have proved to be suitable for cultivation in the case study area. Mathematical optimization is applied to real world data. Suitable farm types for energy cropping – located in southern-eastern Tuscany – would introduce industrial crops, but show aversion towards the adoption of a pre-treatment plant. Small-scale biorefineries seem more cost-effective than bigger ones, given savings on transport costs and energy self-sufficiency, thanks to a coupled biogas-to-energy plant.