Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

Nexterra Systems Corp. designs and develops gasification systems that convert waste biomass into heat andx000D
power. One of their projects was in collaboration with the University of British Columbia (UBC), where ax000D
biomass gasification system with 6 MW thermal energy capacity was installed. In order to achieve its GHGx000D
reduction objectives by 2020, UBC is considering adding a new bioenergy system to expand the heatx000D
production on campus by about 3 times. The installation of the new system would require more biomass, whilex000D
biomass storage capacity would be reduced. Reliability of biomass supply is a key issue to provide heat onx000D
campus. While the total annual biomass may be sufficient for bioenergy production, the variability in supplyx000D
chain may bring shortage in daily, weekly or monthly delivery of biomass. In order to ensure the smoothx000D
operation of the new biomass system, the right quantity of wood biomass with the desired quality at thex000D
minimum cost must be delivered to UBC every day. Therefore, it is essential to perform supply chain riskx000D
assessment of the gasification and new systems at UBC and optimize the supply chain to minimize thex000D
delivered cost. The objective of this collaborative project with Nexterra is to analyze and perform a riskx000D
assessment of the supply chain of wood biomass at UBC while considering the quality, quantity and cost ofx000D
delivered biomass. Based on this information, the minimum storage volume required for the new system willx000D
be assessed. Then, a mathematical programming model will be developed to determine the optimum storagex000D
size on campus and flow of biomass from the supplier while minimizing the total cost of the supply chain. Inx000D
addition to helping Nexterra, the proposed project will present a new insight to UBC which will help them inx000D
their deliberation concerning their high capital investment. The results of this project will be useful inx000D
achieving UBC's ambitious GHG emission reduction targets. Emission reduction will benefit UBC, Britishx000D
Columbia and Canada to move towards sustainable communities and their plans to mitigate climate change.