A Study of Waste Biomass Supply Chain by Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps

Increasing demand for renewable energy has made the biomass a key source of renewable energy. The waste biomass has been given greater consideration at the global level, because of waste management and environmental protection policies. These resources have a large potential for electricity generation. The goal of converting them into electricity is waste management and environmental protection. Therefore, supply chain plays an important role in providing effective and efficient sources of waste biomass for energy production. In this article, first, through holding interviews with experts, waste biomass supply chain components were identified. Then, using the fuzzy cognitive mapping method, the causal relationships between components were investigated. The results showed that the out-degree of waste biomass production, pre-processing (separation), transportation, and storage in landfill place respectively is 5.5, 3.08, 2.97 and 2.86. Studying various scenarios showed that with increase in the impact of waste biomass production, the impact of other components of the chain would also increase. But with the increase in the impact of primary transportation, storage at the landfill, the effect of other components decreases respectively, to the extent that their effect is negatively affected. It can be concluded that the production of waste biomass is more influential and more important in comparison with other components of the supply chain in energy production