Lignocellulose in the form of forestry, agricultural, and agro-industrial wastes is accumulated in large quantities every year. These materials are mainly composed of three groups of polymers, namely cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Cellulose and hemicellulose are sugar rich fractions of interest for use in fermentation processes, since microorganisms may use the sugars for growth and prod...

China is the biggest country of coal production and coal consumption in the world (IEA). In 1998, China produced 1250 Mt of raw coal, accounting for 27.5% of total coal production in the world, and holding 71.9% of primary energy in China (SSB). Coal provides 77% of the energy for power generation, 65% of chemical raw material, and more than 50% of commercial civilian energy. The coal industry ...

We study a continuous-review acquisition problem, in which the raw material price follows a discrete-state Markov process and demand is compound Poisson. We show that one optimal policy is of the order-up-to type. Under our mean reversion and time continuity conditions, we further show that the order-up-to levels are decreasing at the current price level. At the same time, our computational stu...

It is urgent to advance the discussion on the guidelines that Brazil should adopt to diversify energy sources in order to reduce dependency and promote the replacement of fossil fuels. This is one of the main ways to reduce the already deleterious negative impact that human activities are causing to the environment. This agenda includes the development of technologies for the expansion of sugar...

Nacrtak Wood fuel quality attributes have to be considered by logistics planners if fuel procurement from forests and energy production at the plant are considered simultaneously. The single most important quality attribute is the moisture content (MC) of chips or raw material delivered to energy plants. It affects heating value, storage properties, chipping and transport costs of the fuel. To ...