Supply chain optimization of biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil

Producing biodiesel using waste cooking oil is a substantial instrument for solving the intense problems caused by energy crisis and environment pollutions. This paper focuses on the design of the biodiesel supply chain using waste cooking oil as feedstock in China and establishes a mixed integer linear programming model for both economic and environmental optimization. The model considers a three level network including waster cooking oil production points, distribution centers and factories. And four aspects of decisions are made: (1) the number of distribution centers and factories to locate; (2) the locations of the distribution centers and factories; (3) the allocations of the waste cooking oil among supply chain members; (4) the decisions of factories' technology choice. Finally, the model is applied to a real network in Nanjing and the genetic algorithm is developed to solve this problem. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.