The integration of a model combining multi-layer dimensions of Life cycle assessment (LCA), external Supply Chain (SC) risk factors and Geographical Information System (GIS) is lacking; in order to fulfil this research gap this article proposes an integrated model combining LCA, SC-risk factors and GIS. This research assesses the sustainability of various supply chains representing bio-derived levulinic acid production. The feedstock supplies are corn stover from US, and rice straw from Thailand, China and India. A combined life cycle assessment (LCA) and supply chain (SC) approach, from farm to final bio-derived product distribution and sales are investigated. GIS is applied to provide resolution of spatial and location datasets for the supply chain. The proposed framework is tested on 8 scenarios for the supply and distribution of 100 kilo-ton levulinic acid delivered to China (35%), US (30%), Germany (20%), Japan (10%) and Singapore (5%). The results showed that scenarios 5 and 6 are observed to have the highest overall (external, macro) risks. An overall quantitative (scaled) assessment highlighted that scenarios 1 and 2 are observed to both have the least impacts. With revenue as the main SC priority, scenario 7 gained the advantage of displaying an overall reasonable (moderate) sustainability performance. Based on the limitations of the present integrated model, a future research framework was suggested to include i) multi-criteria optimization methods; ii) land use change (LUC); iii) Water Footprint; iv) dynamic modelling.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)