Modeling, Analysis, and Exact Algorithms for Some Biomass Logistics Supply Chain Design and Routing Problems

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on supply chain design and logistics problems with emphasis on biomass logistics and routing problems. In biomass logistics, we have studied problems arising in a switchgrass-based bio-ethanol supply chain encountered in the Southeast, and a corn stover harvest scheduling problem faced in the Midwest Unites States, both pertaining to the production of cellulosic ethanol. The main contributions of our work have been in introducing new problems to the literature that lie at the interface of the lot-sizing and routing problems, and in developing effective exact algorithms for their solution.

In the routing area, we have addressed extensions of the well-known traveling salesman and vehicle routing problems. We have proposed new formulations and have developed exact algorithms for the single and multiple asymmetric traveling salesmen problems (ATSP and mATP), the high-multiplicity asymmetric traveling salesman problem (HMATSP) and its extensions, and the fixed-destination multi-depot traveling salesman problem with load balancing (FD-MTSPB). Furthermore, we have introduced a new strategy to reduce routing cost in the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP).