NDSU Transportation and Logistics PhD Student to Present at INFORMS ConferencePosted: May 16, 2019 NDSU transportation and logistics Ph.D. student S. Ali Haji Esmaeili has been selected to present his research on optimizing bioethanol supply chains at the 2019 INFORMS Annual Conference in Seattle in October. Esmaeili notes that first generation bioethanol is produced from food-based biomass which has raised social issues such as controversy of diverting production from food to fuel. His study examines the use of monetary incentives to promote second-generation bioethanol which is produced from non-edible biomass feedstocks. This incentive policy would be offered to existing bioethanol producers only if they change their production from edible to non-edible biomass feedstocks. To analyze the impacts of incentives, Esmaeili compared the supply chains of first-generation and second-generation bioethanol production. Additional authors on the paper were Joseph Szmerekovsky, chair of NDSU's Department of Transportation, Logistics and Finance, and Ahmad Sobhani, assistant professor of management information systems at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. INFORMS is the world's largest professional association dedicated to and promoting best practices and advances in operations research, management science and analytics to improve operation processes, decision-making, and outcomes. The annual conference draws more than 5,500 members, students, academic and industry experts. |