Title: Integrated bioethanol-gasoline supply chains created in response to government policy changes in Nebraska

Authors: Davoud Ghahremanlou; Wieslaw Kubiak

Addresses: Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada ' Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada

Abstract: The US Government applied its policy-making power to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on integrated bioethanol-gasoline supply chains (IBGSCs). In order to study the IBGSCs which evolve in response to change of policies, Ghahremanlou and Kubiak (2021) developed an algorithm, referred to as extended lean model (ELM). In this paper, we apply the ELM to real-life data for the State of Nebraska and solve 21,420 alternative policy scenarios to optimality to investigate and compare IBGSCs created due to the changes in policies. The case study shows that minimum tariffs for blending US and non-US bioethanol with gasoline needs to be 0.531 and 0.35    $  /  gal respectively to permit the government to shift bioethanol production in order to meet demand for ethanol used for producing sanitisers to avert COVID-19 from spreading. Finally, we provide a number of policy recommendations and directions for further research.

Keywords: COVID-19; oil war; supply chain management; operations management; stochastic programming; location allocation; government policies; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2024.139235

International Journal of Operational Research, 2024 Vol.50 No.3, pp.267 - 290

Received: 02 Sep 2021
Accepted: 02 Nov 2021
Published online: 28 Jun 2024 *

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