IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i6p2614-d1093243.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agent-Based Simulation and Micro Supply Chain of the Food–Energy–Water Nexus for Collaborating Urban Farms and the Incorporation of a Community Microgrid Based on Renewable Energy

Author

Listed:
  • Marwen Elkamel

    (Industrial Engineering & Management Systems Department, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA)

  • Luis Rabelo

    (Industrial Engineering & Management Systems Department, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA)

  • Alfonso T. Sarmiento

    (Research Group on Logistics Systems, College of Engineering, Universidad de La Sabana, Campus del Puente del Común, Km. 7, Autopista Norte de Bogotá, Chía 250001, Colombia)

Abstract

An agent-based modeling framework is developed and employed to replicate the interactions among urban farms. The objectives are to efficiently manage an urban farm’s food, energy, and water resources, decrease food waste, and increase the food availability for the local community. A case study of eleven farms was investigated in Vancouver, Canada to study the linkages between the resources in the urban food, energy, and water nexus. Each urban farm in the simulation belonged to a community microgrid generating electricity from solar and wind. The local farms aimed to provide fresh produce for their respective local communities. However, at some points, they lacked supply, and at other points, there was excess supply, leading to food waste. Food waste can be converted into fertilizers or bioenergy. However, an alternative solution must be employed due to the natural resources required for production, efficiently managing resources, and adhering to sustainability guidelines. In this paper, an optimization framework was integrated within the agent-based model to create a micro supply chain. The supply chain directly linked the producers with the consumers by severing the links involved in a traditional food supply. Each urban farm in the study collaborated to reduce food wastage and meet consumer demands, establishing farmer-to-farmer exchange in transitional agriculture. The optimization-based micro supply chain aimed to minimize costs and meet the equilibrium between food supply and demand. Regular communication between the farms reduced food waste by 96.9% over 16 weeks. As a result, the fresh food availability increased for the local community, as exemplified by the consumer purchases over the same period. Moreover, the simulation results indicated that the renewable energy generation at the community microgrids aided in the generation of 22,774 Mwh from solar and 2568 Mwh from wind. This has the potential to significantly reduce CO 2 emissions in areas that heavily rely on non-renewable energy sources.

Suggested Citation

  • Marwen Elkamel & Luis Rabelo & Alfonso T. Sarmiento, 2023. "Agent-Based Simulation and Micro Supply Chain of the Food–Energy–Water Nexus for Collaborating Urban Farms and the Incorporation of a Community Microgrid Based on Renewable Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-26, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:6:p:2614-:d:1093243
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/6/2614/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/6/2614/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Babel, M.S. & Shrestha, B. & Perret, S.R., 2011. "Hydrological impact of biofuel production: A case study of the Khlong Phlo Watershed in Thailand," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 8-26.
    2. Chandra, Amanda Jennifer & Diehl, Jessica Ann, 2019. "Urban agriculture, food security, and development policies in Jakarta: A case study of farming communities at Kalideres – Cengkareng district, West Jakarta," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Utomo, Dhanan Sarwo & Onggo, Bhakti Stephan & Eldridge, Stephen, 2018. "Applications of agent-based modelling and simulation in the agri-food supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(3), pages 794-805.
    4. Caroline Krejci & Benita Beamon, 2015. "Impacts of Farmer Coordination Decisions on Food Supply Chain Structure," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18(2), pages 1-19.
    5. Pfenninger, Stefan & Staffell, Iain, 2016. "Long-term patterns of European PV output using 30 years of validated hourly reanalysis and satellite data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1251-1265.
    6. Zaman, Khalid & Khan, Muhammad Mushtaq & Ahmad, Mehboob & Rustam, Rabiah, 2012. "The relationship between agricultural technology and energy demand in Pakistan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 268-279.
    7. Martina Flörke & Christof Schneider & Robert I. McDonald, 2018. "Water competition between cities and agriculture driven by climate change and urban growth," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 51-58, January.
    8. Chen, Shaoqing & Chen, Bin, 2015. "Urban energy consumption: Different insights from energy flow analysis, input–output analysis and ecological network analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 99-107.
    9. Roberto Calisti & Primo Proietti & Andrea Marchini, 2019. "Promoting Sustainable Food Consumption: An Agent-Based Model About Outcomes of Small Shop Openings," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 22(1), pages 1-2.
    10. Bojana Bajželj & Keith S. Richards & Julian M. Allwood & Pete Smith & John S. Dennis & Elizabeth Curmi & Christopher A. Gilligan, 2014. "Importance of food-demand management for climate mitigation," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(10), pages 924-929, October.
    11. Staffell, Iain & Pfenninger, Stefan, 2016. "Using bias-corrected reanalysis to simulate current and future wind power output," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1224-1239.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marko Hočevar & Lovrenc Novak & Primož Drešar & Gašper Rak, 2022. "The Status Quo and Future of Hydropower in Slovenia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-13, September.
    2. Lukas Kriechbaum & Philipp Gradl & Romeo Reichenhauser & Thomas Kienberger, 2020. "Modelling Grid Constraints in a Multi-Energy Municipal Energy System Using Cumulative Exergy Consumption Minimisation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-23, July.
    3. Behrang Shirizadeh, Quentin Perrier, and Philippe Quirion, 2022. "How Sensitive are Optimal Fully Renewable Power Systems to Technology Cost Uncertainty?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    4. Liu, Hailiang & Andresen, Gorm Bruun & Greiner, Martin, 2018. "Cost-optimal design of a simplified highly renewable Chinese electricity network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 534-546.
    5. Géremi Gilson Dranka & Paula Ferreira, 2020. "Electric Vehicles and Biofuels Synergies in the Brazilian Energy System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-22, August.
    6. Shirizadeh, Behrang & Quirion, Philippe, 2022. "The importance of renewable gas in achieving carbon-neutrality: Insights from an energy system optimization model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    7. Gorre, Jachin & Ortloff, Felix & van Leeuwen, Charlotte, 2019. "Production costs for synthetic methane in 2030 and 2050 of an optimized Power-to-Gas plant with intermediate hydrogen storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Shirizadeh, Behrang & Quirion, Philippe, 2021. "Low-carbon options for the French power sector: What role for renewables, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    9. Ringkjøb, Hans-Kristian & Haugan, Peter M. & Nybø, Astrid, 2020. "Transitioning remote Arctic settlements to renewable energy systems – A modelling study of Longyearbyen, Svalbard," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    10. Petrelli, Marina & Fioriti, Davide & Berizzi, Alberto & Bovo, Cristian & Poli, Davide, 2021. "A novel multi-objective method with online Pareto pruning for multi-year optimization of rural microgrids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    11. Gianluigi Migliavacca & Marco Rossi & Dario Siface & Matteo Marzoli & Hakan Ergun & Raúl Rodríguez-Sánchez & Maxime Hanot & Guillaume Leclerq & Nuno Amaro & Aleksandr Egorov & Jawana Gabrielski & Björ, 2021. "The Innovative FlexPlan Grid-Planning Methodology: How Storage and Flexible Resources Could Help in De-Bottlenecking the European System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-28, February.
    12. Dan Tong & David J. Farnham & Lei Duan & Qiang Zhang & Nathan S. Lewis & Ken Caldeira & Steven J. Davis, 2021. "Geophysical constraints on the reliability of solar and wind power worldwide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Gyanwali, Khem & Komiyama, Ryoichi & Fujii, Yasumasa, 2020. "Representing hydropower in the dynamic power sector model and assessing clean energy deployment in the power generation mix of Nepal," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    14. Gabrielli, Paolo & Aboutalebi, Reyhaneh & Sansavini, Giovanni, 2022. "Mitigating financial risk of corporate power purchase agreements via portfolio optimization," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    15. Sven Teske & Thomas Pregger & Sonja Simon & Tobias Naegler & Johannes Pagenkopf & Özcan Deniz & Bent van den Adel & Kate Dooley & Malte Meinshausen, 2021. "It Is Still Possible to Achieve the Paris Climate Agreement: Regional, Sectoral, and Land-Use Pathways," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-25, April.
    16. Vijay, Avinash & Fouquet, Nicolas & Staffell, Iain & Hawkes, Adam, 2017. "The value of electricity and reserve services in low carbon electricity systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 111-123.
    17. Fraunholz, Christoph & Miskiw, Kim K. & Kraft, Emil & Fichtner, Wolf & Weber, Christoph, 2021. "On the role of risk aversion and market design in capacity expansion planning," Working Paper Series in Production and Energy 62, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute for Industrial Production (IIP).
    18. Anam Nadeem & Mosè Rossi & Erica Corradi & Lingkang Jin & Gabriele Comodi & Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh, 2022. "Energy-Environmental Planning of Electric Vehicles (EVs): A Case Study of the National Energy System of Pakistan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, April.
    19. de Guibert, Paul & Shirizadeh, Behrang & Quirion, Philippe, 2020. "Variable time-step: A method for improving computational tractability for energy system models with long-term storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    20. Tejada-Arango, Diego A. & Wogrin, Sonja & Siddiqui, Afzal S. & Centeno, Efraim, 2019. "Opportunity cost including short-term energy storage in hydrothermal dispatch models using a linked representative periods approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:6:p:2614-:d:1093243. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.