IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjopen/v8y2025i2p17-d1657289.html

GIS and Spatial Analysis in the Utilization of Residual Biomass for Biofuel Production

Author

Listed:
  • Sotiris Lycourghiotis

    (School of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, 18 Par. Aristotelous Str., 26335 Patras, Greece)

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to investigate the possibility of using residual materials (biomass derived from used cooking oils and lignocellulosic biomass from plant waste) on a large scale for producing renewable fuels and, in particular, the best way to collect them. The methodology of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as well as spatial analysis (SA) techniques were used to investigate the Greek case for this. The data recorded in the geographic database were quantities of waste cooking and household oils as well as quantities of lignocellulosic biomass. The most common global and local indices of spatial autocorrelation were used. Concerning the biomass derived from used cooking oils, it was found that their quantities were important (163.17 million L/year), and these can be used to produce green diesel in the context of the circular economy. Although the dispersion of the used cooking oils was wide, there is no doubt that their concentration in large cities and tourist areas is higher. This finding suggests a collection process that could be carried out mainly in these areas through the development of small autonomous collection units in each neighborhood and central processing plants in small regional units. The investigation of the geographical–spatial distribution of residual lignocellulosic biomass showed the geographical fragmentation and heterogeneity of the distributions. The quantities recorded were significant (4.5 million tons/year) but widely dispersed, such that the cost of collecting and transporting the biomass to central processing plants could be prohibitive. The “geography” of the problem itself suggests solutions of small mobile collection units in every part of the country. The lignocellulosic biomass would be collected and converted in situ into bio-oil by rapid pyrolysis carried out in a tanker vehicle. This would transport the produced bio-oil to the nearest oil refineries for the conversion of bio-oil into biofuels through deoxygenation processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Sotiris Lycourghiotis, 2025. "GIS and Spatial Analysis in the Utilization of Residual Biomass for Biofuel Production," J, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-12, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjopen:v:8:y:2025:i:2:p:17-:d:1657289
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8800/8/2/17/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8800/8/2/17/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mohammad Kanan & Muhammad Salman Habib & Anam Shahbaz & Amjad Hussain & Tufail Habib & Hamid Raza & Zaher Abusaq & Ramiz Assaf, 2022. "A Grey-Fuzzy Programming Approach towards Socio-Economic Optimization of Second-Generation Biodiesel Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-28, August.
    2. Ghelichi, Zabih & Saidi-Mehrabad, Mohammad & Pishvaee, Mir Saman, 2018. "A stochastic programming approach toward optimal design and planning of an integrated green biodiesel supply chain network under uncertainty: A case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 661-687.
    3. Lycourghiotis, Sotiris & Kordouli, Eleana & Kordulis, Christos & Bourikas, Kyriakos, 2021. "Transformation of residual fatty raw materials into third generation green diesel over a nickel catalyst supported on mineral palygorskite," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 773-786.
    4. Mohammad Kanan & Muhammad Salman Habib & Tufail Habib & Sadaf Zahoor & Anas Gulzar & Hamid Raza & Zaher Abusaq, 2022. "A Flexible Robust Possibilistic Programming Approach for Sustainable Second-Generation Biogas Supply Chain Design under Multiple Uncertainties," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-32, September.
    5. Mondal, Arijit & Giri, Binoy Krishna & Roy, Sankar Kumar, 2023. "An integrated sustainable bio-fuel and bio-energy supply chain: A novel approach based on DEMATEL and fuzzy-random robust flexible programming with Me measure," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    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. Habib, Muhammad Salman & Hwang, Seung-June, 2024. "Developing sustainable, resilient, and responsive biofuel production and distribution management system: A neutrosophic fuzzy optimization approach based on artificial intelligence and geographic information systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 372(C).
    2. Daniel José Bernier-Oviedo & Alexandra Eugenia Duarte & Óscar J. Sánchez, 2025. "Evaluation and Design of Supply Chains for Bioenergy Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-50, April.
    3. Jabbarzadeh, Armin & Shamsi, Meisam, 2025. "Designing a resilient and sustainable multi-feedstock bioethanol supply chain: Integration of mathematical modeling and machine learning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PB).
    4. Mohammad Kanan & Muhammad Salman Habib & Tufail Habib & Sadaf Zahoor & Anas Gulzar & Hamid Raza & Zaher Abusaq, 2022. "A Flexible Robust Possibilistic Programming Approach for Sustainable Second-Generation Biogas Supply Chain Design under Multiple Uncertainties," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-32, September.
    5. Becerra-Fernandez, Mauricio & Cosenz, Federico & Dyner, Isaac, 2020. "Modeling the natural gas supply chain for sustainable growth policy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    6. Tsiotsias, Anastasios I. & Hafeez, Sanaa & Charisiou, Nikolaos D. & Al-Salem, Sultan M. & Manos, George & Constantinou, Achilleas & AlKhoori, Sara & Sebastian, Victor & Hinder, Steven J. & Baker, Mark, 2023. "Selective catalytic deoxygenation of palm oil to produce green diesel over Ni catalysts supported on ZrO2 and CeO2–ZrO2: Experimental and process simulation modelling studies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 582-596.
    7. Sojung Kim & Junyoung Seo & Sumin Kim, 2024. "Machine Learning Technologies in the Supply Chain Management Research of Biodiesel: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-15, March.
    8. Giri, Binoy Krishna & Roy, Sankar Kumar, 2024. "Fuzzy-random robust flexible programming on sustainable closed-loop renewable energy supply chain," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 363(C).
    9. Liang, Siqi & Bai, Xuejie & Li, Yongli & Xin, Hening, 2023. "Model and solution of sustainable bi-level emergency commodity allocation based on type-2 fuzzy theory," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    10. Vaziri Rad, Mohammad Amin & Forootan Fard, Habib & Khazanedari, Kian & Toopshekan, Ashkan & Ourang, Shiva & Khanali, Majid & Gorjian, Shiva & Fereidooni, Leila & Kasaeian, Alibakhsh, 2024. "A global framework for maximizing sustainable development indexes in agri-photovoltaic-based renewable systems: Integrating DEMATEL, ANP, and MCDM methods," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    11. Sungyong Choi, 2023. "Special Issue on Advances in Operations and Supply Chain Management with Sustainability Considerations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-4, March.
    12. Zaher Abusaq & Sadaf Zahoor & Muhammad Salman Habib & Mudassar Rehman & Jawad Mahmood & Mohammad Kanan & Ray Tahir Mushtaq, 2023. "Improving Energy Performance in Flexographic Printing Process through Lean and AI Techniques: A Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-15, February.
    13. Batool Madani & Afef Saihi & Akmal Abdelfatah, 2024. "A Systematic Review of Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design: Optimization Approaches and Research Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-33, April.
    14. Mehri, Parvaneh & Sabouhi, Fatemeh & Ghaderi, S.F., 2025. "Designing a sustainable and resilient biofuel supply chain considering the water-energy-land nexus: Towards a circular economy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    15. Zoubida Benmamoun & Khaoula Khlie & Mohammad Dehghani & Youness Gherabi, 2024. "WOA: Wombat Optimization Algorithm for Solving Supply Chain Optimization Problems," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-61, April.
    16. Mohammad Kanan & Ansa Rida Dilshad & Sadaf Zahoor & Amjad Hussain & Muhammad Salman Habib & Amjad Mehmood & Zaher Abusaq & Allam Hamdan & Jihad Asad, 2023. "An Empirical Study of the Implementation of an Integrated Ergo-Green-Lean Framework: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-24, June.
    17. Zheng, Yanan & Ren, Dongming & Guo, Zheyu & Hu, Zhaoguang & Wen, Quan, 2019. "Research on integrated resource strategic planning based on complex uncertainty simulation with case study of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 772-786.
    18. Hamid Saffari & Morteza Abbasi & Jafar Gheidar-Kheljani, 2025. "A robust, sustainable, resilient, and responsive model for forward/reverse logistics network design with a new approach based on horizontal collaboration," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(10), pages 23439-23482, October.
    19. Mohtashami, Zahra & Bozorgi-Amiri, Ali & Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, Reza, 2021. "A two-stage multi-objective second generation biodiesel supply chain design considering social sustainability: A case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    20. Stefania Lucantonio & Andrea Di Giuliano & Leucio Rossi & Katia Gallucci, 2023. "Green Diesel Production via Deoxygenation Process: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-44, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jjopen:v:8:y:2025:i:2:p:17-:d:1657289. 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 The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (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.