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Abstract
The question of increasing biofuels production and the development of different biofuels
production technologies has become controversial. On the one hand, production of corn-based
biofuels creates a ‘food/feed vs. fuel’ tradeoff condition, along with subsequent uncertainties for
both consumers and producers (farmers). On the other, advanced biofuels (from, e.g.,
switchgrass, miscanthus, algae), although acknowledged as environmentally friendly, are not
available yet on a large commercial scale. In addition, the resource availability for the production
of biofuels feedstocks and the question of a sustainable biofuels production are major issues
impacting decision making.
By using a multi-objective optimization model and fuzzy logic, the paper presents an approach
of modeling sustainable biofuels production from conventional and advanced biofuels
feedstocks, under the condition of limited resources and uncertainty resulting from incomplete
information or missing knowledge about resource availability for biofuels production.