IIT-Hyderabad Uses Machine Learning to Study Biofuel Supply

by Syed Akbar (Times of India) Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad have developed a method using machine learning algorithms to study supply chain network of biofuels. According to the IIT-Hyderabad team, the method considers revenue generation not only as an outcome of sale of biofuel but also in terms of carbon credits through savings on greenhouse gas emission.

Employing computational methods, the researchers devised the method to understand the factors and impediments in incorporating biofuels into the fuel sector in India. This work has been spurred by the increasing need to replace fossil fuels by bio-derived fuels, which, in turn, is driven by the dwindling fossil fuel reserves all over the world, and pollution issues associated with the use of fossil fuels.

IIT-H researchers said their method has shown that in the area of bioethanol integration into mainstream fuel use, the production cost is the highest (43%) followed by import (25%), transport (17%), infrastructure (15%) and inventory (0.43%) costs. The model has also shown that feed availability to the tune of at least 40% of the capacity is needed to meet the projected demands. READ MORE