Background:

Feeding the future world population, while reducing the environmental impact of the food production system, requires a robust, resource efficient food production system. In such a system an agro-material has to be optimally converted into a range of valuable end products. To find the process pathways that enable this optimal conversion, a systematic approach to process (re-)design is necessary. However, the feasibility of a food supply chain is to a large extent dependent on the logistics of the chain. Transportation, like the actual food production processes, influence final quality of the delivered products, economic aspects and the sustainable performance of the food supply chain. When designing and redesigning food production processes, the food supply chain has to be taken into account, and vice versa.

This project falls in the larger framework of the Institute for Sustainable Process Technology (ISPT) and the laboratory of Food Process Engineering (FPE) and the Operations Research and Logistics (ORL) group at Wageningen University.

Aim:

The goal of this research project is to develop a methodology to systematically design optimal pathways for processing agro-materials, converting them into a range of valuable products, while generating minimal waste or low-value by-products. Specific attention is given to the specific characteristics of food supply chains like region-specific availability, seasonality and quality.

Approach:

In this project, the link between the fields of Process Systems Engineering, Operations Research and (Food) Supply Chain design is used. Knowledge from these fields will be combined to find a way to effectively represent the general decision problem and use a mathematical decision support model to search, evaluate and compare decision alternatives. This will be done in collaboration with a partner in food industry.