A Systematic Review of Forest-Based Biomass Supply Chain Optimization Incorporating Governmental Policies and Programs

Abstract

Forest-based biomass, which mainly includes harvesting and wood processing residues, has great potential for producing bioproducts and transitioning to a bio-based economy. However, the commercial utilization of this material is challenging due to various factors, including supply chain barriers, which motivated the optimization of biomass supply chains in many studies. Government policies have also been instrumental in the feasibility of bio-projects and were considered in recent studies. The purpose of this review is to analyze the literature on forest-based biomass supply chain optimization, investigating how governmental policies are taken into account and their potential impacts. Both bibliographic and descriptive review analyses are conducted on 30 research articles published on this subject. This study employs a scientific mapping approach that includes bibliographic coupling analysis of sources, as well as keyword co-occurrence analysis, using the Visualization of Similarities (VOS) viewer software. Furthermore, the papers are grouped and analyzed based on the types of policy they considered and how uncertainties in supply chains were addressed. The findings show that few studies incorporated governmental policies into mathematical programming models developed for forest-based biomass supply chain planning. Among the studies that did consider these policies, most focused only on a single policy group, particularly carbon pricing policies. Moreover, the impact of uncertainties, especially those related to governmental policies, has been largely overlooked in these models. To advance this area of research, future research can address these gaps, incorporating a broader range of policies and the associated uncertainties.