Development of an optimization system for the support of management decisions in the sugar-alcohol production chain

• Grant number: 05/59844-7
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: August 01, 2006
• End date: September 30, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Jorge Casas Liza
• Grantee: Jorge Casas Liza
• Company: OP2B Soluções para Otimização de Negócios Ltda
• City: São Paulo

Abstract

The objective of the present project is to develop a decision-making support system based on optimization for the management of the sugar-alcohol production chain. The scope of the system embraces the agricultural stage (planning of the crop, planting and harvest), the industrial stage and the distribution of final products for the most diverse markets. The project was divided into three stages for its conception, namely: the first considers the planning of the industrial sector in the production chain; the second stage considers the planning of the agricultural sector and the distribution sector, in addition to the horizontal integration of the chain (agricultural + industrial + distribution); the third stage studies the production programming of the industrial sector and the vertical integration (programming + planning) of the production chain. All the stages involve the development of optimization models and end-user interface systems. The present report describes the activities developed in the first stage of the project, which corresponds to phase 1 of the Technological Innovation in Small Businesses Program (PIPE I). The objective outlined for this stage was the development of optimization models for the solution of the problem of multi-period planning of the industrial process in a sugar-alcohol industry. This model was partially integrated to a graphic environment developed on the .Net for MSWindows™ and SQL Server database, in order to produce a prototype computer application for decision-making support for the industrial plant managers. The development of the support tool for decision-making was initiated following a survey and analysis of information collected in the open literature and mainly from the questionnaire and interviews conducted with specialists from the industrial sector. The objective of this stage was to identify and define the problem to be modeled. After the identification of the problem, work began on developing a mathematical representation for its optimization, involving the relevant decisions, such as variables, objective function, restrictions and parameters. The model was implemented and resolved in the GAMS environment programming language. The results obtained for the solution were validated by specialists from the sector and improvements were made to the model, with a view to refining both the representational capability of the system as well as the belated formulation of the problem of resources aimed at user-friendlier computer integration. The partial integration of the optimization was executed on the .Net for MS-Windows™ platform. (AU)