Systems informatics for biomass feedstock production

Biomass feedstock production is a significant part of the supply chain of bioenergy. It consists of an integrative framework of chemical and biological processes as well as technical operations. The introduction of systems informatics facilitates the flow of information between these processes and operations through the use of specific techniques such as knowledge management, concurrent science and engineering, software engineering, and decision support. These techniques are integrated in the production of biomass feedstock through an information system. The core element of this information system is a database system. The handling of the data of the database system occurs through a number of graphical user interfaces. The design of these graphical user interfaces is based on the use of metadata which correspond to the attributes of the tasks, subtasks, and technological equipments of the respective stages of the biomass feedstock production. Furthermore, these interfaces allow the initiation of a number of operations, such as optimization, simulation, analysis of experimental data, and collection of information in real time, with parallel use of a number of software packages specialized for each stage of the biomass feedstock production. This paper describes the development of the framework for this information system for biomass feedstock production.