Can Modular Manufacturing Be the Next Game-Changer in Shale Gas Supply Chain Design and Operations for Economic and Environmental Sustainability?

Modular manufacturing is identified to have great potential in the exploitation of shale gas resources. In this work, we propose a novel mixed-integer nonlinear fractional programming model to investigate the economic and environmental implications of incorporating modular manufacturing into well-to-wire shale gas supply chains. Both design and operational decisions regarding modular manufacturing are considered, including modular plant allocation, capacity selection, installment planning, moving scheduling, and salvage operation, as well as other decisions for shale gas supply chain design and operations, such as the drilling schedule, water management, and pipeline network construction. To systematically evaluate the full spectrum of environmental impacts, an endpoint-oriented life cycle optimization framework is applied that accounts for up to 18 midpoint impact categories and three endpoint impact categories. Total environmental impact scores are obtained to evaluate the comprehensive life cycle environmental impacts of shale gas supply chains. A tailored global optimization algorithm is also presented to efficiently solve the resulting computationally challenging problem. The applicability of proposed modeling framework is illustrated through a case study of a well-to-wire shale gas supply chain based on the Marcellus Shale. The results show that modular manufacturing succeeds in improving the economic performance of a shale gas supply chain, but it is less attractive in terms of mitigating the comprehensive environmental impacts.