# Simulating biomass chains for agricultural and bioeconomy transitions: The agent-based model, BioChains

Hadrien Delattre, Jean-Christophe Soulie, Jean Villerd, Olivier Therond

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Hadrien Delattre, Jean-Christophe Soulie, Jean Villerd, Olivier Therond. Simulating biomass chains for agricultural and bioeconomy transitions: The agent-based model, BioChains. Colloque International Bioeco - Towards an Ecological Bioeconomy: Interrogating Concepts and Practices from the Human and Social Sciences (BIOECO2 2025), University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Jun 2025, Reims, France. pp.644930. hal-05325353

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Submitted on 22 Oct 2025

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# Simulating Biomass Chains for Agricultural and Bioeconomy Transitions: the agent-based model, BioChains

Hadrien Delattre*†, Jean-Christophe Soulié, Jean Villerd, and Olivier Therond¹

¹a – Université de Lorraine, INRAE, LAE, F-68000 Colmar, France – France

## Abstract

The agent-based model BioChains aimed at modelling and simulating the biomass flows between production and processing plants to support the design of sustainable territorial bioeconomic systems (Wohlfahrt et al. 2019).

Starting from concepts and formalisms of the existing UPUTUC model (Soulié et al. 2017), biomasses are represented as "pools", defined by their volume and type, transiting through multiple production, processing and consumption "units". In addition to their type (e.g: Faba beans, corn silage, pig slurry etc), each biomass pool is characterised by its age and physical characteristics (e.g.: dry matter, nitrogen content, phosphorus content etc), which may vary on a daily basis, due to phenomena such as degradation within storage units.

BioChains has been designed to represent five layers of phenomena regarding the prospects of biomass pools in a territory;

- Wells and sources of biomass: where are produced and consumed biomass pools? And at which rate?

- Storage: what are the maximum capacities and storage conditions offered by the units of the territory? How do the physical characteristics of biomass pools change between the time they are stored and the time they are retrieved?

- Transportation: how are biomass pools moved from one unit to another? How can exchanges between units be assured, depending on the characteristics of freight companies' fleets?

- Processing of biomass: What biomass pools are needed and processed by biomass processing plants of the territory?

- Performances: how much greenhouse gases are emitted by composting or degradation during storage of a given quantity of biomass? How much bioproducts (e.g.: biogas, bi materials) are produced through the different processing plants? How the transportation traffic in increase due to the development of the bioeconomy?

<footnote>*Speaker</footnote>

<footnote>†Corresponding author: hadrien.delattre@inrae.fr</footnote>
BioChains allows integrating multiple coarse- or fine-grained bioprocess models. The bio-
processes currently implemented are anaerobic digestion (through the SysMetha model) and
household composting. An industrial composting platform model and a bioplastic produc-
tion plant model are also underway. In a more general manner, the BioChains model has
been designed as a framework into which new bioprocesses can easily be described and com-
municate between each other through generic interfaces.

The BioChains module provide its users with building blocks allowing to model and simulate
multiple scenarios of biomass chain organisations, like linear vs. cascading and circular ones,
thus making it possible to assess their respective environmental and economic performances.

Being powered by the GAMA platform, the BioChains module is designed to be pluggable
into the MAELIA platform (Misslin et al., 2021) to simulate interactions between agri-
cultural, hydrological and biomass pools dynamics. BioChains is capable to interact with
MAELIA agents as well as to function as a " standalone " model. This coupling possibility
adds the ability to test bioeconomy scenarios to MAELIA's Integrated Assessment Modelling
approach (for example; which feasibility for a specific transformation unit layout on a terri-
tory? What scaling for the logistics around the upcycling of a given organic waste product?).

Funding

This work is part of the project SLAM-B of the exploratory research program FairCar-
boN and received government funding managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche
under the France 2030 program, reference ANR-22-PEXF-0003.

References

Misslin R., Clivot H., Levavasseur F., Villerd J., Soulié J.-C., Houot S., Therond O., 2022. Integrated assessment and modeling of regional recycling of organic waste. Journal of Cleaner Production, 369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134725

Wohlfahrt J., Frechaud F., Gabrielle B., Godard C., Kurek B., Loyce C., Therond O., 2019.
Characteristics of bioeconomy systems and sustainability issues at the territorial scale. A
review. Journal of Cleaner Production. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.385

Soulie Jean-Christophe, Wassenaar Tom. 2017. Modelling the integrated management of organic waste at a territory scale. In : MODSIM2017 Managing cumulative risks through model-based processes. Abstracts. Syme G. (ed.), Hatton MacDonald D. (ed.), Fulton B. (ed.), Piantadosi J. (ed.). Hobart : Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand, Résumé, p. 75. ISBN 978-0-9872143-6-2 International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM2017). 22, Hobart, Australie, 3 Décembre 2017/8 Décembre 2017.

**Keywords:** biobased chain, production, transformation, transport, bioproduct