It is appropriate to benchmark a proposed feedstock delivery system against existing commercial systems; for example, woodchips, grain, hay, sugarcane, and cotton. Ravula et al. [37] studied delivery to a cotton gin from over 2,100 field locations to better understand logistics system design for a biorefinery.

Switchgrass, corn stover, and other energy crops present two major challenges when benchmarked against other commercial examples. First, energy crops are spread over a greater number of sites when compared with woodchips harvested as byproducts from logging. Second, energy crops have low value when compared with hay, grain, sugarcane, or cotton. Applying benchmarked models to energy crop systems provides a starting point, but optimization techniques must be applied to "fine tune" the logistics system design.