Transcript Slide 1

LINKING HIGH TECH AND HUMAN TOUCH
SUSTAINABILITY AND BIOMASS AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE
GREEN ENERGY INITIATIVE MEETING 27 JUNE 2012
ANNEMARIJE KOOIJMAN
LINKING HIGH-TECH AND HUMAN TOUCH
 Route 14: building experience with multidisciplinary cooperation in the
field of biomass
 UT expertise, opportunities for your own research?
 Which organisation forms would trigger you and support you in setting up
and building up multidisciplinary research in the field of biomass (GEI)?
21/7/15
2
ROUTE 14 BIOMASS PLATFORM
Interfaculty team: Sascha Kersten (TNW), Joy Clancy (MB), Devrim Yazan
(MB), Annemarije Kooijman (TNW), team members MB, TNW, CTW, ITC
 Development of a tool for the biofuels industry that can be used to make pro-active
decisions: environmental, social, economic sustainability
 Proposal submitted: Bioenergy Supply Chain Integration (BioSCinT)- overcoming
market barriers for second generation biomass
 Overview of frameworks and tools for the assessment of sustainability of biomass
 Value chain analysis of bagasse
 Biomass production from perspective of smallholder farmers
 Identification of opportunities at University of Twente for multidisciplinary
cooperation in the field of biomass
21/7/15
3
MULTIDISCIPLINARY COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF
BIOMASS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE
Biomass: production feedstock, processing, transport, use of product
Social Science research:
impacts of feedstock production, decisionmaking in chain, governance of
chain and energy transition
Technical research:
which feedstocks, viability and efficiency of production and use, scale of
operation
21/7/15
4
MULTIPLE DISCIPLINES
IN AND AROUND BIOMASS CHAINS
Feedstock
•Social: employment,
food prices
•Technical/economic:
supply logistics,
•Environmental:
biodiversity, GHG
emission
Pretreatment
•Social: location and
organisation
•Technical: scale of
technology, need
for maintenance
•Environment/
economic: logistics,
efficiency
Governance
of direction(s) and pace
distribution of impacts
Refinery
•Technical;
Efficiency of
conversion
•Environmental:
emissions,
possibility to use
all material
streams
Use (eg transport,
heat)
•Technical;
Efficiency of
conversion
•Environmental:
emissions,
possibility to use
all material
streams
Choices and structures in the
chain
5
ASSESSING OR DISCUSSING SUSTAINABILITY
Level:
 Product, process, feedstock, value chain, policy or strategy, region,
business.
Purpose:
 Certification, comparison for business internal choice, comparison for
business external information (marketing or customer/ actor influence),
identification of fields of improvement.
Tools and instruments:
 LCA, process assessment (ISO), input output modelling, scenarios,
analysis of interests or convictions of stakeholders, economic
modelling, game theory etc.
6
RELEVANT EXPERTISE AT UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE












Production process: TNW, CTW
Green chemistry: TNW
LCA analysis (waterfootprint): CTW
governance models, niche management, support of implementation
process: MB /IGS
Study of social issues, development: MB
Economic and business modelling, logistics: MB, CTW
Geo-information science, measuring of vegetation: ITC
Philosophy of society -technology interaction; ethics, understanding
processes of societal transformation: Behavioural Science
Research methods for social data gathering and analysis
Sector structures, networks, political influence
Green Energy Initiative
Sustainable campus
21/7/15
7
MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
 Multiple disciplines, multiple researchers
 Starting point: should each be expert in their own field of expertise or
support generalists?
 Barriers to multidisciplinary research
 different scientific approaches,
 different target groups (industry, government, science)
- implications for expected outputs, objectives of research, practical use
 How to define an innovative research topic?
 How to create synergy?
 How to build up a field of multidisciplinary expertise?
21/7/15
8
BUILDING UP A STRUCTURAL MULTIDISCPLINARY FIELD
OF EXPERTISE
ORGANISATION FORMS
 Starting point: ‘outward’ looking experts with multidisciplinary experience
define topics and moderate synergy
AND/OR
 Calls for proposals define topics, synergy is not planned but facilitated
through organised discussion
 Small/ad hoc: joint education/PhD/ postdoc supervision and small
projects facilitate growth of multidisciplinary expertise and shared
language between disciplines
AND/OR
 Structure for expertise: one UT approach as basis for linking research
21/7/15
9
ARE YOU INTERESTED?
 Which research questions in the field of biomass are relevant for yourself
and your contacts (especially stakeholders in the chain)?
 Which expertise do you have/which fields of expertise would you like to
link to with regards to sustainability (of biomass)?
 Which organisation forms would trigger and support you?
 [email protected]
21/7/15
10