Sustainable energy, keeping the score. Part 1: The role of biomass
After a few decades of research and development a halfway score is meaningful and, on headlines, very well feasible. For various reasons wind and biomass are showing their limits. Solar energy still has a big upward potential. Other sustainable sources for energy, such as tidal streams, geothermal energy or white electricity are within reach for
Sustainability requires another corporate decision making model
Corporate strategies are a shaky basis for getting society on a sustainable track. They may change, if other strategies would incur more profit. The green CEO may be replaced by a more traditional one. The company may be acquired by a party that does not value sustainability. In order to promote sustainable companies as much
Phosphorus recovery, an urgent matter
Phosphorus is an essential element in the formation of vegetal and animal biomass. But whereas living organisms can use oxygen and nitrogen from the air for their processes, phosphorus is only available as a mineral, in the form of phosphate. The resources are limited – enough for some decades of use – and many of
Biofuels hardly competed with food production, so far
ILUC may have been nonexistent in 2000-2010 – the surprising result of our research at Biomass Research, using statistics that were not before analysed for this goal. Yes, farmers grew much more biofuel crops. But this was more than compensated for by multiple cropping mainly in tropical areas, and by reuse of fallow land. Farmers
Thinking beyond shale gas
In the past few weeks, public discussion on shale gas in the Netherlands attained a new peak. Water utilities and brewers publicly favour a moratorium in view of risks for ground water supplies, and the Union of Chemical Industries asks for compensation because our competiveness would be at stake. In public sessions on shale gas,
Sustainability a difficult issue even in the biobased economy
Sustainability – here to stay, or the issue of the day? We think it is here to stay. All the more important to be very critical about sustainability, and the meaning attributed to it by stakeholders. Do you remember how the general mood embraced biofuels, just ten years ago? The idea was that we would
In search of sustainable materials
Plexiglas emits 2½ kilos of CO2 per kilogram of product, Geo and I find. We looked it up on the internet. Glass is much less CO2-efficient, 8.4 kilos of CO2 per kilogram of glass. Unless one uses recycled glass, then the number is a mere 1.4. And PLA emits just ½ kilo, manufacturers aim to
Much romanticism in the food/fuel discussion
There is a lot of emotion in the food/fuel discussion. Of course in the disguise of academic arguments, and supplied with discourses on LCA and ILUC, but nevertheless firmly rooted in the necessity of a daily bowl of rice for the poor fellow citizen, and in conservation of the earth. Fine starting points. One can
