Sustainability of bioenergy production

This project initialised spring 2007 will develop and apply quantitative models for evaluating sustainability of energy production from agriculture taking into account biomass production (e.g. growing system), technologies to convert biomass into different types of energy and recycling of residues and products. Sensitivity of model conclusions will be studied by comparing different models and systems as well as by including statistical uncertainties of input data.

Special emphasis will be on quantitative models which focus on ecological sustainability and consider resource use efficiency, the degree of dependency on external resources and the load placed on the environment as decisive measures of the long term sustainability of economies and production processes. Also mainstream energy system models will be applied.

The project is part of an interdisciplinary collaboration between

1. a group at the Biosystems Department with a long established expertise on the agro-ecosystem and modeling biological interactions, and a strong network with Danish and international agricultural research, and
2. a group at the Systems Analysis Department with a long established expertise on analysis of energy systems and energy technologies and a strong network with international organizations.

Employees involved:
Senior research specialist,  Hanne Østergård, Biosystems (project leader)
Postdoc, Ingeborg Callesen, Biosystems
Senior scientist, Poul Erik Grohnheit, Systems Analysis

Resources:
Risø funding

Duration:
2007-2010