Saturday, March 11, 2006
My Thesis on Biofuels
Kyle and Cesar and I make up one thesis group here in the program. We're also known as the "biofuel heads".
Our topic is about the biofuel industry in North America and Brasil, and how it might be developed sustainably. Please read the following background on our topic.
Sustainability Opportunities and Challenges of Global Biofuel Development
With concern over the current reliance on fossil fuel resources, their future shortage, and alarm over climate change from releases of C02 by the burning of fossil fuels, interest in alternative energy sources continues to grow. Biofuels, such as ethanol from sugar cane, and biodiesel from canola crops, are renewable, do not contribute to climate change, and could be a step in the right direction toward sustainability.
Switching to biofuels represents an action that may be part of the solution to meeting renewable energy demand without contributing to climate change, however without a systems perspective, biofuels cannot be developed strategically or sustainably.
The term "systems perspective" comes from the science of Systems Thinking that deals with understanding connections and relations between seemingly isolated things. It can also be thought of as taking a problem apart and putting it back together in order to understand it's parts and feedback relationships.
Our research aims to examine how the biofuel sector can be developed sustainably using a form of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). LCA is an approach that looks at all the production processes of biodiesel "from cradle to grave" to determine environmental and social impacts, primarily by looking at whether these processes violate the 4 system conditions of The Natural Step framework* (see below). After assessing the current unsustainability of the industry, we then go on to envisioning a future of sustainable biofuel production, and finally steps to get there (also known as "backcasting").
This research will also engage a Canadian biodiesel company by involving them in the creation of a Template for Sustainable Product Development for large-scale biodiesel production. The completed template is a generic tool to assist others in the biodiesel industry in producing their product sustainably.
Since the biofuel industry has already been producing large-scale for decades, particularly in Brasil, a review of mistakes made and lessons learned will be included in this research. Criteria for the production of biofuel will also be created, along with some first steps towards sustainable biofuel development.
We will only focus on biofuels with respect to the transportation sector, excluding other sectors such as the domestic energy sector.
We have two thesis advisors: Mr Henrik Ny, PhD student, School of Mechanical Engineering, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sweden (also known as "The Tango King"), and Ms Sophie Byggeth, PhD student, School of Mechanical Engineering, also here at BTH.
* The 4 System Conditions, very briefly:
In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing…
1. Concentrations of substances extracted from the
Earth’s crust.
2. Concentrations of substances produced by society.
3. Degradation by physical means.
4. And, in that society human needs are met worldwide.
Our topic is about the biofuel industry in North America and Brasil, and how it might be developed sustainably. Please read the following background on our topic.
Sustainability Opportunities and Challenges of Global Biofuel Development
With concern over the current reliance on fossil fuel resources, their future shortage, and alarm over climate change from releases of C02 by the burning of fossil fuels, interest in alternative energy sources continues to grow. Biofuels, such as ethanol from sugar cane, and biodiesel from canola crops, are renewable, do not contribute to climate change, and could be a step in the right direction toward sustainability.
Switching to biofuels represents an action that may be part of the solution to meeting renewable energy demand without contributing to climate change, however without a systems perspective, biofuels cannot be developed strategically or sustainably.
The term "systems perspective" comes from the science of Systems Thinking that deals with understanding connections and relations between seemingly isolated things. It can also be thought of as taking a problem apart and putting it back together in order to understand it's parts and feedback relationships.
Our research aims to examine how the biofuel sector can be developed sustainably using a form of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). LCA is an approach that looks at all the production processes of biodiesel "from cradle to grave" to determine environmental and social impacts, primarily by looking at whether these processes violate the 4 system conditions of The Natural Step framework* (see below). After assessing the current unsustainability of the industry, we then go on to envisioning a future of sustainable biofuel production, and finally steps to get there (also known as "backcasting").
This research will also engage a Canadian biodiesel company by involving them in the creation of a Template for Sustainable Product Development for large-scale biodiesel production. The completed template is a generic tool to assist others in the biodiesel industry in producing their product sustainably.
Since the biofuel industry has already been producing large-scale for decades, particularly in Brasil, a review of mistakes made and lessons learned will be included in this research. Criteria for the production of biofuel will also be created, along with some first steps towards sustainable biofuel development.
We will only focus on biofuels with respect to the transportation sector, excluding other sectors such as the domestic energy sector.
We have two thesis advisors: Mr Henrik Ny, PhD student, School of Mechanical Engineering, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sweden (also known as "The Tango King"), and Ms Sophie Byggeth, PhD student, School of Mechanical Engineering, also here at BTH.
* The 4 System Conditions, very briefly:
In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing…
1. Concentrations of substances extracted from the
Earth’s crust.
2. Concentrations of substances produced by society.
3. Degradation by physical means.
4. And, in that society human needs are met worldwide.
# posted by kate @ 1:43 PM 
