Fuel for Life: University of Copenhagen launches major bioenergy research program
The University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Natural Sciences have launched a major bioenergy and biofuel research and education program called 'Fuel for Life'.
The political focus on bioenergy has recently increased, and both the Danish government’s Globalisation Fund [*.pdf] and the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme have earmarked large sums for research on the conversion of biomass to energy, bioproducts and biofuels. It is the ambition of the Faculty of Life Sciences to become a powerhouse within this field, also internationally.
To achieve this aim, the University of Copenhagen has made available large resources: almost 50 new research and PhD. positions, two new academic curricula on bioenergy starting on the 1st of September and a wide range of cooperation agreements with industrial players already active in the bioenergy sector, such as Statoil, Dong Energy and Novozymes.
The 'Fuel for Life' project was presented in Tåstrup, west of Copenhagen, where Europe’s first sustainable fields for the integrated production of biofuels, animal feed and biomaterials are located:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: bioeconomy :: Denmark ::
The faculty of Life Sciences possesses a unique combination of competences within farming, forestry, plant breeding, production systems, planning, development aid, environmental economy and organics, all competences that are supplemented by teams of scientists from other faculties at the University of Copenhagen as well as other institutions in Denmark. The interdisciplinary focus area 'Fuel for Life' brings together these research environments of the University of Copenhagen in a joint effort to develop sustainable production of bioenergy.
The project will organise monthly scientific seminars on bioenergy. These bioenergy seminars are a forum in which to present an inter-disciplinary audience with an overview of bioenergy topics as well as debate new ideas. Presentations will be in English and will be published at the project website. So check back often. Topics of recent seminars included 'New crops for bioenergy', 'Production systems' and 'Bioenergy and landuse'.
The academic interest and education in biofuels and bioenergy has skyrocketed over the past years. According to a recent study by the Bioenergy Network of Excellence (NoE), a European group of eight leading bioenergy institutes sponsored by the EU, Masters and PhD courses in bioenergy have been introduced at a lightning pace at European universities over the last five years: 55 out of the 60 Masters courses surveyed began between 2000 and 2005 (earlier post).
References:
University of Copenhagen: Fuel for Life project website.
The political focus on bioenergy has recently increased, and both the Danish government’s Globalisation Fund [*.pdf] and the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme have earmarked large sums for research on the conversion of biomass to energy, bioproducts and biofuels. It is the ambition of the Faculty of Life Sciences to become a powerhouse within this field, also internationally.
To achieve this aim, the University of Copenhagen has made available large resources: almost 50 new research and PhD. positions, two new academic curricula on bioenergy starting on the 1st of September and a wide range of cooperation agreements with industrial players already active in the bioenergy sector, such as Statoil, Dong Energy and Novozymes.
We have spent 10,000 years on optimizing growth of crops for food and animal feed, but now we can start using the part that we don’t eat for energy. Denmark has the potential to produce two to four times more bioenergy than the EU requires. - professor Claus Felby from the Faculty of Life Sciences, Copenhagen University.The EU's binding target is to have 20% of all its energy coming from renewables, including bioenergy, by 2020. In the transport sector, 10% of all fuels must be biofuels, by 2020. Denmark thinks it can easily meet and surpass these targets and the 'Fuel for Life' program will contribute to achieving these goals.
The 'Fuel for Life' project was presented in Tåstrup, west of Copenhagen, where Europe’s first sustainable fields for the integrated production of biofuels, animal feed and biomaterials are located:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: bioeconomy :: Denmark ::
The faculty of Life Sciences possesses a unique combination of competences within farming, forestry, plant breeding, production systems, planning, development aid, environmental economy and organics, all competences that are supplemented by teams of scientists from other faculties at the University of Copenhagen as well as other institutions in Denmark. The interdisciplinary focus area 'Fuel for Life' brings together these research environments of the University of Copenhagen in a joint effort to develop sustainable production of bioenergy.
The project will organise monthly scientific seminars on bioenergy. These bioenergy seminars are a forum in which to present an inter-disciplinary audience with an overview of bioenergy topics as well as debate new ideas. Presentations will be in English and will be published at the project website. So check back often. Topics of recent seminars included 'New crops for bioenergy', 'Production systems' and 'Bioenergy and landuse'.
The academic interest and education in biofuels and bioenergy has skyrocketed over the past years. According to a recent study by the Bioenergy Network of Excellence (NoE), a European group of eight leading bioenergy institutes sponsored by the EU, Masters and PhD courses in bioenergy have been introduced at a lightning pace at European universities over the last five years: 55 out of the 60 Masters courses surveyed began between 2000 and 2005 (earlier post).
References:
University of Copenhagen: Fuel for Life project website.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home