Biogas plays an important role in many future renewable energy scenarios as a source of storable and easily extracted form of renewable energy. However, there remains uncertainty as to which sources of biomass can provide a net energy gain while being harvested in a sustainable, ecologically friendly manner. This study will focus on the utilization of common, naturally occurring grass species which are cut during landscape management and typically treated as a waste stream. This waste grass can be valorized through co-digestion with cow manure in a biogas production process. Through the construction of a biogas production model based on the methodology proposed by (Pierie, Moll, van Gemert, & Benders, 2012), a life cycle analysis (LCA) has been performed which determines the impacts and viability of using common grass in a digester to produce biogas. This model performs a material and energy flow analysis (MEFA) on the biogas production process and tracks several system indicators (or impact factors), including the process energy return on energy investment ((P)EROI), the ecological impact (measured in Eco Points), and the global warming potential (GWP, measured in terms of kg of CO2 equivalent). A case study was performed for the village of Hoogkerk in the north-east Netherlands, to determine the viability of producing a portion of the village’s energy requirements by biogas production using biomass waste streams (i.e. common grass and cow manure in a co-digestion process). This study concludes that biogas production from common grass can be an effective and sustainable source of energy, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and negative environmental impacts when compared to alternate methods of energy production, such as biogas produced from maize and natural gas production.
Today, only a limited number of entrepreneurs and managers are facing up to the relevance of sustainability issues and the ways in which these may affect their own businesses. Even fewer entrepreneurs and managers see sustainability as a potential source of profit. These are the findings resulting from research carried out by Nyenrode Business Universiteit among well over 500 entrepreneurs and managers.
MULTIFILE
“Critical Making in Collaboration with Nature”, discusses the outcomes of the Making Sustainability Work project from Fall 2020. With support of CoECI Zaaigelden scheme, the Critical Making learning community put together a group of makers from research, education and industry to explore the implications of designing with natural materials and biological processes, such as biopolymers, fungal composites and bacteria dye. By following a selection of modules from the Fabricademy global training program, participants explored hands-on techniques to create their own design materials and colours from renewable and biodegradable resources and documented their journeys. The shared experience was reflected upon in a series of interviews and essays touching on the following questions: • In what way do unruly natural materials challenge ways of doing and teaching design? • How do grown materials fit into or challenge makers’ goals of sustainability?• What is needed to bring biological processes into communities of practice in the field of design, art and making?• How and when does criticality emerge in the making process? • How do processes of thinking and doing intersect and what is the role of social interactions and collaboration?
