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| 22 jul 2013 |
03:23 |
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From popcorn to plastics
Working towards a biobased economy is one possible step toward creating a more sustainable society in Flanders. This means using renewable resources as much as possible to produce materials and energy. The optimal use of (waste) from food production and food crops will be an important part of this evolution.
The creative combination of various valorisation trajectories can lead to a more profitable use of plant production.
The question is, can crops can valorised in various trajectories in a sustainable way? Starting with a case study on maize, ILVO is studying how to optimise the entire food production chain to realise this goal.
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In Flanders we are striving to evolve into a more sustainable society, by further developing a biobased economy, amongst others. The biobased economy makes use of renewable resources for the production of materials and energy. Optimal use of (by-) products from food and feed crops will be necessary for this evolution. A creative combination of different valorisation trajectories could lead to a more profitable crop production. The question remains, however, how crops can be sustainably valorised through various trajectories.
The aim of this PhD research is to find a balanced answer to this question by accounting for the different components of sustainability: the ecological as well as the social and economic. Because these components are not only influenced at the farm level, but also by the entire value chain, the problem statement has to be approached from an integral chain perspective. By further refining the collaborating between the agricultural and processing industry, the production process can be organised more efficiently and more sustainably.
Maize will be the subject of a case study. Maize is not only an important economic crop for Flanders, but it also has numerous applications in the food, feed, chemical and energy sector. In the final stage of the project, the developed instrument will be further generalised to make it applicable to different crops.
This research combines two methods: exergetic life cycle analysis (ELCA) and agent based modeling (ABM).
ELCA enables the identification of chain inefficiencies as well as the determination of the environmental impact of several activities and processes. This makes it possible to ecologically optimise the value chain.
ABM makes it possible to investigate the behavior of different actors in the chain depending on the circumstances, as well as potential cooperation strategies between chain partners. This enables optimisation of the chain from a socio-economic perspective.
The combination of these two methods results into an integral chain valorisation instrument that optimises the entire value chain from the ecological and economic perspective.
This PhD research will result in an integral chain valorisation instrument that compares and combines the different valorisation pathways of farmers and processors. This will enable chain members to make more balanced choices, economically and ecologically optimising the chain.
Project: “Development of an integral chain valorisation instrument for sustainable crop production streams”
Financing: ILVO Own Capital, ILVO PhD scholarship
Duration: May 2013 - May 2017
Collaboration: The PhD research is part of an interdepartmental ILVO collaboration. This PhD student collaborates closely with two other doctoral studies:
PhD 1: Development of an exergy based measure and evaluation instrument for the steering towards sustainable agricultural production (2011-2015) and PhD 2: Exergo-economic evaluation of crop production with the aim of sustainable bio-economic valorisation (2013-2017)
Contact: Anouk Mertens, Koen Mondelaers
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