New Projects Kick Off to Check Merits of New Biofuels in System Perspective

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Created: Friday, 06 September 2019 09:00

Written by Anna Strom

Bio4Energy is part of five of nine projects to apply system analysis on new biofuels, recently granted by the funding programme Renewable Transportation Fuels and Systems.Bio4Energy is part of a swathe of new research projects to check whether various types of advanced biofuels can make the cut in the mix and competition with other fuels on the market. All are biofuels whose application is high in demand.

This has led the Swedish Energy Agency, in collaboration with the f3 Swedish Knowledge Centre for Renewable Transportation Fuels (f3 Centre); to create a research-funding programme called Renewable Transportation Fuels and Systems. Spanning the years 2018 through 2021, its second round of funding has just been granted, with Bio4Energy participation in five of nine projects. Little wonder then, that Bio4Energy’s coordinator at the f3 Centre is pleased.

“This is a good way to create a continuous stream of research [results] regarding the systemic conditions of technology-based projects. In Bio4Energy we are already experts at collaborating with each other, and here the collaboration can be extended to other funding programmes coordinated by the Energy Agency”, according to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., associate professor at the Luleå University of Technology in northern Sweden.

Wetterlund herself is in charge of one the newly granted projects, called Future-proof biofuels through improved use of biogenic carbon – Carbon, climate and cost efficiency (K3).

Read more: New Projects Kick Off to Check Merits of New Biofuels in System Perspective

Course Opening for Students, Industry Wanting to Place Bio-based Innovations in System Perspective

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Created: Friday, 23 August 2019 17:15

Written by Anna Strom

Bio4Energy young researchers present their ideas for new courses in the Bio4Energy Graduate School, at Skellefteå, Sweden in May 2019. Photo by Bio4Energy.Systems’ Perspectives on Biomass Resources – one of the two generic course in the Bio4Energy Graduate School for PhD and postdoctoral researchers – is set to kick off at Luleå, Sweden, in October.

The course gives an overview of methods and tools to assess the efficiency of a nascent bio-based technology from an environmental and economic perspective, and as part of the mix of technologies already on the market. It also comes with a project assignment, designed to give participants hands-on experience of applying system analysis in some form.

“The purpose of this course is to place technology-based research in perspective so that the student [specialised in a certain niche of biorefinery research] gains an understanding of the way in which his or her work fits into a larger, societal perspective,” said course coordinator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

“We want to give them methods and tools for that”, professor Lundmark added.

Systems’ Perspectives on Biomass Resources is open to PhD and postdoctoral researchers interested in biorefinery, as well as representatives of industry. See below the Bio4Energy flyer for this third edition of the course. The deadline for applications is 27 September this year.

“The expectation on those who enrol is active participation. They will be asked to bring their own research or subject of interest into the course. For instance, they can select a project they are already working on and apply system analysis to that”, Lundmark said.

Attachments:

Course flyer_Systems' Perspectives on Biomass Resources_Bio4Energy©2019

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Holiday Greetings from Bio4Energy

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Created: Wednesday, 17 July 2019 19:46

Written by Anna Strom

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New Leader for Bio4Energy System Analysis & Bioeconomy

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Created: Thursday, 20 June 2019 16:15

Written by Anna Strom

Economist Robert Lundmark will be heading the R&D platform Bio4Energy System Analysis and Bioeconomy. Photo by courtesy of the Luleå University of Technology.The research and development platform Bio4Energy System Analysis and Bioeconomy has a new leader.

In so doing, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., professor of Economics at the Luleå University of Technology, is taking over the reins of an all-important entity in Bio4Energy—made up of 30 researchers at three universities—whose members have the responsibility to assess whether the R&D carried out by the rest of the research environment are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.

“You could say that our role is to highlight results from the other Bio4Energy platforms [that develop biorefinery technologies] and put them in a system’s context. Conversely, we put research questions and are able to suggest avenues of research for the other platforms. It is give and take”, Lundmark said.

Unlike his colleague and predecessor, LTU professor This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Lundmark is an economist, but with a focus on natural resources.

“My focal area is the interface between forest and energy issues, assessing the cost of various uses of forest raw materials and bioenergy”.

Having clinched his PhD at LTU in northern Sweden, Lundmark went onto undertake postdoctoral studies at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. Northern Sweden wanted him back, however. Lundmark became senior lecturer at the university from which he had graduated, promoted in 2011 to be a professor.

He has been part of Bio4Energy from the start in 2010, and was a member of the previous Process Integration Platform, for the first five years.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., on the same R&D platform but at Umeå University, will second him and be a coordinator for platform researchers based at Umeå.

Read more: New Leader for Bio4Energy System Analysis & Bioeconomy

Sweden's Progress Towards Bioeconomy Showcased at Conference

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Created: Thursday, 13 June 2019 14:16

Written by Anna Strom

Bio4Energy was at BioBase 2019, a conference at Piteå, Sweden designed to show the country's progress in the transition towards a bioeconomy and challenges that lie ahead. The 250 attendees were a variety of stakeholders to the bioenergy and biorefinery sector in Sweden and about 10 other countries. Bio4Energy had its own session on Tailored Trees, Improved Growth and New Products – Towards a Bioeconomy.

“As Bio4Energy we contributed by showing how the cooperation between our universities and institutes can contribute to strengthen the development of a bio-based economy. Our work covers the entire [biorefinery] value chain”, said This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.who coordinated Bio4Energy’s presence at the event.

“We were able to show that we have developed processes and built networks that make us well placed to go into the future. The products in our product portfolio are such that industry and society want”, according to Rova, who is Bio4Energy deputy programme manager and a professor at the Luleå University of Technology.

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New Strategic Collaboration Projects Unveiled at Mini Conference

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Created: Friday, 17 May 2019 16:00

Written by Anna Strom

This month about 45 Bio4Energy scientists and student researchers met at Skellefteå, Sweden, to hear about newly granted, multiannual, beyond state-of-the art projects designed to:

- Grow trees whose wood more easily renders its cellulose, in view of making biofuel or other bio-based products;
- Extract specialty chemicals from bark from connifers;
- Design biochars for specific uses, for instance as absorbent of toxic substances from waste water and to;
- Examine the gas phase of thermal conversion of biomass to ascertain whether phosphorous may be captured and reused. 

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Attachments:

Cheaper methanol production with alkali impregnation and novel syngas cleaning	[Xiaoyan Ji, Bio4Energy System Analysis and Bioeconomy]	744 kB
Bio-based carbon nanofibres likely cheaper	[Jiayuan Wei, Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies]	1811 kB
Bio4Energy partner in iniative to green airline fuel	[Leif Jönsson, Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies]	131 kB
Ionic liquids could replace expensive gas cleaning process	[Fredrik Weiland, Bio4Energy Thermochemical Conversion Technologies]	1609 kB
Is wood ash from biomass combustion always hazardous waste?	[Johan Ingri, Bio4Energy Environment and Nutrient Recycling]	2136 kB

Read more: New Strategic Collaboration Projects Unveiled at Mini Conference

Method to Raise Yields, Reduce Risk in Biofuel Making, Attracting Global Attention

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Created: Wednesday, 27 March 2019 16:59

Written by Anna Strom

For their verification experiments, the Bio4Energy researchers used the Biorefinery Demonstration Plant, at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. Photo by courtesy of RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.Late 2015, Bio4Energy researchers unveiled a series of articles describing how to raise yields in biofuel making by decreasing the impact of toxic substances generated in the pre-treatment step of biochemical conversion to fuels and chemicals, by using reducing agents. Their work, targeting advanced biofuel production from woody raw materials—sometimes referred to as the biorefinery of the future—has received a great amount of attention from researchers all over the world.

Mid-March this year, the main scientific article in the series, giving a review of research in the area and outlining the new method, had received over 400 citations in other scientific articles written by researchers worldwide. This is more than 20 times the average of articles published in the prestigious Bioresource Technology journal, which carried the review, according to co-author Carlos Martín of Umeå University. Martín and his co-author This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. are leading figures on the research and development platform Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies.

“Friends and colleagues from all over the world sent their congratulations. Yesterday [25 March] we had received 410 citations. A lot of people have been asking for full-text papers”, a smiling Martín said.

Read more: Method to Raise Yields, Reduce Risk in Biofuel Making, Attracting Global Attention

Season's Greetings from Bio4Energy

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Created: Sunday, 30 December 2018 20:26

Written by Anna Strom

When the ice will not quite settle on the lake: Season's Greetings from Bio4Energy of Sweden. Photo by Anna Strom© 2018.

Happy New Year!

Read more: Season's Greetings from Bio4Energy