BETA-EBM · Biomass Energy Technology Assessment - Environmental Burden Minimisation

‘Bio Energy Technology Assessment – Environmental Burden Minimisation (BETA-EBM)’ is primarily a training-through-research project with a forward-looking and truly multidisciplinary scope, covering two broad components – i. Sustainability science (urban waste management, renewable bio energy and environmental management); ii. Socio-economic transition (building resilient and self-sufficient local communities through promotion of waste- and energy-grid independence). The specific training elements of this IoF would extend the Fellow’s expertise in assessing systems scale environmental performance of small size, albeit high-tech, Anaerobic Digestion (AD) system, deemed to be rising in demand in Europe - both for urban waste management and valorisation. These are embedded in three key objectives, aspiring to demonstrate the ‘proof of concept’ through collaboration between the international and the UK host institutions and to facilitate skills development in evaluation of the current practice by ascertaining – i. the environmental impact/s from process enhancement via acidification and methanation for utilising urban domestic waste as substrate in a small-scale AD system; ii. the potentials for environmental burden reduction using process enhancement; iii. the potentials for environmentally savvy, distributed AD installation for community and industrial deployment in Europe (in terms of cost-efficient installations fulfilling environmental compliance at systems scale). It aims to develop shared knowledge through research training and networking at an international forum. This would potentially lead to numerous pathways in addressing the underpinning environmental issues in municipal/industrial biowaste valorisation for energy self-sufficiency through assessment of a range of environmental management options and their incentivisation, thereby contributing to establishment of long term viability of AD as a sustainable solution to future waste and energy crises.