Rikke Lybæk

Discovering market opportunities for future CDM projects in Asia based on biomass combined heat and power production and supply of district heating

Highly-efficient and renewable energy technologies in Asia are required in the future, in order to supply the amounts of energy needed in the growing economies and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Combined heat and power (CHP) from biomass with supply of district heating (hot water) to households in Denmark makes the Danish energy sector one of the most efficient in the world. Efficient biomass-fuelled CHP technologies adopted in the North can be implemented in Asian countries with substantial environmental benefits. This article analyses opportunities for setting up such efficient energy supply systems in hot Asian countries, which lack heat demand in their households. The article identifies alternative “heat markets” by exploring opportunities for efficient supply of district heating to the industrial sector. Through a case-study conducted in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand, the article shows how this can be established technically, and be financially supported in practice through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The article further analyses options for local manufacturing of CHP technologies, etc., in countries in the South (exemplified by Thailand), to support the implementation of biomass-based CHP with supply of district heating in the future energy supply of Asia.

Opinions on the Sustainable Development of Aquaculture

It is widely acknowledged that aquaculture represents the fastest growing food sector with an annual growth of approximately 10% [1]. Given the high growth rate of this sector, we must look to achieve a sustainable long-term production for the sake of the coming generations. Here we provide our opinion whereby we emphasize the need to rely and build on existing knowledge and studies, both social and environmental, as well as increasing state-of-the-art technologies on aquaculture practices. This will help to mitigate the potential impacts not only on the environment, but also on society at large, and will therefore ensure long-term sustainability. The aquaculture sector is a key industry providing a valuable food source to our increasing global population. Aquaculture, however, may also be a sector of activity which has significantly negative impacts on the environment, if not carried out in a sustainable way. One issue, for example, is the mass production of formulated feed which often contains natural fish products (fish meals and fish oils). The increasing demand for aquaculture feed (and other pet-feed) generates a high demand for fish, resulting sometimes in over-fishing of important fish stocks, thus indirectly affecting the overall sustainability of other marine resources [2].The industry is also regularly attributed to affect the natural environment drastically because of poor environmental practices. The excessive use of antibiotics, chemicals, and the intentional or unintentional destruction of important aquatic habitats such as mangroves, estuaries, and fjords; all important nursery grounds for wild fish stocks may also be generated if the industry develops without controls and regulations. Nevertheless, poor aquaculture practices may also affect nature besides the aquaculture industry itself by negatively altering aquatic resources through pollution of water bodies and sediments, inherently reducing the ecosystem carrying capacity. A number of notable negative events have occurred over the last decades that are associated with the aquaculture sector, most markedly the cases of widespread disease outbreaks. This has challenged the aquaculture sector everywhere across a range of farmed and wild organisms. Examples include infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV), Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Syndrome (AHPNS, also known as Early Mortality Syndrome or EMS) and regular Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs) occurring worldwide, generating fish and shellfish mass mortality or aquaculture products unfit for consumption [3,4]. Not only are such cases difficult for the farmers from an economical perspective (bankruptcy), but they also affect local communities which rely on the production and marketing of aquaculture products. This particular societal effect is even more important in areas where aquaculture is run as a “mom and pop business” and where cash flow is a crucial parameter that is not supported by international investments such as in large aquaculture farms. The disease control within the aquaculture industry, the social and environmental effects that are generated by aquaculture productions can be mitigated and managed by changing the industry’s habits from the initial planning stages through to the commercialization of aquaculture products. The solutions differ from one location to another, and are tied to the developmental stages of the sector in the various regions. The solution lies in the use of adapted legal framework which should be in line with social structures and environmental conditions, and the application of Best Aquaculture Technologies (BAT) such as state-of-the-art water treatment systems, water management tools, and means by which to firstly identify, then secondly to minimize and eliminate or mitigate disease occurrence and spread. Stakeholders such as government authorities, environmental companies, nature protection agencies, farmers and aquaculture associations, research institutes, not-for-profit companies, technology providers, and NGOs should ideally work together to ensure that such poor practices are an exception to the norm, and do not become the standard.

Development, Operation, and Future Prospects for Implementing Biogas Plants: The Case of Denmark

This chapter elaborates the different concepts of biogas technology understood in the Danish context. It emphasizes how energy from production of biogas is distributed, either as biogas to regional combined heat and power plants (CHP) or as district heating (DH) to small-scale local networks. The chapter provides an overview of the political situation and a historical outline of the development of the Danish biogas sector; it also presents the biogas process and operational aspects (e.g., the production of biogas, use of manure, and industrial waste as gas boosters). Advantages of biogas technology are emphasized: its capacity as a renewable energy and GHG-avoiding technology, and as a waste processing and environmental technology. It is argued that biogas can provide a future platform for the use of household waste and other types of organic materials (gas boosters) to enhance gas yield, as is the case of biomass from nature conservation, straw, deep litter, etc. Further, the chapter discusses whether or not biogas technology can create new job opportunities in rural areas that lack development. Economic results from operating centralized biogas plants in Denmark now also stress the importance of developing new gas boosters to support a further development of the biogas sector. The chapter ends with a discussion of new trends in biogas production, for example, how new organizational models can be designed as well as how the use of alternative boosters—like blue biomass—can be applied. Finally, biogas is discussed in the global and European contexts and emphasis is given to the need for digesting organic waste in combination with manure to provide valuable nutrients to farmland and also for enhancing the energy services provided by the biogas technology.

Deployment of a bio-economic 'hub' in rural Thailand by means of a Centralized biogas plant

Greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector shall be reduced to reach globally agreed COP21 goals. One option is to replace fossil based fuels with bio-based alternatives. The technical potential of biofuels made from energy crops (1st generation), biomass and waste wood (2nd generation) typically suffer from the limited technical potential of biomass resources in central Europe. Biofuel output can significantly be increased in the Power&Biomass-to-Liquid (PBtL) concept utilizing renewable electricity in modified BtL plants. The case study presents detailed results on promising process configurations of Fischer-Tropsch PBtL concepts based on different gasifiers and electrolyzers in terms of fuel production potentials, fuel costs and CO2 footprint. Results from the study indicate that the biomass specific fuel output can be quadrupled when utilizing green electricity for hydrogen generation in the PBtL process. The increased fuel output results in lower fuel production costs due to the effects of the economy of scale. Fuel production costs below 1.3 €/l were estimated for a large PBtL plant (225 kt/year) assuming an electricity price of 31.4 €/MWh (average EEX-Phelix index of the year 2015). The exergy analysis reveals that the electrolysis and the gasification processes are characterized by the most significant thermodynamic optimization potentials. The PBtL concept is characterized by a lower CO2 footprint, as high carbon conversion rates close to 100 % can be achieved by using oxy-fuel technology and recycling the entire CO2 within the system. Hence, largest CO2 emissions arise from harvesting and transportation of the biomass feedstock.

Designing models and screening biomass residues for facilitating the implementation of local biomass energy technologies

This article emphasises that biomass can be not only used to produce renewable energy, but also to recover and re-use all types of biomass residues from various sources, and to select energy technologies and systems that allow for the most optimal use of these resources. It focuses on the importance of seeking the highest environmental benefits possible from the use of biomass residues. We argue that this can be achieved by applying the principles of Industrial Ecology in the design of models to enable a transformation to the use of biomass for energy production in local communities. This article develops four such energy-and-business models to be adopted by communities, each dependent on the local context and type of biomass available. The article further exemplifies a screening of relevant biomass residues appropriate for energy production, which might be available in a Chinese context, and thus be utilized in one of the four models developed.

Policy recommendations and stakeholder identification in supporting a new category of biomass CHP project in Thailand through CDM

This paper suggests a new category of CDM projects to be developed, which includes several different types of energy supply and demand activities. The CDM project exemplified here has the capacity to assist in a transformation of the energy supply system in Asia, considering Thailand in this paper. The new category of CDM projects is not yet implemented, but here suggested on the basis of thorough analysis of a community of SMEs located in an Industrial Park in Thailand. The paper shortly presents a small scale biomass Combined Heat and Power plant (CHP) with supply of district heating, and outline the benefits obtained in this specific community applying the new energy supply system. To support the implementation of such transformative energy technologies and systems, and thus to disseminate the project idea in Thailand, the paper suggests a whole range of policy recommendations, which could support such type of energy system development within the framework of CDM. A stakeholder identification is also carried out, with the purpose of identifying CDM project ‘carriers’ for supporting the implementation of this type of CDM projects in Thailand. The specific case addressed in this paper illustrates among others that heat demand within Thai SMEs could be reduced by 36 %, and solely be based on biomass waste from the community. Also, important stakeholders to support such energy system development in Thailand are identified.