At RenQi, a laboratory founded by Gasunie, TNO and Hanze University of Applied Science, R&D projects are carried out to contribute to a sustainable energy future. Stakeholders over the value chain, from fundamental research to the development of business models cooperate in an “open innovation” setting.
A unique way of teaching practical aspects of renewable energy technologies has been experimented in the University of Oldenburg since 1987. An energy laboratory (Energielabor), built in 1982 and powered by renewable energy sources, has been used for practical training, lectures and office space for the staff and students engaged in the field of renewable energy at the University. After 30 years of service, this Energielabor requires revision and needs to be rebuilt to meet the needs of present age. In this direction, as part of a module named 'Case Study', PPRE masters' students assessed the locally available renewable energy resources and estimated the energy demand for a newly proposed design for the upcoming new Energielabor. This paper presents the first results of these energy demand and resource assessments, along with highlighting the didactical concepts and motivations behind the newly proposed design.
This paper describes innovation in existing and future Master’s degree education in renewable energy at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen (Hanze UAS). Interrelationships between research and industry are significant within this education. Clearly illustrated by development of the Energy Transition Centre (EnTranCe), this facility at Hanze UAS uses open innovation to accelerate the application and functionality of technology. Enabling consumers to become producers (prosumers) is central to the approach to energy transition in Groningen. The city is located next to the largest natural gas field in Europe. As the fuel most suited to balancing the intermittent character of renewable energy sources, it is central to the technical approach at Hanze UAS. With the coming of the Energy Academy Europe and inclusion of Hanze UAS within the European Renewable Energy Research Centres Agency, Groningen is an international partner in education and perfectly positioned to innovatively assist energy transition.
Introduction The research group Biobased Resources & Energy (BRE) of Avans focusses on recovery of valuable building blocks from low-value solid and liquid residual streams from agriculture, households and industries. For the valorisation of these residual streams, BRE looks into different biological, chemical and mechanical processes. One of the main issues in the utilisation of residual streams is economic feasibility and the recovery of multiple resources from one residual stream. Using membrane technologies in combination with biological, chemical and/or mechanical processes could offer great opportunities. Central Research Question What is the applicability of membrane technologies for valorisation of different residual streams and is it possible to integrate membrane technology in current and new biorefining projects of research group BRE: Set-up In order to reach the goal of this postdoc, 4 research questions will be answered using literature search, experimentation and modelling: 1) What membrane methods are currently (commercially) available to enhance the results of current projects in research group BRE? 2) What are the essential technical parameters for membrane separation and how can these be optimized? 3) What is the economic impact of using membrane technology in recovery of valuable building blocks from residual streams? 4) What are the effects of using membranes instead of or complementary to currently used methods on the sustainability of valorisation of residual streams? Cooperation The postdoc and the research group BRE want to extend the contact and research cooperation with (regional) businesses and (applied) universities and support and facilitate the introduction and further development of membrane technologies in the curriculum of different Avans study programmes. This will be done via internships, minor projects (together with businesses) and development of study material for courses and trainings.
The project virtually breaks down a large timber structure into pieces and simultaneously simulates and tests each piece in a different laboratory or facility. In this way, unique aspects of each facility can be used at the same time. The experiments take place in a synchronized way, which is a difficult task considering 4 countries (UK, Canada, Greece and the Netherlands) will work at the same time for testing one hypothetical timber structure. Geographically distributed hybrid testing blue sky research, timber structure testing including soil-structure-interactionHYSTERESIS project aims to use geographically distributed hybrid testing for providing experimental evidence for energy dissipation and SSI response of buildings composed of mass timber and CLT panels. The project outcomes will give a boost to the efforts of building multi-story timber structures in areas with wind and/or earthquake loading conditions. The particularities of the problem in hand and the need for testing in large scale while taking into account the SSI, dictate using a novel hybrid testing approach.