The government of Ukraine has adopted the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) with clear goals and a roadmap to facilitate its energy transition towards renewable sources. This is done because of both climate concerns as well as reasons related to Ukraine’s foreign policy which led the government to decide that Ukraine should work more on its own energy independence. Currently the percentage of renewable energy sources in Ukraine is among the lowest of the entire Europe and there is only slow development in terms of the growth of the sector, even though there is a lot of available biomass, given the large and flat surface of the country with a well-developed agricultural sector. As in most countries in the world, there is a quite intensive and well-developed debate in Ukraine about the energy sector, energy usage and the necessary transition towards more renewable types of energy. One of the consequences of it is that Ukraine is one of the partner countries in the Paris agreement and committed itself to reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the future. That means that a transformation towards renewable energy is needed, even though currently in Ukraine only a low percentage of energy is generated by sustainable sources. The general picture is that in Ukraine the development of the renewable energy sector is going not as fast as could have been. In other words, there are several barriers present that hinder the energy transition. One of the issues behind such a barrier may be a limited access to technology, or problems with legislation or other issues which may be unknown so far, but certainly relevant for foreign investors. The Ukrainian government adopted the so-called Renewable Energy Directive (RED), set goals for the energy transition and support the transition itself. In some areas progress was made, for example in the growing number of biomass fired boilers, but still Ukraine remains one of the European countries with the lowest percentage of renewable energy production. Therefore, in order to identify currently existing barriers and help to find possible applications of new technologies in Ukraine, the Dutch Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemerschap) commissioned this study. It was done within the framework of the Partners in Business on Bioenergy program. The focus of this study is on analysing the renewable energy sector, with special attention for biomass, in the form of biomass-based heating and biomass for biofuels. Of course, other parts of the renewable energy sector such as solar and wind energy are also taken into consideration. The second part consists of a case study to determine the business case for direct processing of sugar beets with Betaprocess as a possible application of biomass to biofuel production in Ukraine. The third study is aiming at determining the amount of biomass that can safely be taken from the fields, without negatively affecting the fertility of the soil. These sub-studies mentioned in the previous paragraph offer a better understanding of the renewable energy market in general and biomass/biofuel applications in particular. This study sheds light on several important questions that entrepreneurs and/or other foreign investors may have about investing in Ukraine. Even though it is well-known that doing business in Ukraine is challenging, it is also very important to have a clear picture of the opportunities that this country offers, within the limits that nature sets, in order to avoid negative consequences like soil degradation. The objective of this report is to find out about which opportunities and barriers exist in the Ukrainian transition towards renewable energy generation, to calculate the profitability of new biomass-processing technologies as well as finding out limitations of biomass usage.
MULTIFILE
There is an urgent need for energy renovation of the existing building stock to reach the climate goals, set in Paris in 2016. Unfortunately, energy renovation rates across the EU remain at a low level of 1% per year. Moreover, the depth of the achieved energy renovation is in most cases rather shallow. Deep renovation, referring to renovation which lowers energy use with 60% or more, accounts for only 0,2% of total refurbishments. This means that both the pace and the quality of energy renovation needs to increase to achieve climate goals in 2050. In this article we identify lessons-learned from policies for energy renovation, in particular policies regarding the Energiewende in Germany. With an effective approach, combining remuneration and information, a revolutionary increase in RES-installations was brought about.
The Utrecht SBE16 Conference. From the introduction: "The conference is part of the Sustainable Built conference series and is as such considered to be part of the pre-eminent international conference series on sustainable building and construction endorsed by iiSBE, UNEP-SBO and FIDIC. The Utrecht SBE16 conference is hosted by the Centre of Expertise Smart Sustainable Cities of HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, in partnership with six Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences (Avans, Saxion, Rotterdam, The Hague, Zuyd, InHolland) and the Utrecht Sustainability Institute (USI). The Transition Zero conference provides us with a unique opportunity to meet transition professionals in urban sustainability from all over Europe and beyond and to learn about the latest developments and best (inter)national practices in urban sustainability. The rich interest in the conference, made it possible to offer research as well as practitioner-driven tracks on topics related to the conference title. The conference brought together excellent future-minded practitioners, researchers and thought leaders from the R&I community, specialists and professionals on zero energy homes and transition of the built environment."
Lightweight, renewable origin, mild processing, and facile recyclability make thermoplastics the circular construction materials of choice. However, in additive manufacturing (AM), known as 3D printing, mass adoption of thermoplastics lags behind. Upon heating into the melt, particles or filaments fuse first in 2D and successively in 3D, realizing unprecedented geometrical freedom. Despite a scientific understanding of fusion, industrial consortium experts are still confronted with inferior mechanical properties of fused weld interfaces in reality. Exemplary is early mechanical failure in patient-specific and biodegradable medical devices based on Corbion’s poly(lactides), and more technical constructs based on Mitsubishi’s poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET. The origin lies in contradictory low rate of polymer diffusion and entangling, and too high rate of crystallization that is needed to compensate insufficient entangling. Knowing that Zuyd University in close collaboration with Maastricht University has eliminated these contradictory time-scales for PLA-based systems, Corbion and Mitsubishi contacted Zuyd with the question to address and solve their problem. In previous research it has been shown that interfacial co-crystallization of alternating depositioned opposite stereo-specific PLA grades resulted in strengthening of the interface. To promote mass adoption of thermoplastics AM industries, the innovation question has been phrased as follows: What is a technically scalable route to induce toughness in additively manufactured thermoplastics? High mechanical performance translates into an intrinsic brittle to tough transition of stereocomplex reinforced AM products, focusing on fused deposition modeling. Taking the professional request on biocompatibility, engineering performance and scalability into account, the strategies in lowering the yield stress and/or increasing the network strength comprise (i) biobased and biocompatible plasticizers for stereocomplexed poly(lactide), (ii) interfacial co-crystallization of intrinsically tough polyester based materials formulations, and (iii) in-situ interfacial transesterification of recycled PET formulations.
Zuyd University and partners will develop novel coatings that contribute to a reduction in energy consumption of houses and buildings. The built environment currently consumes 46% of all energy, mainly for heating and cooling. A strong reduction is required as part of the transition towards sustainable energy. This is expressed by ambitious targets set by the Parkstad region, which has set itself the target to be energy neutral in 2040. For the Window of the Future Zuyd University (lectoraat Nanostructured Materials) and DWI (post-doc) aims to develop infrared regulating coatings that keep the heat inside in winter and outside in summer. These coatings are expected to strongly contribute to reduction of energy consumption. We will develop coating materials for application on glass windows, which are transparent for visible light to allow maximal daylight entering the building, and simultaneously regulate the transmission and reflection of IR heat. Kriya and Physee (SMEs) will advise Zuyd on technical and economic challenges related to the development of IR regulating glass windows. OMT Solutions (SME) and SGS Intron will advise on characterization and the performance validation. The need for such windows is confirmed by TNO/The Brightlands Materials Center as central challenge in their Optoelectronics program. They contribute largely to this project. Large demonstrator windows will be coated, and installed in test houses for real-life testing and quantification of the energy reduction. Zuyd (lectoraat Solar Energy in the Built Environment) will quantify the impact of smart IR regulating windows on the energy transition by comparing their impact to other available technologies, e.g. solar cells. In this quantification, Zuyd will focus on the Parkstad region. Together with Parkstad and Maastricht University (Ph.D. student), Zuyd will also quantify the socio-economic impact, and promote the societal acceptance of smart IR regulating windows.
