Energy and Materials Demand and Efficiency

Keywords

Energy efficiency, material efficiency, energy policy, energy analysis, energy system modelling, policy instruments, policy evaluation, technology forecasting, technology dynamics.

Objective

In all economies only a few percent of the primary energy input is actually available as useful energy in the form of energy services such as space heating, lighting and mobility. To a large extent, this is due to inefficiencies of energy consuming production processes, appliances and other energy consumers. At the same time, increased efficiency of energy demand is generally recognized as the most cost-effective strategy to reduce energy requirements and the related environmental impacts (e.g. greenhouse effect). In addition, the efficiency of materials use can be clearly increased by optimized design, re-use and recycling. Reduced material use results in lower resource requirements, energy inputs and the concomitant environmental impacts. Material substitution can serve as a complementary strategy for reducing the environmental burden (e.g., by increased use of bio-based materials).

Research Co-ordinator

Other permanent staff

Junior researchers/Ph.D. students

Research objectives

The main research objectives of the Energy and Materials Demand and Efficiency (EME) cluster are:

  1. to assess the current energy and material use and the related environmental impacts of products, processes, sectors and economies;
  2. to quantify the short-term and long-term potentials for improving energy and material efficiency;
  3. to study the mechanisms leading to the development of new technology and to analyze how this process can be accelerated;
  4. to determine the main obstacles to development and implementation (e.g., costs and organizational obstacles) and to study counter-acting societal trends (economic growth and consumer patterns);
  5. to analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of policies and measures (e.g. benchmarking) and
  6. to derive recommendations for the actors concerned (policy, industry, and consumers).

To this end, the research cluster applies and develops a variety of tools (e.g., models for energy analysis and life cycle assessment) and databases (e.g. the ICARUS database). Research deals with both energy intensive and energy extensive parts of the economy. In geographical terms, the EME cluster studies developments in the Netherlands, Europe and world-wide. The temporal scope covers historical, present-day and future developments.

Projects

Selected projects at the EME cluster of STS and their relationship to the research objectives (see text above).

Partners and Client Research Objectives
Material flow analysis, emission inventories
1. NEU-CO2: Non-energy use and CO2 emissions. STS and ca. 20 network partners[1] for the European Commission's DG Research, 1999-2000, 2001-2003, 2004-2006 1, 6
2. NEAT-NL: Improvement of CO2 emission estimates from hydrocarbon feedstocks in the Netherlands. STS and ECN[2] for the Dutch Ministry of Environment and NOVEM, 2002-2003 1, 6
3. NEAT-DE: Methodenaktualisierung für die Emissionsberechnung - Nichtenergetischer Verbrauch. STS for the German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA), Berlin, 2007 1, 6
4. STEEL: Analysis of material flows, energy use and CO2 emissions in the worldwide iron and steel industry. STS for RIVM/MNP, 2003-2006 1, 6
5. DESTATIS 2008: Material and Energy Flows in the Chemical Sector by Processes and Subsectors. STS and Fraunhofer-ISI for DESTATIS
Bio-based materials
6. BREW: Medium and long-term opportunities and risks of the biotechnological production of bulk chemicals from renewable resources. STS and 14 partners[3] for the European Commission's GROWTH Programme, 2003-2006 2, 3, 4, 6
7. PRO-BIP 2009: Product overview and market projection of emerging bio-based plastics. STS for the European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence (EPNOE) and European Bioplastics, 2009 2, 4
8. PRO-BIP 2005: Techno-economic Feasibility of Large-scale Production of Bio-based Polymers in Europe. With Fraunhofer-ISI, Germany for the European Commission's Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Seville, Spain 2, 3, 4, 6
9. EPNOE: The European Polysaccharide Network EU-funded Network of Excellence on bio-based polymers (polysaccharides), co-ordinated by ARMINES-Ecole des Mines de Paris/CNRS 2, 6
10. PIE-I, -II: Process Industries - Inventory of Energy Use STS for ECN/UCE (Utrecht Centre of Energy), 2002-2004 1, 2
11 Nanofun-Poly: Nanostructures and functional polymer-based materials and nanocomposites EU-funded Network of Excellence, co-ordinated by INSTM (Italy) 2, 6
12. FYSI: Physical indicators as a basis for estimating energy savings in industry. STS for ECN (& CPB, ECN, Novem and RIVM), 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 1, 2, 5
13. VLEEM: Very Long Term Energy-Environment Model. ENERDATA and 5 partners[4] for the European Commission's DG Research, 2002-2004 1, 2, 6
14. Energy-efficiency technology for the non-energy intensive sector (project and Ph.D. thesis) Ph.D. Andrea Ramirez funded by the Netherlands’ National Science Foundation, 2001-2005 1, 2, 6
15. Monitoring Industrial Energy and Carbon Flows (thesis) Ph.D. Maarten L. Neelis, 2002-2007
16. Breakthrough technologies in chemical industry Ph.D. position (Tao Ren) funded by ECN and the Utrecht Centre for Energy (UCE), ECN/UCE, 2002-2008 2, 3, 4, 6
17. Energy Technology Transitions for Industry, book chapter on chemical industry STS for the International Energy Agency (IEA) 2
18. Learning energy efficiency: Learning curves on the cost reduction of energy efficiency goods. STS for the International Energy Agency (IEA)
19. White & Green: Innovative policies and measures for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Lund University, Italian Association of Energy Economists, Sydkraft and STS for European Commission's DG Research, 2003-2004 5,4,1,2
20. Leakage & Spillover: Carbon leakages and induced technological change, the negative and positive spill-over impacts of stringent climate change policy. ECN, Free Univ. of Amsterdam, Wageningen University, STS for the National Research Programme Climate Change (NRP-CC)-WAB, 2004 1, 2, 6
21. EPIST: Relationship between economic and physical growth. UCE, STS, Ecofys, ECN and MNP for the programme "Scientific Assessment and Policy Analysis Climate Change (WAB)." 1, 2, 6
 
[1] Co-ordinated by STS. Other funded partners are ENEA (Italy), Avonlog (UK), IIÖ (Austria), Risoe, (Denmark), CITEPA (France), VITO (Belgium), CENEF (Russia), Ecofys (Poland), TERI (India), INHA University (South Korea), ICF (UK), UCT (South Africa), ECN (Netherlands), IEA (France)
[2] Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, Petten, NL
[3] STS is co-ordinating this project. The industry partners are BP Chemicals (UK), DSM (NL), DuPont (Germany), NatureWorks (NL/USA), Shell Chemicals (NL), Uniqema (UK/NL), Novozymes (Denmark), Roquette (France), Degussa (Germany). The academic pertners are the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (FhG-ISI, Germany; Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM, Spain), Plant Research International (PRI, NL), CERISS (Centro per l'Educazione, la Ricerca, l'Informazione su Scienza e Società, Italy), Agrotechnology and Food Innovations (A&F, NL).
[4] Max-Planck Institute IPP (Germany), Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), Verbundplan (Austria) and ECN (NL)

Purpose of the projects

Most of the projects listed under the heading "Material flow analysis, emission inventories" (see No. 1-4 in Table 1) deal with the so-called non-energy use, i.e. the use of fossil fuels as raw material in the chemical/petrochemical industry. The purpose of these projects is to gain deeper insight into the release of CO2 emissions originating from non-energy use. While the pathways of CO2 emissions from fuel use are well understood and suitable calculation methods have been developed this is less the case for of CO2 emissions from non-energy use. The objective of these projects is to develop and to apply new bottom-up methods which allow to estimate CO2 emissions from non-energy use more accurately. The projects have contributed substantially to the improvement of the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and they have helped to improve national inventories on greenhouse gas emissions.

Project No. 6 to 9 in Table 1 deal with bio-based synthetic organic materials. These are polymers and other chemicals (primarily surfactants, lubricants, solvents) which are partially or fully made from biogeneous feedstocks. Supported by consumer preferences, policy goals and progress in chemistry and in biotechnology, the area of bio-based materials is receiving increased attention.

All other projects conducted by the EME cluster are categorized as research on the short-term and long-term efficiency of energy and materials use (see table). A few projects (PIE, FYSI, Energy-efficiency technology for the non-energy intensive sector) deal with the characterisation of current and recent energy use by means of physical indicators and the development of conclusions for technology policy, energy policy and climate policy. Other projects (Nanofun-Poly, VLEEM, Breakthrough technologies in chemical industry, Learning energy efficiency) have the same target and likewise have technology as a starting point but they differ by taking a prospective approach. A third subgroup of projects (White & Green, Leakage & Spillover, EPIST) is more closely linked to economic theory and modelling and to policy instruments for energy efficiency improvement and greenhouse gas emission reduction.

Education Programmes

The members of the EME research cluster are shaping and are contributing to education programmes in the context of the new Batchelor/Masters system and the classical trajectories towards graduation. Wherever possible, education is closely related to ongoing activities in research, thereby ensuring that the topics and the methods applied are up-to-date and of relevance to the discussion in science and in public. The main courses (co-)managed from the EME cluster are: