ESRIG-EES colloquium: Paola Guzman and Alexandra Das, MSc EES students
| When: | Tu 30-04-2019 16:00 - 17:00 |
| Where: | 5159.0110, Energy Academy, Nijenborgh 6 |
Title: The Water, Energy, and Land Footprint of tilapia aquaculture in Mexico.
By: Paola Guzman, MSc EES student.
Summary:
Aquaculture shows great potential since this activity has become an alternative food system to meet food demand. Tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) occupies the second place in aquaculture production for human consumption and Mexico is the ninth producer of tilapia in the world. The tilapia aquaculture systems vary from low intensity to high intensity and each of them requires different inputs, which is translated into different levels of environmental impacts. Due to the limited availability of literature related to environmental impacts of aquaculture production systems, this research has estimated the water, energy, and land footprint (WELF) of tilapia fillet from aquaculture under different production systems in Mexico. The WELF was estimated by the Water Footprint (WF) method considering the blue, green and grey WF and a chain analysis approach. Direct and indirect inputs along the full supply chain of tilapia fillet production were included in this research, such as fertilizers, aquafeed, and transportation. Furthermore, the results of this research worked to be compared with other terrestrial animal proteins such as beef or chicken meat.
Title: District heating in the Netherlands- developing a decision making tool for policy advisors at a municipal level.
By: Alexandra Das, MSc EES student.
Summary:
In the Netherlands natural gas still is the most used fuel for heating households. However, this is a finite, fossil fuel, which has large environmental impacts. The earthquakes in Groningen as a result of the gas extraction have added to the sense of urgency to stop using natural gas for heating households. National policy aims at stopping the gas extraction in Groningen in 2030. Newly built homes cannot be connected to the gas grid since July 2018. One of the alternatives mentioned in national policy is district heating. Policies for sustainable heating are often developed by policy makers at a municipal level. However, in the Netherlands, as opposed to e.g. Scandinavia, district heating is not well known, and often even has a bad name. For this reason, district heating is often not taken into account when options for sustainable heating are considered.
This research describes district heating projects of different scales and with different heat sources, and is aimed at policy makers in municipalities. PESTEL analysis and MCA were used to create a tool that can be used to:
- provide information about district heating projects, and
- help in decision making about these projects, by showing under which conditions district heating can be a viable option for sustainable heating.