Fifty years ago, the Club of Rome was founded; in its own words ‘an organisation of individuals who share a common concern for the future of humanity and strive to make a difference…. Our mission is to promote understanding of … Read more
What will come after healthy aging? In biotechnology, advances have been so swift over the past few decades, that some scientists have started thinking of ways to tackle aging itself, that ultimate and fatal disease of mankind. Even with some … Read more
Many universities and innovative companies are looking for new ways to close the future protein gap for food and feed, and cover future protein demand on a sustainable basis. German nova-Institute compiled an overview of the latest developments. Nova-Institute organizes … Read more
In February, BP published a new Energy Outlook. The main difference with previous outlooks lies in its renewable energy forecasts. The previous ones were scandalously low. The company partly redressed this state of affairs, and even confessed that it had … Read more
These days, my inbox is overflowing with messages from concerned scientists warning that mankind cannot pursue economic growth forever; that it should deviate quickly from such a course, in order to prevent global environmental disaster. But as much as I … Read more
The world will have to take another look at renewable energy. We need to start thinking visionary and large-scale. Time is over when solar and wind energies had to adapt themselves to their environment. On the contrary, from now on … Read more
Can food supply and access to clean water develop into geopolitical weapons, like fossil energy has been for many years? If so, we should see a structural imbalance between food and water on the one hand, and population on the … Read more
Renewable energy sources are by nature ready to harvest anywhere in the world, and therefore not a source of international conflict by themselves. However, they depend in part on critical materials – materials of which the supply is by no … Read more
Geopolitics has long circled around reserves of fossil fuels, the most critical assets in a fossil-based world. But although they will be around for a few more decades, fossil fuels will gradually become less important as a global power factor. … Read more
Some energy analysts propose that system changes will seriously slow down the advent of sustainable and intermittent energy sources. Grid instability and/or its prevention would add appreciably to sustainable energy costs. But some system changes will propel, rather than slow … Read more
In the early days of renewable energy development, its adversaries would tell the world that renewable sources would be hopelessly inadequate. Traditional (fossil and/or nuclear based) systems would be indispensable because we would also need energy when the wind wouldn’t … Read more
Solar energy (photovoltaics, PV) is no longer that cute but hardly relevant technology of energy supply – it will evolve into the basis of our entire energy system. The world will have to take another look on PV: adapt itself … Read more
Two factors are underrated again and again in energy policy: the potential of better energy efficiency (check here) and that of renewable energy. In our first column, we saw that important forecasters overestimate demand growth. We foresee global energy growth … Read more
Many social scientists make an appeal to fundamental laws of nature in order to sustain their arguments. Fine, if their interpretation is tenable from a scientific point of view. But often, this is not the case. Economists tend to look … Read more
On this site we have always been concerned with the question of the shape and size of industry in a bioeconomy. Could it be much less dangerous? Concentrated in major industrial areas or strewn across the countryside, close to farmers, … Read more
Phosphorus is an essential ingredient of life on earth. It is a component of DNA and of bones, and it fulfils a key role in energy transfer in living cells. Yet it was regarded as an evil element after its … Read more
With great speed, genetic modification penetrates into our society – the biobased economy depends on it to a large extent. It does not evoke much discussion; ignorance and complacency abound. And yet, we increasingly need that discussion, as exemplified by … Read more
Synthetic biology offers us a countless number of opportunities to reshape natural materials, and even our food. Yes, that would mean synthetic food. Many people would dismiss this right away as a viable opportunity, but it might be worthwhile to … Read more
One of the main concerns about world food supply is the production of proteins. Lux Research, in a new study, suggests that ‘the current dominance of meat and seafood will wane in the coming decades,’ and that ‘several alternative protein … Read more
Energy efficiency is our cheapest energy source, with a very large potential. It has been so for forty years and will probably continue to be so for decades to come. And yet, 99% of energy policy and energy debate is … Read more
How will Europe, the Netherlands in particular, earn its income in twenty-five years’ time, in a sustainable way? How do we prepare for the world of 2040? By green growth, based on the development of sustainable products and services. An … Read more
Resistance towards innovative changes is a well-known problem. It troubles many researchers and entrepreneurs, also those who venture into the biobased economy. The science of systems innovation deals with the question how to overcome such resistance. The latest term coined … Read more
At the conference where the report ‘Opportunities for the fermentation-based chemical industry’ was published, we also talked to Marcel Wubbolts, DSM’s CTO and president of BIC (the Biobased Industry Consortium). How long could the biobased transition for the chemical industry … Read more
Claude Roy is a man who paints wide views with inexhaustible energy. As the chairman of the French Club des Bio-économistes his message, voiced for many years is that we need biomass for tackling the world’s major problems. In its … Read more
In my increasingly eurosceptical home country, The Netherlands, intellectuals take a renewed interest in Europe. The squarely pro-European essay by the Austrian author and essayist Robert Menasse has been translated into Dutch. And the major study of the Belgian researcher … Read more
We are at a turning point in the energy transition, particularly as to the contribution of solar power, says Wim Sinke. So far, the instrument for opening up markets was policy, but it has now become price. Solar panels have … Read more
Most people, when talking about a sustainable future for Europe, think in terms of energy supply. That is one-sided. It is true: the energy conflict still deepens, as the incumbent powers start to be challenged just recently, forty years after … Read more
We are right in the middle of the most radical transition that our society can go through: that of a centralistic, fossil-fuelled society to a much more decentralised society mainly on the basis of local resources. Different observers, dependent on … Read more
Human error is the label stuck on accidents that cannot be directly explained by the failure of a device, be it mechanical, electric or electronic. But the other side of such errors might well be the variation in the way … Read more
Biobased resources and biochemical processes will change the appearance of chemical industry. Changes may occur in scale and in location. There will be a tendency towards a smaller scale. But know-how, the skill of process operators, might become an important … Read more
The recent report ‘Strategy for a green society’ (in Dutch) of the Scientific and Technological Committee for the biobased economy (WTC) puts an emphasis on biobased materials. Biobased materials are the driving force for the biobased economy, according to the … Read more
After a few decades of research and development a halfway score is meaningful and, on headlines, very well feasible. For various reasons wind and biomass are showing their limits. Solar energy still has a big upward potential. Other sustainable sources … Read more
Even though countries differ appreciably in culture, everywhere in the world farmers growing wet crops organise in cooperative organisations. That will not be different in the biobased economy. On the contrary: such cooperatives, well rooted in their regional communities, will … Read more
On August 18, we started a discussion on the development towards a smaller scale in the biobased economy. We continued this discussion in a LinkedIn group connected to www.biobasedeconomy.nl. What was the outcome of this discussion? The reason why we … Read more
Corporate strategies are a shaky basis for getting society on a sustainable track. They may change, if other strategies would incur more profit. The green CEO may be replaced by a more traditional one. The company may be acquired by … Read more
Phosphorus is an essential element in the formation of vegetal and animal biomass. But whereas living organisms can use oxygen and nitrogen from the air for their processes, phosphorus is only available as a mineral, in the form of phosphate. … Read more
Piezoelectricity is on the rise. Piezoelectric cells produce electricity from vibrations, or conversely vibrations from electricity. The former is relevant for energy harvesting, for our world increasingly needs the small powers that can be produced by piezoelectric generators – in … Read more
In the past few weeks, public discussion on shale gas in the Netherlands attained a new peak. Water utilities and brewers publicly favour a moratorium in view of risks for ground water supplies, and the Union of Chemical Industries asks … Read more
Sustainability – here to stay, or the issue of the day? We think it is here to stay. All the more important to be very critical about sustainability, and the meaning attributed to it by stakeholders. Do you remember how … Read more
There is a firm trend for centralization in decision making in our society. National governments increase their power at the expense of communities and counties; and Europe acts for more ‘harmonization’ of national regulation. As a result of this process, … Read more
Even though our highly technological society is vulnerable, this state of affairs is not much addressed by politics or societal debate. And vulnerable we are indeed. Think of the millennium bug. We depend completely on infrastructures on a regional, national … Read more
Five years after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, nothing has been done yet on the set of measures which were thought to be essential at the time; measures which boil down to reinstalling the protection of financial markets, installed after the … Read more
Many scientists from the molecular sciences, like chemists and biotechnologists, regard the use of biomass for energy production almost as a capital sin. It would be equal to burning down a top masterpiece. Many common citizens have a similar hang-up. … Read more
Energy throughput in the biosphere is very small, actually. Biomass production from incident light is relatively inefficient, also in Russian wood or Sargasso seaweed. The earth receives an amount of solar irradiation equal to 160.000 TW; less than 100 TW … Read more
‘The unsuccessful energy transition stands in the way of the biobased economy,’ says Jan Rotmans. ‘Whereas the energy sector is going to disappear. In the future transition, the chemical sector will take its energy supply in its own hands. Above … Read more
Europe appears to be in a bad state. Poverty and unemployment are on the rise, the rich and the poor grow apart, the financial system is out of control. In the long run countries like China and India tend to … Read more
There will be more local self-supply or even autarky in the new world, for instance in energy systems. But whereas in the past, autarky equalled shortage and even poverty, in the future this will equal a high level of knowledge … Read more
Summing up, we arrive at our vision. New social patterns will be sustained by the development of new technologies, that will primarily promote local and regional economic growth. Sustainability is on its way to become a recognised corporate goal, because … Read more
Energy systems will revolutionise even more radically than industry. The price of solar cells has taken a dive. They are modular in makeup, i.e. they can be applied both on a small and a large scale. Everyone can mount them … Read more
The environmental movement of the seventies, precursor to the present movement for sustainability, was largely anti-technological. Technology seemed to be inherently large-scale; it produced nuclear power stations and polluting chemical complexes. But technology has taken a turn into the opposite … Read more