Chain design Wageningen

System analysis and chain design for the biobased economy

The transition from a fossil economy to a circular, biobased economy poses difficult questions for companies. What about the availability of biomass, for example? Which infrastructure is already present and which links are still missing? And with which parties can feasible new production chains be formed? With system analysis and chain design, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research maps out realistic opportunities and risks of circular, biobased production processes. Next to this, we help companies and governments to take this step.

Towards circular, biobased production chains

To curb climate change, the world must make the transition from fossil resources to renewable resources. This is inevitable, but complicated. Companies and governments must switch from fossil production systems to circular, biobased production systems. Existing production chains are in most cases not suitable, so new production chains with new chain partners must be developed. Moreover, companies and governments often lack reliable insight into the opportunities and risks of newly developed biobased products and materials. Wageningen Food & Biobased Research supports parties who want to switch to circular and biobased production systems. We offer them a thorough system analysis and map out the opportunities of future production chains.

From biomass to area design

The availability of sufficient biomass is essential for a successful transition to circular, biobased production. That is why we use availability studies to map out how much biomass will be produced in a target area and how much biomass will become available under certain conditions in the future. By developing different scenarios, we can make a balanced analysis. In addition, we list the existing infrastructure, from agricultural facilities to chemical plants and distribution chains.

Based on this, we analyse which products can logically be made and we develop an area design. Here we link the available biomass and facilities in an area to possible end products and we determine which scale size is required. Then we look at which links in the chain still need to be added to form a successful production chain and how we can optimally organise this chain. We link our technical orientation to our knowledge of physical reality: we oversee the possibilities and impossibilities and map out the feasibility of circular ambitions in a realistic manner.

Extensive track record

In many projects, we contribute our expertise in system analysis and chain design. For example, in the EU project S2Biom we have developed a European chain that supplies biomass to local, regional and pan-European chains. And CityLoops will start in the second half of 2019, an EU Horizon 2020 project that focuses on the circular development of cities. The Dutch city of Apeldoorn is one of the six European cities participating in the project. In the Apeldoorn subproject, our focus is on the development of a local, circular chain for organic waste from city parks.

Interested in the possibilities?

Contact us for an informal conversation.