• Energy Research
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• Energy Procedia close
• Netherlands close

Circular building concepts, as proposed within e.g. Circular Economy and Cradle-to-Cradle frameworks, imply radical changes for the construction sector. Cradle-to-Cradle® in particular has put forward the idea of buildings as material banks, radically altering the way material flows need to be managed. The notion of material banks (temporary storage of materials that comprise the building assemblies) sheds new light on the value of building materials and products, and how to maintain and restore this. The basics are straightforward: high quality, pure material use and anticipated material regeneration routes. The implications for the supply and value chain, however, are significant, and research in this direction has only recently taken off. To smoothen the path to implementation, circular building principles may be combined with Design-for-Adaptability (DfA) guidelines, as developed over the last decades. DfA guidelines are rooted in enhanced resilience of the built environment on the one hand, and the associated constructive implications on the other. Synergy between the concepts of circularity and adaptability, with regard to the Dutch context, is at the heart of this paper. The main research question is: what are prerequisites for an effective performance of materials, products, services and buildings in the case circularity is a leading ambition? The research is structured around four interdisciplinary expert workshops in which knowledge and experiences were shared, discussed, tested and redefined, leading to a set of preconditions for circular building material and product flows. A key finding is that circularity-values emerge at the intersection of specific intrinsic properties (material and product characteristics) and relational properties (building design and use characteristics), whilst combining multiple parameters. In separation, neither intrinsic nor relational properties have decisive significance with regard to circularity; it is on the crossing where fulfillment is created. This paper finishes by discussing the findings from the perspectives of lifespan, monitoring, ownership, and standardization.

The TOPS project takes a radical and holistic approach to coupled UCG-CCS, and thus the site selection criteria for the coupled processes, considering both geological, reservoir and process engineering aspects and different end-uses of the produced synthetic gas in order to optimise the whole value chain. In particular, the experimental research carried out utilises a newly constructed high pressure gasification reactor investigating several prospective options of UCG technology implementations. Integrated research addresses field based technology knowledge gaps, such as cavity progression and geomechanics, potential groundwater contamination and subsidence impacts, together with research into process engineering solutions in order to assess the role/impact of site specific factors and selected reagents on the operability of given CO2 emission mitigation options. Ultimately, research aims to minimise the need for on-site CO2 storage capacity as well as maximising the economic yield of UCG through value added end products.

Great efforts have been made in China to reduce coal consumption over the last decade. However, the energy transition to more sustainable energy systems will be gradual and take a longer time than expected. This paper discusses how sustainable development of energy systems on the local level can be gradually achieved. A challenge will be to develop smaller scale projects on the local level where participatory planning processes with cross sectoral planning can be implemented. Another challenge is to bring transdisciplinary academic research closer to the practice

In theory, there is huge potential for reducing the energy consumed by existing single-family houses by thoroughly renovating them. For the successful market development of highly energy-efficient integrated renovations, supply chain collaboration is very important, while at the same time customer demand for integrated renovations has to be stimulated. A research and networking methodology was developed within the framework of the One Stop Shop project to identify and develop collaboration opportunities for advanced housing renovation in Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Norway. The research identified key supply-side needs through interviews and questionnaires, and analysed important elements for the development of a web-based portal that can connect supply and demand. The project further developed ideas and methods for collaboration and business model generation between different players on the renovation market. These different research results contributed to defining new business opportunities related to process innovation to unburden the homeowner and to achieve less fragmented renovation processes.

In efforts to mitigate climate change, energy systems are undergoing a profound transition towards low-carbon systems. This transition does not only involve changes in energy technologies but importantly it is shaped and incentivized by changes in the rules and regulations that govern energy markets. It is a normative transition, focused at achieving secure, affordable, and sustainable energy provision. In a multidisciplinary approach, this paper proposes a framework that highlights the role of normative principles - i.e. values - in socio-technical systems. Building on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, the analysis explicates how values relate to institutional change in the case of the energy transition.

Two experimental modes of operation, a sequence of batch and a continuous one, have demonstrated the technical feasibility of Shell’s proposed slurry-based direct flue gas mineralization concept on the basis of activated serpentine. The base case mineralization concept can be simplified yielding a variety of product forms and significantly reduced CO2 abatement costs. Combined with a positive first assessment of the sustainability of the various mineralization product forms, all mineralization concepts deserve to be further investigated. To optimally take advantage of integration opportunities so as avoid parasitic CO2 emissions and minimize cost, this should be done over the complete technology chain.

The identification of techno-economically feasible decarbonisation paths and sustainability transitions for the built environment is a necessary task for research today and building stock renovation processes can act in synergy with innovative economic and technological development paradigms to achieve different types of benefits such as economic growth and employment, together with resource efficiency and sustainability for the whole sector. The research presented aims at selecting the most relevant data analysis processes and techniques to respond to practical technical questions and to support decision-making in the built environment, at multiple scales of analysis, from individual buildings, to building stock and urban environment. The research aims to indicate in this way the possibility to join the micro-scale view, involving technological and behavioral issues in buildings, and the macro-scale view, involving strategic problems at market and policy levels for energy and sustainability planning. Further, the combined use of modelling techniques with large scale data acquisition and processing could guarantee multiple feed-backs from measured data, useful for the evolution, first of all, of design and operation practices in building but also, more in general, of the whole value chain of the sector. A synthesis and integration of modelling methodologies is presented through case studies, showing a path to improve transparency of performance assessment across building life cycle phases. Finally, multivariate data visualization techniques are presented to ease wider applicability of the described numerical techniques.