UCD & Cré are delighted to announce funding for a two-year research project “Agri Bio Circular Economy” (ABC Economy).
The project is kindly co-funded under the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland Research Development & Demonstration Funding Programme 2018 with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The project will be led by Dr Fionnuala Murphy of the School of Biosystems & Food Engineering, UCD. Recruitment of a full time Postdoctoral researcher will commence shortly.
ABC Economy will develop new sustainable value chains for the circular bioeconomy in Ireland by maximising value and minimising environmental impacts through cascading of biomass for production of biobased products and energy.
ABC Economy will engage with key stakeholders through project partner, Cré, and project collaborators, Tipperary County Council and Monaghan County Council, to develop sustainable value chains based on the bioresources available in each region.
ABC Economy will characterise available biomass in each region and assess the potential of valorisation processes for bioproduct and energy production in a circular economy context.
Key stakeholders (primary producer, processors, waste management companies etc.) will be engaged throughout the project to identify important resources, constraints to valorisation, and potential opportunities. Central to ABC Economy is the full supply chain sustainability analysis to examine synergies and trade-offs between using biomass for energy generation and biobased products and will highlight possibilities to minimise trade-offs by considering the impacts of circular economy principles and cascading.
ABC Economy value chains will be developed in line with key stakeholders to ensure the viability and potential uptake of these novel value chains. ABC Economy complements existing National and International research examining agri-food waste valorisation and bioeconomy development e.g. BEACON, BioEire, AgroCycle, AgriValor. However, ABC Economy advances beyond this research by incorporating holistic life cycle assessment along with market analysis and stakeholder engagement in the development of sustainable value chains for the bioeconomy. ABC Economy will be an exemplar for the development of the sustainable regional bioeconomy in Ireland.