A little bit about the Research Centers in Germany…

Energy from biomass?

Yes, it is possible!

On the morning Monday of May 20^th, EM42 fellows headed to the central station of Dresden, bound for the beautiful city of Leipzig. After a short trip and a small break, at 1 pm they arrived at the “German Centre for Biomass Research (DBFZ)”.

During the visit to DBFZ, they learned about the different processes to produce energy from biomass; and after a short explanation about the organization with international colleagues from China, Spain, Canada, Brazil, and Italy and the vision of sustainable resource basis, smart bioenergy – innovations for a sustainable future, they proceeded to visit its installations and laboratories that are divided into five departments: biogas, refinery, hydrothermal carbonization, heating technologies, and wood combustion.

Additionally, they had the opportunity to meet some of the researchers of the institution, as they explained to them; DBFZ with approximately 250 employees researches how to generate energy from biomass resources. In this regard, DBFZ works in joint collaboration with public and private institutions around the world.

Something that 30 years ago seemed impossible, now is a reality thanks to institutions like DBFZ that bet on studies based on the applied researches that develop practical solutions to current problems related to the integrated bioenergy provision.

The second day in Leipzig at 09:30am, EM42 fellows arrived at the “Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)”, they were welcomed by Mr. Andreas Staak who introduced the visitors the UFZ installations, along the day some researchers explained in more detail the projects that UFZ is developing; as is the case of the “Center for Advanced Water Research (CAWR)” presented by Prof. Olaf Kolditz and Mr. Lars Bilke from the Visualization Laboratory; whom explained some projects developed for Asia (China and Jordan) related to water sustainability, at that time, the 3D animation developed by UFZ for the spatial planning was one of the most incredible experience that the fellows tried that day.

After the lunch at UFZ canteen, Prof. Martin Volk presented the topic “Assessing and governing synergies between food production, biodiversity, and ecosystem services”; Additionally the Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology and the Department of Ecological Modelling presented some of the projects that UFZ is developing related to food-waste-energy sustainable environment; and impacts of the new policy instruments, technologies and change processes on pastoral land use as a social-ecological modeling approach.

Finally, the fellows had the opportunity to enjoy the game “NomaSed” developed by the Department of Ecological Modelling in order to create awareness to the stakeholders about the land use in agriculture activities. Of course, there were winners in this game!

Time was relative short those days, however, the fellows tried to spend time together with a big Vietnamese dinner in the beautiful city of Leipzig during their free time.

See you soon beautiful Leipzig!

by Ms. Magaly Beltran (Bolivia) and Ms. Tam Thanh (Vietnam)

Leipzig!

Authors: Ramoudane Orou Sannou (Benin) and Maksym Makukha (Ukraine)

On the sunny Wednesday of July 04th, nineteen out of 21 EM41 participants were preparing for the last excursion of the course program. This excursion planned to last from Wednesday to Friday took place in Leipzig which is about 100km from Dresden. Leipzig is a beautiful historical German city with the 2nd oldest university in Germany and has been home to many world renowned celebrities such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and... The city differs from Dresden in its cultural diversity, marked by a strong foreign presence. As proof, the presence of a Georgian restaurant – “Chito Gvrito” – where EM41 participants gathered for their 1st dinner.

About what we learned…

The first point of visit for the excursion was the Helmhotlz Centre for Environmental Research which is famous for its cutting-edge research in the field of environment. Being already a huge facility, the Helmhotlz Centre for Environmental Research  is part of Helmhotlz research organization which is also one of the three largest German research associations. The first stage at the Helmholtz centre has been a presentation about constructed wetlands followed by field visit. Constructed wetlands are low tech but highly productive technology that could help – and actually, already do – rural communities all around the world to treat waste water.

Secondly, we had interesting presentations about the ongoing projects of the centre in the Middle East. These projects deal with spatial planning of water treatment, that also includes components on participation of various stakeholders and children education. We had an impressive 3D visualization that brings us deeper into the very advanced 3D models being used by the centre for spatial planning. Later we had other presentations on different research topics of the centre such as chemicals in our environment, urban planning, and the interesting topic of land use (TALE project).

Party again!

During the night of the 2^nd excursion day, CIPSEM invited us for dinner in a place that was first kept secret from us. In fact, the dinner took place at the MoritzBastei restaurant near to Leipzig University. “The Moritzbastei is the only remaining part of the ancient town fortifications of Leipzig. Today it is widely known as a cultural centre. From 1974 the Moritzbastei was rebuilt under the supervision of the University of Leipzig. More than 30,000 students were engaged in the reconstruction of the bastion, among them the current Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel” (Yes-Yes, she has also studied there!) – (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moritzbastei).

Biomass, new fuel???

The last excursion day was dedicated to visiting the German Center for Biomass Research also located in Leipzig, two tram stop from the Helmholtz centre. This institution explores usage of biomass for energy supply mainly by combustion. It aims at producing biogas and biofuels for transport. Of course biomass cannot substitute all our demand for energy mainly because we also need land to produce our food. But a good option could be to use lands that are not suitable for food production to grow biomass for energy production. This lab also explores ways  for producing liquid fuels such as biodiesel or biokerosene to meet our needs for environmentally friendly fuel in the future.

 

The EM41 last excursion ended being about what should be called the “fuel of the future!” And that was the END!

Good bye, Leipzig!

Excursion to the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

Today’s program was an excursion to Leipzig to visit the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and one of their experimental field sites, the Global Change Environmental Facility (GCEF) in Bad Lauchstädt, a small village west of Leipzig (very small in fact, but Goethe was there).

Having arrived at the UFZ, the group got an introduction about the Helmholtz Association and its research centers in Germany. Apart from that the research structure and research fields of the UFZ were also topics in the morning.

In the afternoon we set out for Bad Lauchstädt and visited a very interesting large field experiment where the consequences of climate change for ecosystem processes under different land use options are investigated. The UFZ made a great video about the GCEF, check it out by clicking here!

(Photos: A. Lindner)