In this NWO program master students were given the opportunity and support to write their own proposal for a PhD research. A few proposals were selected for a 4-year PhD trajectory.  Among them:

Jing Hu - Giving the Green Light to the Green : Facilitating the integration of variable renewable electricity into the power system (https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/387712)

Ana Pocas - What infuences consumption? Organizing alternative food networks. Food waste in alternative food networks (ongoing)

• dr. ir. Jesus Rosales Carreon
• dr. ir. Wina Crijns-Graus MSc
• dr. Ana Poças Ribeiro
• dr. Jing Hu
• dr. Robert Harmsen

This hub addresses one of the big open question within Deep Decarbonization of the Energy System, namely the decarbonization of Industry. The energy transition is well underway and gathering pace as far as electric renewables and electrification are concerned. However, it is still unclear how industry will deal with the carbon it needs for fuel and feedstock, when total CO2 (and other GHG) emissions must be brought down to zero around mid-century to meet the Paris target. It will even be necessary for Industry to deliver negative emissions, to offset unavoidable emissions in other sectors. How to achieve this transformation in the decades to come is the challenge that this Hub takes on.

It does so on the understanding that technical options abound, but are in aggregate insufficient or unattractive, warranting the study of new options. Within the hub programme we focus on two promising options: biofuels options with negative emissions, and the use of the subsurface to achieve negative emissions.  

Against the backdrop of this evolving landscape of existing and new technical options, society has to create the conditions under which the required investment decisions can be made now. This involves creating new infrastructure, regulatory frameworks and governance structures that reduce the long-term non-technical risk that now prevents industry to invest. 

This hub brings together a broad group of researchers with an equally broad group from industry, government and civil society. We aim to develop a shared understanding and a shared narrative of how to deliver this the energy transition in industry. The focus will be on the Netherlands. This regional specificity is crucial to answer the central question of industry transformation. But as one small, open and industrialized economy, the results will have relevance for industry transitions globally.

https://www.uu.nl/onderzoek/sustainability 

• prof. dr. Gert Jan Kramer
• prof. dr. Chris Spiers
• prof. mr. Marleen van Rijswick
• prof. dr. P.C.A. (Pieter) Bruijnincx
• dr. Jesse Hoffman
• drs. ing. Udeke Huiskamp MBA

The goal of Heat Roadmap Europe 4 (HRE4) has been to develop low-carbon heating and cooling strategies, called Heat Roadmaps, by quantifying and implementing changes at the national level for 14 EU Member States, which together account for approximately 85-90% of total heating and cooling in Europe.

The role of Utrecht University was to develop the energy cost curve method and to identify the heat savings measures for industry.

All reports can be found on the project website: https://heatroadmap.eu/

• dr. Robert Harmsen

The Dutch Energy Agency RVO is the monitoring body of the voluntary agreements on energy efficiency with the Dutch industry. The Netherlands has a long tradition in voluntary agreements dating back to the 1990s. Christiaan Abeelen, working at RVO as monitoring coordinator, has used the unique and rich dataset of various agreements to work on his PhD research in cooperation with Utrecht University. In his PhD research he has analysed e.g. how different methods affect the amount of energy savings realized, how the agreements contribute to the observed savings effect, and how planned savings projects differ from actually implemented savings projects.

The PhD thesis can be found here: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/379460.

• dr. Robert Harmsen