Andrew Welfle

• Doctor of Engineering
• Senior Research Fellow at The University of Manchester

Bioenergy is widely included in energy strategies for its GHG mitigation potential. Bioenergy technologies will likely have to be deployed at scale to meet decarbonisation targets, and consequently biomass will have to be increasingly grown / mobilised. Sustainability risks associated with bioenergy may intensify with increasing deployment and wher...

Bioenergy is widely included in energy strategies for its GHG mitigation potential. Bioenergy technologies will likely have to be deployed at scale to meet decarbonisation targets, and consequently biomass will have to be increasingly grown/mobilised. Sustainability risks associated with bioenergy may intensify with increasing deployment and where...

Valorization of unavoidable food supply chain waste via biotechnology would be beneficial to the implementation of circular economics and may help increase market competitiveness of the final product via reduced feedstock costs. The suitability of post-milling wheat feed, potato processing scraps and sugar-beet pulps to act as the sole source of hy...

The Supergen Bioenergy Hub works with academia, industry, government and societal stakeholders to develop sustainable bioenergy systems that support the UK's transition to an affordable, resilient, low-carbon energy future.

Demand for biomass resources will continue to grow as bioenergy is increasingly targeted within energy strategies. Sustainability is a primary issue for large scale bioenergy, with potential to generate both risks and benefits for people, development, natural systems and for climate change e this balance of risks and benefits determining overall su...

This paper explores the implications of siting a bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility to carbon emission performances for three case-study supply chains using the Carbon Navigation System (CNS) model. The three case-study supply chains are a wheat straw derived BECCS-power, a municipal solid waste derived BECCS-waste-to-energy...

Many conversion technologies and processes for bioenergy generation from wastes have been reported and discussed in the previous chapters. These conversion technologies are being selected and applied depending on the type of wastes, chemical composition of the available waste and the desired energy vector. For example, anaerobic digestion (AD) is u...

The Carbon Navigation System (CNS) showcases a new methodology to model specific carbon-efficient bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) supply chains at high spatial resolution. The CNS model is capable of searching and routing for a precise amount of biomass to a chosen location, route captured CO2 for offshore geological storage and d...

The link between energy and climate change is fundamental - energy accounting for two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions. Of all countries, those of the Arabian Peninsula are synonymous with energy and the supply and use of fossil fuels. However driven by commitments to international climate change agreements the Gulf Cooperation Council (GC...

This paper uses both quantitative and qualitative analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of government policy and support mechanisms in the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Finland in promoting bioenergy – a key technology fundamental to each country's decarbonisation strategies. It is crucial that countries develop effective policies and support mechanisms...

The coffee industry constitutes an important part of the global economy. Developing countries produce over 90% of world coffee production, generating incomes for around 25 million smallholder farmers. The scale of this industry poses a challenge with the generation of residues along with the coffee cultivation and processing chain. Coffee stems, ob...

All countries are challenged with finding secure, affordable and clean energy options to drive sustainable development. Within many developing countries there is often strong reliance on traditional bioenergy from fuels such as charcoal, which is typically cheaper and readily available compared to fossil fuels. These fuels have large environmental...

The greenhouse gas emissions associated with bioenergy are often temporally dispersed and can be a mixture of long-term forcers (such as carbon dioxide) and short-term forcers (such as methane). These factors affect the timing and magnitude of climate-change impacts associated with bioenergy in ways that cannot be clearly communicated with a single...

All governments, industry sectors and societies each have a pivotal role to play if we are to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. For the construction industry, limiting emissions and addressing issues of sustainability is not just important for reducing the environmental impacts of the sector, but is simply good practice. This research investig...

Transition towards renewable low carbon energy is a fundamental element of climate change mitigation, energy from biomass technologies are targeted within many country's decarbonisation strategies. Decision makers globally face many challenges developing strategies to drive this transition; models are increasingly used to road-test policy intervent...

The Paris Agreement brings countries together in a combined effort to combat climate change and its effects. A key target is the reduction of energy related greenhouse gas emissions. Providing biogas from biomass is one option to provide renewable and less carbon intensive fuels. When upgraded to biomethane it may be a substitute for natural gas an...

Developing BECCS technologies that may significantly contribute to the decarbonisation of the UK energy sector is based on the premise that the United Kingdom will be able to access/mobilise sufficient quantities of biomass resource to balance the demands of the future bioenergy sector. The use of these biomass resources should not impact the susta...

Non-technical summary Biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is represented in many integrated assessment models as a keystone technology in delivering the Paris Agreement on climate change. This paper explores six key challenges in relation to large scale BECCS deployment and considers ways to address these challenges. Research nee...

Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is heavily relied upon in scenarios of future emissions that are consistent with limiting global mean temperature increase to 1.5 °C or 2 °C above pre-industrial. These temperature limits are defined in the Paris Agreement in order to reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. Here, we exp...

Based on the general acceptance that greenhouse gases from biomass can provide a low carbon energy source, bioenergy pathways are being increasingly included in many countries renewable energy and emission reduction strategies. As a result demand for biomass is rising fast with several regions forecast to encounter major resource stresses over the...

The student accommodation sector in now the best-performing asset in the UK and US property markets and this is projected to further accelerate, with building refurbishment of existing student accommodations being the preferred method to satisfy growing demand. However, there are no published research studies on refurbishment projects within the st...

Bioenergy systems will play a key role in many countries achieving their climate change, emission reduction and renewable energy contribution targets. It is important that implemented bioenergy pathways maximise GHG reductions, particularly since demand and competition for biomass resource is likely to increase in future. This research analyses the...

Increased inclusion of biomass in energy strategies all over the world means that greater mobilisation of biomass resources will be required to meet demand. Strategies of many EU countries assume the future use of non-EU sourced biomass. An increasing number of studies call for the UK to consider alternative options, principally to better utilise i...

The UK has legally binding renewable energy and greenhouse gas targets. Energy from biomass is anticipated to make major contributions to these. However there are concerns about the availability and sustainability of biomass for the bioenergy sector. A Biomass Resource Model has been developed that reflects the key biomass supply-chain dynamics and...