Gwenny Thomassen

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Sustainable Organic Chemistry and Technology

Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source with large unexploited potential. Medium enthalpy deep geothermal resources are commonly used in Europe to provide heat. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies on such applications are scarce and their majority follows a static approach. We describe a two-step dynamic LCA framework for deep geothermal hea...

The persistent increase in CO2 emissions and the continued depletion of fossil resources are two major challenges of the 21st century. These challenges can be tackled with Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU), fby capturing and using CO2 as a valuable feedstock. Plasma presents a reactive environment to convert the CO2 molecule efficiently into hig...

The post-consumer plastic packaging waste management in Flanders was analyzed by performing a retrospective material flow analysis, covering an extensive period from 1985 to 2019. In addition, a prospective material flow analysis of 32 improvement scenarios was performed, based on expected changes in the waste management system. Mass recovery rates...

A transition to renewable energy sources is needed in the EU countries to achieve their goal of a low-carbon economy. This transition may come with potentially negative impacts on the well-being of the population, both globally and locally. Such social impacts are not yet systematically assessed for renewable energy technologies. In this paper, a s...

The approaching end-of life phase of early installed PV modules gave rise to a variety of potential end-of-life strategies, ranging from basic generic waste management strategies to advanced case-specific recycling options. However, no comprehensive assessment on the full range of technological possibilities is available and only limited attention...

Increasing plastic recycling rates is crucial to tackle plastic pollution and reduce consumption of fossil resources. Recycling routes for post-consumer plastic fractions that are technologically and economically feasible remain a challenge. Profitable value chains for recycling mixed film and tray-like plastics have hardly been implemented today,...

Energy supply is essential for the functioning and well-being of a society. Decision-makers are faced with the challenge to balance burdens and benefits of energy supply practices with the aim to achieve environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Literature exhibits a broad variety of sustainability assessment frameworks for energy supply...

A better understanding of the drivers of the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of emerging (biobased) technologies and products in early development phases, can help decision-makers to identify sustainability hurdles and opportunities. Furthermore, it guides additional research and development efforts and investment decisions, that...

Responsible water use and sustainable consumption and production are high on the agenda of multiple stakeholders. Different water supply sources are available, including tap water, bottled water, domestically harvested rainwater and domestically abstracted groundwater. The extent to which each of these water supply sources is used, differs over con...

Household packaging waste sorting facilities consist of complex networks of processes to separate diverse waste streams. These facilities are a key first step to re-enter materials into the recycling chain. However, so far there are no general methods to predict the performance of such sorting facilities, i.e. how efficiently the heterogeneous pack...

Global environmental problems have urged the need for developing sustainable technologies. However, new technologies that enter the market have often higher economic costs and potentially higher environmental impacts than conventional technologies. This can be explained by learning effects: a production process that is performed for the first time...

In recent decades new recycling technologies for mixed plastic waste have emerged. In pyrolysis, the polymer chains are thermally broken (pyrolyzed) to obtain hydrocarbon materials of different molecular weights such as naphtha, oil or waxes, whose yields can be controlled by varying the reaction parameters. Naphtha represents a closed-loop recycli...

Purpose Social indicators are not easy to be quantitatively analyzed, although at the local scale, the social impacts might be relevant and important. Using the existing approaches for both quantitative and semi-qualitative measurements, this study aims to assess the social impacts of a company working on algae production systems in Belgium through...

The use of fossil-based products induces a large environmental burden. To lighten this burden, green technologies are required that can replace their fossil-based counterparts. To enable the development of economically...

For sustainable production and consumption, emerging green technologies need to be optimized towards a minimal environmental impact and a maximal economic impact. In an early stage of technology development, more flexibility is available to adapt the technology. Therefore, a prospective environmental and techno-economic assessment is required. The...

This study performs an environmental techno-economic assessment (ETEA) for multiple microalgae biorefinery concepts at different locations, those being Belgium and India. The ETEA methodology, which integrates aspects of the TEA and LCA methodologies and provides a clear framework for an integrated assessment model, has been proposed and discussed....

Een algen-bioraffinaderij kan een duurzaam alternatief vormen voor producten gebaseerd op fossiele brandstoffen. Om dit te realiseren is het cruciaal om de technologische, economische en milieu-gerelateerde haalbaarheid te onderzoeken door middel van één geïntegreerde methode. Uit die analyse blijkt dat een algen-bioraffinaderij waarbij gebruik gem...

During the development of a new technology, three main questions need to be answered: 1) “Is the process technologically feasible?”; 2) “Is the process economically profitable?”; 3) “Is the process environmentally sustainable?”. The answers on these questions are currently provided by different assessment methodologies at different moments of techn...

Microalgae accumulate a variety of compounds. A cascading biorefinery approach aims at recovering multiple algae compounds to valorize the complete biomass and to improve the economics of the values chain. Different aspects of cascading biorefinery approaches are discussed, including (1) the impact of multiple compound recovery in a cascading appro...

Microalgae accumulate a variety of compounds. A cascading biorefinery approach aims at recovering multiple algae compounds to valorize the complete biomass and to improve the economics of the values chain. Different aspects of cascading biorefinery approaches are discussed, including (1) the impact of multiple compound recovery in a cascading appro...

Economic and technological assessments have identified difficulties with the commercialization of bulk products from microalgae, like biofuels. To overcome these problems, a multi-product algal-based biorefinery has been proposed. This paper performs a techno-economic assessment of such a biorefinery. Four production pathways, ranging from a base c...

Algal-based bioenergy products have faced multiple economic and environmental problems. To counter these problems, algal-based biorefineries have been proposed as a promising solution. Multiple environmental and economic assessments have analyzed this concept. However, a wide variation in results was reported. This study performs a review to evalua...