Recent News: BRC STAFF RUNNER UP IN THE NOVAUCD CAMPUS COMPANY DEVELOPMENT AWARDS 2010

http://www.ucd.ie/nova/mediacentre/2010pressreleases/novanewstitle,70765,en.html

Last Updated November 24th - 19.04

 

The BRC has a portfolio of research projects in sustainable bioresource utilisation, spanning biomass-to-energy, sustainable waste utilisation, the environmental impacts of food production and transport, timber harvesting and utilisation, peat as a fuel, climate change and Ireland ’s Kyoto Protocol commitments. The BRC led the Irish Government funded MBM project on sustainable utilisation of meat-and-bone meal and tallow, in the context of minimising risk from BSE, and a follow-on project on energy production from short rotation coppice (SRC); and the European Commission funded FP5 ECOWOOD project on eco-efficient wood harvesting on sensitive sites in the EU. It currently leads the European Commission funded FP6 ΣChain project which, inter alia, addresses long geographic food chains and their environmental impact – the “food miles” concept; and is a partner in the FP6 RENEW project on liquid bio-fuels (led by VW).

BIO-ENERGY RESEARCH NETWORK

The BRC’s current network spans the globe, with ongoing research projects and student placements across several continents. Examples of collaborators in the BRC network include: DaimlerChrysler (Stuttgart), Technical Universities of Vienna and Dresden, Abengoa Bioenergy Plc (Spain), ITAL (Brazil), Fachhochschule (München).

RESEARCH

• EPA Research Fellowship - Identification, mapping assessment and quantification of the effects disturbance on the peat soil C stock in Ireland (Funding agency: Environmental Protection Agency under the STRIVE Programme 2007 - 2013)
  
  
• Biomass production systems, biomass conversion technologies and environmental impact assess - Parsons Awards (funding agency: Irish Government's Department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources)
  
  
• Enhanced traceability of the poultry meat chain using biometrics and e-tracking technology (Avian BioTrack) (funding agency: Irish Government's Department of Agriculture & Food - FIRM Programme)
  
  
• Development of a protocol for biometric-based animal tracking and tracing (BioTrack)
  (funding agency: Irish Government's Department of Agriculture & Food - FIRM Programm
  
  
• Finite element modelling of vehicle-peat soil interactions (funding agency: Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran)
  
  
• Modelling carbon fluxes from Irish peatlands (funding agency: Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland), Ireland)
  
  
• EPA Fellowship-Evaluation of alternative land-use impacts for peatlands (funding agency: Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland)
  
  
• The detection of glass contamination in horticultural peat (funding agency: Bord na Móna (Horticulture Ltd), Ireland & Enterprise Ireland
  
  
• Finite element modelling of vehicle-peat soil interactions (funding agency: Norwegian Government (NORAD))
  
  
• Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) as a biomass energy source (funding agency: Irish Government's Department of Agriculture & Food (Research Stimulus Fund))
  
  
• Biomass-to-Liquid (BTL) fuel (project led by VW R&D, Wolfsburg, Germany) (funding agency: European Union's 6th Framework Programme Integrated Project RENEW)
  
  
• Biomass-to-liquid fuel pathways (in association with the Technical University of Vienna and DaimlerChrysler, Stuttgart) (funding agency: Sustainable Energy Ireland)
  
  
• Land Degradation and Options for Sustainable use of resources (funding agency: Development Cooperation Ireland, Irish Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
  
  
• Remote sensing of grass management monitoring for sustainable grassland utilisation
  (funding agency: Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland)
  
  
• Preferential flow: is it an important chemical transport mechanism in Irish soils?
  (funding agency: Teagasc, Ireland - Walsh Fellowship)
  
  
• Development of a decision support system to forecast safe slurry spreading opportunities in the winter months (funding agency: Teagasc, Ireland - Walsh Fellowship)
  
  
• Climate change in Ireland - an evaluation of the impacts of climate change on agri-food production systems (funding agency: Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland)
  
  
• Life cycle assessment of Irish livestock production systems to assess greenhouse gas emissions (funding agency: Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland)
  
  
• Intermixing of spent mushroom compost and urea formaldehyde for safe waste management (funding agency: Enterprise Ireland and Dynea ASA)
  
  
• Development of method to define improved methods of patch-spraying
  (funding agency: Enterprise Ireland and UCD)
  
  
• Integrated Project (led by professor Curry, ERM, UCD) on the Development of a Protocol for Sustainable Peatland Management (SPM) [BRC is leader of the sub-project: The Peatland Resource – its extent, use and potential] (funding agency: Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland)
  
  
• Factors influencing formation of acrylamide in foods (funding agency: Irish Government's Department of Agriculture & Food - FIRM Programme)
  
  
• Optimisation of operator visibility from timber harvesting machines (funding agency: Irish Government's Department of Agriculture & Food - FIRM Programme)
  
  
• Development of a dynamic model of vehicle-soil interaction (funding agency: Government of Iran)
  
  
• Virtual simulation of forest harvester operations (funding agency: Irish Government's Department of Agriculture & Food)
  
  
• GIS, GPS and data management in the optimisation of wood harvesting operations (funding agency: Irish Government's Department of Agriculture & Food)
  
  
• Optimisation of the value of the timber harvest, based on stem profiles obtained from on-board measurement systems (funding agency: Coillte (Irish Forestry Board))
  
  
• Optimisation of cut-to-length timber harvesting systems in mediterranean climates
  (funding agency: INRA, Italy)