Post-Doctoral Researcher Environmental Research Institute ERI/The Research Ireland Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine MaREI/Circular Economy Energy and Environmental Systems Research Group CEEES

Position Summary

Research background and concept:

The production of protein from alternative sources including by-products from the food and beverage sector, as well as non-agriculture linked sources has the potential to revolutionise global food production. Integration of these novel protein production processes into a circular bioeconomy polygeneration system can enhance the sustainability of protein production. A successful polygeneration system centred around the protein production process depends on understanding how individual processes and systems can interact with one another in a symbiotic manner. This project aims to develop a decision support framework to aid in the identification and comparison of circular bioeconomy polygeneration systems which integrate the alternative the protein production process with other processes, technologies, and systems in the surrounding region.

This project aims to provide an overview of potential technologies that may be integrated with the alternative protein production process, identify their input and output materials, combine these technologies and processes in a collection of potential polygeneration system topologies, identify suitable topologies for detailed modelling, and collect data to enable future comparison of the modelled polygeneration systems with regards to the three core elements of sustainability across environmental, economic, and social performance. The framework outlined above could be applied to a test site under development in order to inform both site development, and the development of the framework itself as a means of providing decision support to future potential sites.