Since 2012, the professorship Bioenergy Systems exists as a joint appointment by the University of Leipzig and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). The professorship is part of the Institute for Infrastructure and Resource Management at the Faculty of Economic Sciences.
The research and teaching activities of the Chair of Bioenergy Systems focuses on concepts, technologies and management systems for the control of biogenic material and energy systems. Bioenergy provision is caught between a widely developed sustainability vision for a future energy supply, a wide range of technical options and manifold risks for material displacements and losses.
Conflicting goals associated with the use of biomass, as well as different efficiency aspects, e.g. (land use, climate gas input, energy supply, value creation, etc.) require integrated management systems that can be implemented on different scales - from operational to global.
Against this background, the general goal of sustainable management of biogenic material and energy flows is their classification (system understanding) and efficient control, taking into account the technical, economic, ecological (e.g. climate change), social and political aspects of the relevant process chains (system design).
Accordingly, the focus of the research is on linking fragmentary existing information along the process chains towards the development of integrated management systems for bioenergy provision. Methods of potential analysis, material and energy flow analysis, scenario development and material flow evaluation are applied.