BEC-53806 Sustainable Seaweed Chains

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

Seaweed Biology and Cultivation

Contents:

Seventy per cent of our planet's surface is made up of oceans and seas. Moving production offshore will eliminate competition for land use, the exhaustion of soil nutrients and the loss of natural forest. Seaweed has the potential to deliver new biomass flows for animal feed, food, and non-food products. This course aims to provide students with insight in the development of ecologically and economically sustainable seaweed value chains. For this purpose students will analyse:
- the current ecological and socio-economic situation of seaweed production in the world;
- the valorisation of seaweed components (e.g. food, feed, biofuel, green chemistry) and societal, environmental and economic value creation in the chain;
- the economic feasibility of seaweed production in the North Sea;
- novel design concepts to increase the sustainability of seaweed value chains.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- use and interpret some basic techniques to assess the ecological, social, and economic sustainability of seaweed production chains;
- understand the inevitable trade-offs between sustainable outcomes and between chain actors in the design of a sustainable chain;
- identify the key technical, social and economic bottlenecks in the development of sustainable seaweed chains, given the current state of knowledge;
- produce an advice on the future development of sustainable seaweed chains.

Activities:

Lectures, tutorials, practicals and group work activities (case study).

Examination:

- case study report (25%); - individual written exam consisting of open as well as closed questions (75%). Each component needs a minimum mark of 5.5 to pass.

Literature:

Documentation will be available at the start of the course and electronically via Blackboard.