Adapting Transport Systems: Towards a
Low Carbon Future
Industrial bio-transformation: Exploring the
Potential Institutional limits
Supervisors:
Samarthia Thankappan
University of York
Alma Hodzic
University of Sheffield
What are Bio-materials ?
• Materials, chemicals and energy derived
from renewable biological resources.
• Bio-materials are considered an integral
part of bio-energy strategies, due to their
combined material and energy
applications.
Use of Bio-materials is increasing
Natural fibrereinforced plastics
Vegetable oil-based
polyols & polyamides
Bio-based polyesters
& thermoplastic
elastomers
Soybean-based foams
Ethanol
?
Key Research Questions
• How will biomaterials impact existing material
producers?
• How will markets develop around changing
infrastructure?
• What impacts do technology, regulation,
society and geography have on material
substitution occurring within the supply
chains?
• What is the extent of adaptations occurring in
the sectors & what future changes are
envisaged?
Research Aim
Study the process of transformation within
and across the supply chains of the two
sectors (Agriculture and Automobiles), with a
key focus on the institutional constraints to
the development of the technology
Research Objectives
• Identify the scale and growth rate of
the substitution of traditional material
by bio-materials.
• Analysis of the impact of
transformation towards material
substitution occurring within and
across the supply chain.
• Examining the sustainability
implications of the above at the local
and national levels.
• Formulating strategy concepts suitable
to bio-materialism.
Can
biomaterials
make a
substantive
contribution to
greater
sustainability?
Methodology
STAGE I
• Comprehensive
literature review
• Mapping of current scale
of bio-material supplies
and material flows
• Identifying pressure
points in the supply
chain by means of
existing literature and
semi-structured expert
interviews/focus groups
among scientists,
industry executives and
policy makers
STAGE II
• At the macro level supply
chain interactions to track
impacts of technical limits
and the geographic flows
of biomaterials will be
undertaken
• At the micro level, the
incentives required to
achieve a desired change
within the various links in
the supply chain will be
explored.
Interfaces with other
Networks/organisations
White Rose Network:
Enabling supply chain
adaptation to climate change
and resource poor future
(Validating the sustainability
of bio-renewable
replacements for
petrochemical products)
CNAP - Centre for Novel
Agricultural Products
Research