Multifunctional Agricultural Landscape and Production Systems
Agricultural systems and agricultural landscapes are subject to a wide range of challenges. Biogas technology, also in combination with material uses, offers opportunities to design and further develop agricultural systems and agricultural landscapes in a multifunctional way thanks to its substrate flexibility. This includes emission reductions (especially climate-relevant CH4 and N2O emissions, as well as indirectly climate-relevant NH3) , e.g. by fermenting farm fertilisers and other waste streams. By expanding crop rotations and cultivation systems to include elements such as catch crops, fodder legumes, flowering permanent crops (e.g. wild perennial mixtures, cup plant), biodiversity protection, C storage (humus formation, palud icultures on moorland), climate adaptation, e.g. by improving the water balance (infiltration, restoration of impaired field capacity), soil protection (erosion control, humus balance), water protection (against nutrient and sediment input), while at the same time maintaining value-added networks for rural areas.
The working group's focus topics:
- Emission-minimised farm manure chains (especially by means of fermentation)
- Biogas as an enabling technology for productive, climate-friendly organic farming
- Use of agricultural residues, taking into account the humus balance
- Multifunctional cultivation elements (intercrops, flowering permanent crops, agroforestry, paludiculture, legume mixtures, etc.) and effects at the farm and agricultural landscape level
- Economic evaluation of multifunctional substrates, especially for biogas/biomethane
- Emission-minimised organic fertiliser systems (consideration of digestate chains, emission-minimised composting, biochar, etc.)
- Phytoremediation/phytomining and aquatic biomass
- Policy advice
Team
The members of the working group with their respective research interests and fields of work are:
Velina Denysenko M. Sc.
research associate, nexus sustainable agriculture and renewable energies, integrated natural resource management, ecological assessment and potential analysis of raw materials in the context of bioeconomy.
Janine Müller M. Sc.
Research associate, Agricultural economic assessment of biogas production and climate-adapted agriculture
Dr.-Ing Daniela Gallegos Ibanez
Research associate, New and further development of substrate preparation processes for agricultural material flows including residual and waste materials, test planning and evaluation using statistical methods
Dr.-Ing Eric Mauky
Energetic and material use of agricultural residues, agroforestry systems, material flow management, process optimisation and control of aerobic and anaerobic processes, flexible biogas production, modelling and data analysis
Alicia Victoria Linz
Student trainee, Focus on bioeconomy and sustainable business models
Prof. Dr. agr. Walter Stinner
Head of working group