Biogas solutions and green innovation through industrial symbiosis

My mission is to facilitate development and dissemination of sustainable solutions involving cross-sector collaboration, like biogas solutions and green innovation through industrial symbiosis.

I am the director of the transdisciplinary Biogas Research Centre where I focus on knowledge integration and exchange between scientific disciplines and between academy and industry. The aim of the centre is to advance resource-efficient biogas solutions through research, interaction and communication. It builds on the collaborative arena formed by around 20 private and public organisations together with eight research groups from political science to molecular biotechnology.

Industrial symbiosis is the science of valorising neglected resources through collaborative approaches. These resources, sometimes called by-products, waste or excess heat can often be used locally. The research about these processes includes uncovering activities as well as dissemination through development of a national network and resource centre for Industrial symbiosis.

From environmental history to industrial symbiosis

The interplay between human activities and the environment is in the center of my research. My early research focussed on environmental history, industrial material flows and their dynamics. After my PhD, I have continued to study flows, stocks and their corresponding impacts in different contexts under headings like environmental impact assessment, substance flow analysis, environmental systems analysis, infrastructure materials management, waste and recycling strategies, urban and landfill mining and industrial symbiosis in the forest industry. 

Long-term collaboration with industry and Swedish cities

Society’s institutional conditions have a major impact on the conditions for development of new and more sustainable industrial practices. I am engaged in the public discourse regarding conditions for companies relying on secondary resources for their business. A lot of the research benefit from my long-term relations with companies like Stena metall, Tekniska Verken, Econova, Biototal, E.ON and several Swedish cities that ensures relevance and impact of the research.  

Teaching

I teach mainly in the areas of biofuels for transport, industrial symbiosis and industrial ecology on the engineering programmes. In the earlier years of the programmes I introduce the areas of natural resources and large technical systems. 

In research education, I guide and supervise a number of PhD-candidates on their journey of becoming independent researchers.

Collaboration and commitments
  • Board member of Econova, an environmentally driven company in the areas of recycling, energy and garden with a 650 million SEK turnover.
  • Initiator of and responsible for strategic collaboration between Linköping University and the companies Stena Metall and Tekniska Verken.


Publications

2022

2021

News

Research

Publications

2022