About Us
Our team has been involved in numerous international projects at all levels, working with farmers, private companies, NGO’s, ministries and international organisations (European Commission, FAO, IEA Bioenergy).
Biomass Research was founded by Hans Langeveld in 2008. After a career of 20 years in academic research, Hans wanted to work more closely with policy and commercial applications. He picked up the challenge and developed a unique profile both for himself and for the company.
Hans has over thirty years of experience in sustainable crop production, residue valorisation, bioenergy, and development of biobased alternatives based on agricultural and food industry residues. He was involved in the design, management and evaluation of projects aiming to develop options for bioenergy and biobased production in many parts of the world, including Europe, USA, Latin America, and Africa. His main focus is on biomass residues (availability, composition, conversion) and identification of barriers for effective and successful production chain development.
Also in the team is Foluke Quist-Wessel, an agronomist with 20 years of field experience in food and wood industries around the world. Foluke has worked in Europe, China, Salomon islands, Honduras and Africa. For a period of 15 years, she worked as scientist for Wageningen University and Research Center, Biomass Research and AgriQuest – a company she founded and leads. Foluke also works as reviewer of research proposals for the Horizon2020 program of the European Commission. Foluke has a drive to contribute to the development of sustainable cropping systems and optimal use of biomass. She worked in multi-disciplinary projects in international cooperation and rural development and has a profound understanding of commercial and socio-economic issues related to overall development and successful adaptation of technology. Her expertise includes sustainable land use, value chain development, valorisation of agro-residues, certification standards, and procedures and gender issues.
Based overseas for 25 years Elise Pinners predominantly worked in East and West Africa, and South East Asia.
She is an agronomist with 30 years’ professional experience. Since 2007 she worked as freelancer in her own company and moved back to the Netherlands in 2017.
Elise’s career focus is on the nexus between agriculture, sustainable land & water resource management and climate change. Mostly in these areas she developed her interest and expertise in Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL).
She likes innovation, is active as promotor of eco-engineering solutions, and wants to use her M&E and other expertise in Biomass Research, to contribute to organic fertiliser applications: results on the ground and in the soil.
Golaleh Ghaffari has an academic research background in Watershed Management Engineering. During her PhD, she specialized in hydrological response modelling and sustainable land use. She has worked on different projects in Iran and Europe. She has over 16 years of experience in catchment simulation, hydrology, floodplain management, geographic information system, remote sensing, geostatistic, regional planning and soil and water management modeling. Golaleh is focusing on data collection, analysis and project implementation. She also supports the team in practical and administrative tasks.
Recent graduate from Wageningen University, Laura Laroche has a background in sustainable land management. She is a soil scientist with an expertise in soil biology, composts, soil restoration and regenerative agriculture. Within the team, Laura is focusing on compost literature research and helps with practical tasks.
Manisha Lamichhane (MSc.), an agriculturalist and soil researcher, has a keen interest in soil-water interactions, soil fertility and nutrient management and an enthusiasm for developing tools and innovative concepts to support nutrient management research. Her past research experience includes phosphorus fertilizer management in cauliflower, ecofriendly aphid control in rapeseed and nitrogen management in maize and radish. She has 3 years of experience working as an Agriculture Development Officer in Nepal. At Biomass Research, Manisha is working on organic fertilizer valorisation projects in Africa. She is focusing on data collection, analysis, and reporting.
About Our Work
What we do
Biomass Research focuses on research and advice on the development and evaluation of biobased and bioenergy production.
Our activities include:
- land use change assessments
- biomass and residue inventarisation
- carbon debt analysis
- market analysis and chain development
- sustainability evaluation and certification advice
- decentral bioenergy production development
Some of our clients
- IEA Bioenergy
- Food industry
- European Commission
- Ministry of Economic affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (NL)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)
- Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency (PBL)
- Wageningen University and Research Centre
Partners
Biomass Research frequently collaborates with other professionals and companies.
Some of our products and projects
- Optimal stover removal rate for lignocellulosic ethanol production
- Overview paper on the impacts of SRC introduction in Europe
- Evaluating the performance of decentral coffee bioenergy production in Honduras
- Inventory of biobased options from crop and industrial residues
- EU inventory project ‘Impacts of Renewable Energy’
- Market analysis for biobased products from the potato industry
- Bioenergy alongside other land use options (IEA Bioenergy Task43)
- Development of smallscale decentralised ethanol production units for Indonesia
- Sustainability assessment of biomass production (NTA8080, RFA, other)
- Analysis of indirect land use change (iLUC) of biofuels, fossil fuels
- Designing sustainable and profitable systems
- Development of innovative decentralised bioenergy production
- Project coordination and management
- Book: The Biobased economy. Biofuels, materials and chemicals in the post-oil era (www.earthscan.co.uk)
- Sustainability Quick Scan
- CEN TC383 working group developing an international standard for
- GHG emission reduction calculation