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Dr Mirjam Röder - Aston University. Birmingham, , GB

Dr Mirjam Röder

Associate Professorial Research Fellow, Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) | Aston University

Birmingham, UNITED KINGDOM

Dr Röder's research interests focus on bioenergy and related sustainability implications.

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Biography

Dr Mirjam Röder is an Associate Professorial Research Fellow (Reader) at the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) at Aston University.

She leads the EBRI Systems Analysis group and is an experienced research leader in sustainable bioenergy systems and transition to low-carbon societies bridging engineering, natural and social sciences. she has extensive knowledge of the bioenergy sector, including biomass availability, conversion technologies, Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) markets, and end-user demand.

Dr Röder has a strong track record of leading and managing research on UKRI- and Government-funded and industry-academic partnership projects with a diverse research funding portfolio (e.g., EPSRC, BBSRC, NERC, ESRC, Innovate UK, UK Aid).

Additionally, she has long-term experience collaborating with the industrial, public sector and the wider public. Working over 12 years in academia, she has developed an exceptional interdisciplinary research track record with a wide skill set in quantitative and qualitative methods and interdisciplinary synthesis.

Dr Röder is an experienced research group leader, supervising research staff and PhDs and a mentor and ambassador on equity, diversity and inclusion with a focus on STEM and early career development.

Her equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) expertise includes leading on the successful Athena Swan Gold Award of the College for Engineering and Physical Sciences and supporting the Race Equality Charter activities of Aston University.

Areas of Expertise (5)

Sustainability

Negative Emissions

Bioenergy and Bioeconomy

Climate Change

Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)

Education (1)

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: PhD, Agricultural Sciences / Agro-sociology 2008

Affiliations (2)

  • WIREs Energy and Environment : Associate Editor, Bioenergy
  • Biomass and Bioenergy : Guest Editor, Special Issue

Media Appearances (2)

EXPERT COMMENT: What is Bioenergy? And what role can it play in a low carbon future?

The University of Manchester  online

2017-11-16

As the UN’s annual climate change conference, COP23, reaches its climax, Dr Mirjam Roeder, from The University of Manchester's School of Mechanical, Aerospace & Civil Engineering and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, outlines why bioenergy is a key renewable energy source for a carbon neutral feature.

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Rice growing produces tonnes of excess straw – can we turn it into ‘bioenergy’?

Aston University  online

2019-10-10

For every tonne of rice produced, about a tonne of straw is grown. Given 770m tonnes of rice are produced each year, that’s a lot of straw. Some of this straw is used as livestock bedding and fodder, in building materials, or ploughed back into the soil as fertiliser. But there’s much more straw than can be used and it’s labour and cost-intensive to remove it after harvest.

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Articles (5)

Exploring temporal aspects of climate-change effects due to bioenergy

Biomass and Bioenergy

The greenhouse gas emissions associated with bioenergy are often temporally dispersed and can be a mixture of long-term forcers (such as carbon dioxide) and short-term forcers (such as methane). These factors affect the timing and magnitude of climate-change impacts associated with bioenergy in ways that cannot be clearly communicated with a single metric. This is critical as key comparisons that determine incentives and policy for bioenergy are based upon climate-change impacts expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent calculated with GWP100.

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Environmental trade-offs associated with bioenergy from agri-residues in sub-tropical regions: A case study of the Colombian coffee sector

Biomass and Bioenergy

The coffee sector generates vast amounts of residues along its value chain. Crop residues, like coffee stems, are burned in the field, used for domestic cooking or coffee drying in processing plants having significant environmental and health implication to rural communities. This research investigated the environmental impacts of replacing current practices with modern bioenergy applications in the Colombian coffee sector.

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(Stop) burning for biogas. Enabling positive sustainability trade-offs with business models for biogas from rice straw

Biomass and Bioenergy

Rice is the main agricultural crop in the Philippines and central to the country's food security. One main challenge of rice farming is the management of the straw after harvest. With limited uses, the rice straw is currently burned or in some cases incorporated with significant environmental impacts. However, it can be an important feedstock for sustainable bioenergy and support energy access in the Philippines. The research was conducted around a 1000 m3 biogas pilot plant in Laguna province, Philippines.

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A review of the role of bioenergy modelling in renewable energy research & policy development

Biomass and Bioenergy

Transition towards renewable low carbon energy is a fundamental element of climate change mitigation, energy from biomass technologies are targeted within many country's decarbonisation strategies. Decision makers globally face many challenges developing strategies to drive this transition; models are increasingly used to road-test policy interventions before their implemented. A Bioenergy Literature Database was developed of 124,285 papers published 2000–2018. These document an exponential rise in research focusing on biomass and bioenergy.

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A review of the role of bioenergy modelling in renewable energy research & policy development

Biomass and Bioenergy

Transition towards renewable low carbon energy is a fundamental element of climate change mitigation, energy from biomass technologies are targeted within many country's decarbonisation strategies. Decision makers globally face many challenges developing strategies to drive this transition; models are increasingly used to road-test policy interventions before their implemented. A Bioenergy Literature Database was developed of 124,285 papers published 2000–2018.

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