The research cluster Energy Supply, which is co-ordinated by Prof. Dr. Andre Faaij, represents about a quarter of that capacity.Energy Supply has a distinct (international) reputation and strong and diverse funding position; some 90% of the research is funded by external sources, more or less equally divided between scientific funds (NWO; Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research), national sources (AgentschapNL, Ministries, GTI’s, private sector) and international sources (EC, IEA, FAO, UN, private sector, etc.). Andre is the leader of Task 40, together with Peter-Paul Schouwenberg

Dr. Martin Junginger works as senior researcher and assistant professor at the Copernicus Institute since 2005. After obtaining his PhD in May 2005, he has mainly been working on the topic of Sustainable International Bioenergy Trade. He coordinates and manages IEA Bioenergy Task 40 on Sustainable International Bioenergy Trade, and currently works amongst others on charting international trade in biomass and biofuels, and sustainability criteria for biomass.He is co-author of more than 25 peer-reviewed articles,and supvervises several PhD and MSc students.

Chun Sheng (C.S.) Goh works as junior researcher at the Copernicus Institute since 2005. He plays the role as the assistant to the task leader, i.e. coordinates and manages IEA Bioenergy Task 40 on Sustainable International Bioenergy Trade. Currently he works on international trade in biomass and biofuels, particularly sustainability certifications for biomass.

Science, Technology & Society (STS) is part of the Faculty of Natural Science of Utrecht University and employs about 45 people. STS is also part of the Copernicus Institute. The Cioernicus Institute for Sustainable Development covers the fields of energy research, environmental science, policy studies and innovation management and holds some 80 research staff.

Biomass & Bioenergy is one of the 4 sub-topics of the Energy Supply cluster and covers e.g.

Performance of biomass conversion technologies,:
by using tools as ASPEN-plus, and GATE & CYCLE. This includes (co-fired) BIG/CC systems, (co-) combustion, pyrolysis and a wide array of (bio-) fuel, hydrogen and polygeneration (or biorefinery) concepts.

Biomass potentials and modeling land-use patterns and changes:
potential studies are carried out on very different levels (from global to regional and including wastes, residues and dedicated biomass production systems). Methodological aspects of comparing various production systems and competition for land are studied and developed using a multitude of analytical tools such as GIS and macro-economic models.

Impact and performance analysis of bio-energy systems.
This work has partly a strong methodological character and partly aims for addressing the very complex question of sustainability of large-scale biomass production and use for energy (and materials). Life Cycle Analysis and Environmental Impact Analyses; are applied (as well as further developed) in many projects.

System analyses, optimization and related model development;
this addresses the performance and optimization options of complete bio-energy systems including energy and biomaterials (and their reference systems) and waste treatment systems by developing and applying different modeling approaches.

Studying non-technical barriers, development of policy, RD&D and implementation strategies,
e.g., by performing country comparison, scenario studies and understanding and quantifying the concept of technological learning.

Other sub-topics are intermittent sources (solar and wind energy), Clean Fossil Fuels (with much attention for hydrogen production and utilization) and energy system studies in general, covering modeling of the energy infrastructure, evaluation of long term development strategies, scenario studies, etc.