Case study Sustainable biofuels

Social and ethical dimensions of fossil fuel alternatives

Dr Alison Mohr and Dr Sujatha Raman

“One of the particular novel aspects of what we're doing is that we're involved from the very early research and development phases of biofuels development in the UK.”

How ethical are biofuels?

In addition to being a world leader in plant and cereal biology – both in the UK and Malaysia – researchers at The University of Nottingham are concerned with studying the social and ethical dimensions of the transition to sustainable biofuels.

In the race to develop technological alternatives to fossil fuel use, it is feared that unintended environmental damage may occur and limited resources diverted to crops for fuels may contribute to poverty, starvation and social conflict over land use. Second-generation approaches therefore aim to develop novel techniques for converting non-food feedstocks to fuel.

“One of the biggest challenges to emerge in recent years over biofuels is the fear it represents a conflict with using land for feeding people,” says Dr Sujatha Raman.

Highlights

As previous experience with bioscience innovations has shown, it has become increasingly important for scientists to engage with social and ethical concerns early in the research process.

As a lecturer in Science and Technology Studies in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, Dr Sujatha Raman directs research on social and ethical dimensions within the Lignocellulosic Conversion to bioEthanol (LACE) project in collaboration with Dr Alison Mohr, Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Social Policy, and Dr Kate Millar, Director of the Centre for Applied Bioethics in the School of Biosciences.

Using ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and analysis of key documents, the work:

maps different sources of knowledge, uncertainties and perceptions around bioenergy and its wider impacts
examines the network of institutions and technologies around second-generation biofuels, and explores scenarios of how specific technologies are expected to become embedded
conducts public and stakeholder engagement workshops to explore different understandings of the implications of bioenergy research
and creates dialogue between LACE researchers, stakeholders and the lay public on ethical concerns and expectations regarding bioenergy futures.

Video

For more video content, visit The University of Nottingham YouTube channel and iTunesU.

Expertise

Dr Sujatha Raman, Dr Alison Mohr and Dr Kate Millar draw on participatory and real-time technology assessment (RTTA) methods and the Ethical Matrix, to examine different ways of understanding the social and ethical dimensions of research and technologies. Dr Mohr researches governance approaches and tools for opening up innovation processes to public scrutiny and debate worldwide. Dr Millar has significant experience of utilizing the Ethical Matrix to promote ethical reflection within scientific research projects. Dr Raman studies the relationships between scientific research, policy and publics around emerging sustainability challenges.

Impact

Dr Raman, Dr Mohr and Dr Millar seek to embed social science within a scientific project so that the wider implications of research applications may be considered at an early stage.

Questions are emerging about the implications of bioenergy for climate change mitigation and energy system transition, agricultural systems, water use, and relationships between local and global stakeholders. When these issues are debated, different understandings of sustainability are often exposed; for example, even the most common way of framing biofuel impacts around food-versus-fuel conflicts can be reframed by groups who seek to bring the use of land for human consumption of meat into the picture. These are relevant for debates around both first and second generation biofuels.

Scale of research

This research is part of the national £27m BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC) – the largest single UK public investment in bioenergy research.

Funding

This work is funded within the £6.97m LACE (Lignocellulosic Conversion to bioEthanol) project run by The University of Nottingham, one of six research projects in BSBEC. LACE consists of two scientific strands and three themes on sustainability challenges, of which the social and ethical theme is one. LACE is a major part of Nottingham’s bioenergy programme which runs from 2009-2013.

Contact

Rosamund Aubrey, Research and Business Development Lead – Science, Technology and Society

+44 (0)115 95 14881

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