University of Groningen
Quantifying and mapping bioenergy potentials in China
Zhang, Bingquan
DOI:
10.33612/diss.168012388
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Publication date: 2021
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Zhang, B. (2021). Quantifying and mapping bioenergy potentials in China: Spatiotemporal analysis of technical, economic and sustainable biomass supply potentials for optimal biofuel supply chains in China. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.168012388
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Appendix
Acknowledgments
List of publications
About the author
Appendix
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Acknowledgments
Upon writing this thesis and reflecting on my PhD journey of the past four and half years, I’m filled with gratitude for having received a great deal of support and assistance from organizations and many kind and brilliant people I have met and worked with. Their valued contributions considerably helped me complete this PhD thesis.
First of all, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my primary supervisor, Prof. André
Faaij. I still remember very well how we had our first online conversation when I was in China
while you were in Groningen in January 2016. Your enthusiastic introduction to the research topic dispelled my concern about this research field that I have never engaged in. When we first met physically in October 2016, I found you are an optimistic and easygoing person. I know I was not an easy PhD student in the first nine months because of the language barriers and unfamiliar study field and might make you frustrated on supervising me. Nevertheless, you were patient with me and gave me opportunities to improve myself. What I admire most is that you have a substance of a genius: you convincingly guided and encouraged me to be professional and do the right thing by learning to be critical, using multiple perspectives, and thinking directly even when the road got tough. Without your persistent help, the goals of this thesis and PhD training would not have been realized.
I wish to express my deep gratitude to Prof. Tao Lin, who is my co-supervisor from Zhejiang University. Although you are not my initial co-supervisor and joined my PhD journey halfway, you always willing and enthusiastic to guide me and provide me with strong support during the research of chapters 4 and 5. Besides, thank you for allowing me to stay at Zhejiang University for a short period in September 2019 to initiate our collaboration and work with your group members. The last two chapters would not have completed smoothly without your kind assistance.
I wish to thank the members of the assessment committee, Prof. Henk Moll, Prof. Martin
Junginger, and Prof. Madhu Khanna, for your time to read and evaluate my thesis.
I would like to thank Dr. Chris Davis, who had been my initial co-supervisor for the first year. Although we had worked together for only one year, then you left for another position, you still provided me with thoughtful ideas and suggestions that helped me build up the initial work plan and framework of my thesis.
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I wish to show my gratitude to Prof. Dong Jiang who invited me to visit the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for a month's stay in November 2017 to startup our collaboration on chapters 2 and 3. Specifically thanks to Dr. Jingying Fu, Xiaoxi Yan, and Dr. Mengmeng Hao who helped me gain skills in GIS technology and provided me with very useful research data as input for chapters 2, 3, and 4. I would like to express my appreciation to my two collaborators, Prof. John Clifton-Brown from Aberystwyth University and Dr. Astley Hastings from The University of Aberdeen, who have made great contributions to chapters 2 and 3. Prof. Clifton-Brown, you replied to me so quickly when I first reach out to you to ask questions about Miscanthus in March 2018. Thank you for helping me to set up a cooperation team with Dr. Hastings, giving suggestions for revising manuscripts, and inviting me to attend the MiscoMar conference. Dr. Hastings, I wish to thank you for establishing the MiscanFor model and tackling the modeling problems to estimate the yield of Miscanthus of China, which forms a critical part of chapter 2.
I would like to thank Dr. Jialu Xu and Dr. Changqiang Guo from Zhejiang University, who are my collaborators in the research chapters 4 and 5, respectively. Both of you are very easygoing and hardworking people and always gave me feedback in time. Your suggestions from different perspectives have brought a lot of inspiration to my studies. Meanwhile, your valuable contributions, including data processing, model establishment, and manuscript revisions, are critical to the completion of the involved chapters. Especially Changqiang, thank you for fully cooperating with me to speed up the research progress of the last chapter so that I can complete my PhD thesis as soon as possible.
One university colleague deserves special gratitude here, without whom I probably would never have started a PhD in the Netherland. Wanli Zheng, you encouraged me to kick start a PhD abroad in the Netherlands in an unfamiliar research field when you called me after I attended a seminar that was held by you in November 2015 at my master university. Your inspired talk on the seminar raised my interest in studying at the University of Groningen. You changed my idea of not pursuing a PhD degree anymore and helped me adapt to live in Groningen at the beginning. By the way, thank you for inviting me to visit your home and taste delicious Chinese food made by your wife Na Li.
I would like to express my appreciation to my colleagues at IREES and ESRIG who helped me a lot and spent so many happy hours with me during my PhD in Groningen. Thank you, Klaus,
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René, Sanderine, Ton, Henk, Winnie, Henny, Franco, and Hans. I enjoyed the pleasant time
talking with you. Annemiek, you are always enthusiastic and willing to help me when I have problems and requests regarding sending letters, B&O interviewing, expense claiming, forwarding emails, and other office-related trivia. Leo and Simone, thank you for helping me deal with administrative related matters several times. Jinrui, Yanmei, Weier, Fan, Xiaodong,
Younis, Nidia, Karabee, Linh, Tjerk, Srini, Soma, Junjie, Yuli, Ruoqi, Dan, Chao, Lingna, Yaoguang, Emilia, Amir, Rafael, Gideon, Ahmad, Manuel, Felix, Wahab, Esther and other
institute members not named here, all of you are very nice people to work with. Thanks for the wonderful experience you brought me at work, at coffee time, and lunchtime.
Luckily, I have met so many wonderful friends in Groningen, who brought precious, priceless, and dazzling sunshine to my PhD journey. I would like to thank all my “brothers”. Jinrui Zhang, you have multiple identities for me, a friend, a colleague, an “officemate”, and so-called “Zhang brother”. Both of us are not talkative, so we normally don’t say a few words a day even though we have been sitting face to face in the same office for more than four years. But thank you for not leaving this office and being my companion during endless hours of free time and travel. Weier, you are my friend, colleague, and basketball partner. Thanks for always playing basketball, partying, playing games, and traveling with me. Your homemade Zha-Jiang noodle is the best I have ever tasted. Qian Wang, you are a very talkative person with endless humor. Thank you for talking so much to me and always bringing me happiness. Hao Guo, it was wonderful to live in a house for more than two years and play basketball with you. And thank you for helping me take care of my dog with true love and being our team leader when we traveled together. Daozheng, you always smile, which makes me feel relaxed all the time when we playing basketball, having parties, and traveling together. Mike, you are a nice and trustworthy friend. Thank you for chatting with me often to share your insight and knowledge with me. For my female friends, I wish to thank all the beautiful, shining, and sweet girls
Shuxian, Xiaoxiang, Yu Tian, and Lin Zhou, who make my life full of colors with your strong
personal appeal and frequent delicious food. Your feminine perspectives always give me some inspiration on how to be a good man. Besides, I would like to thank Kun He and Xiangyuan couple, who invited me to have several great meals at your house. I also want to express my appreciation to Xun Tong who often helped me take care of my dog when I was traveling. Those friends who did me a favor deserve gratitude here.
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and bringing me the best happiness. It is you who fill my life with love and meaning. I am deeply moved and grateful for your selfless contribution to our small family. When I make mistakes, thank you for your patience and tolerance. When I am too busy to look after myself and you, thank you for your support behind the scenes. When I hesitate, thank you for your kind reminder. When I encounter difficulties, thank you for your encouragement and for lighting me up in the dark. This is our love that will last forever. You have become an indispensable part of my life. You are the queen of the kingdom of my happiness. Thank you, for all. I would also like to thank our cute dog Maodan, who has been a member of our small family for four years, for adding a lot of fun and vitality to our lives.
To my beloved mom and dad. Thank you for raising me and teaching me how to be a kind, responsible and grateful person in a loving family. You were always there supporting all those years of study and contributing everything unconditionally. Dear grandma, thank you for taking care of and loving me so many years since I was a baby. I am very sad that grandpa is not here to see my achievement, but I think he would be extremely proud of me.
爸爸，妈妈，是你们将我抚养长大并教会我如何做人，感谢你们这些年对我学习上的支 持以及无条件的付出。亲爱的奶奶，感谢您一直以来对我的照顾和疼爱。
Finally but foremost, the financial support from the China Scholarship Council and partly financial support from the University of Groningen are truly appreciated. Without their support and funding, I would not have had this opportunity to do my PhD and complete this thesis at the University of Groningen.
Thank you all.
Bingquan Zhang
张丙全
March 2021
List of publications
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List of publications
• Zhang, B., Xu, J., Lin, Z., Lin, T. Faaij, A. (2021) Spatially explicit analyses of sustainable agricultural residue potential for bioenergy in China under various soil and land management scenarios. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 137, 110614. • Zhang, B., Hastings, A., Clifton-Brown, J. C., Jiang, D. Faaij, A. (2020) Modeled spatial
assessment of biomass productivity and technical potential of Miscanthus × giganteus, Panicum virgatum L., and Jatropha on marginal land in China. Global Change Biology Bioenergy. 12, 5, p. 328-345.
• Zhang, B., Hastings, A., Clifton-Brown, J. C., Jiang, D. Faaij, A. (2020) Spatiotemporal assessment of farm-gate production costs and economic potential of Miscanthus × giganteus, Panicum virgatum L., and Jatropha grown on marginal land in China. Global Change Biology Bioenergy. 12, 5, p. 310-327.
• Zhang, B., Guo, C., Lin, T. Faaij, A. Economic optimization for dual-feedstock lignocellulosic-based sustainable biofuel supply chain considering greenhouse gas emission and soil carbon stock. (Under review by Applied Energy)
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About the author
Bingquan Zhang was born on the 28th of February 1992 in Weifang, Shandong province, China. He started his bachelor in the specialty of Seed Science and Engineering at Shandong Agricultural University in 2010 and obtained his degree of Bachelor of Agronomy in 2014. Then he enrolled at China Agricultural University in Beijing to study Crop Sciences and Agricultural Extension. His master thesis focused on gene mapping of maize mutants. At the end of his master's, he was awarded a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council for pursuing a doctorate abroad. Shortly after receiving his Master's degree in Agricultural Extension in 2016, he started as a PhD student at the Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in October 2016. His research focused on quantifying and mapping biomass resource potentials from marginal land and agricultural residues in China with techno-economic analysis of biomass production but also worked on optimization of sustainable biofuel supply chains with the consideration of multiple sustainability constraints including greenhouse gas emissions, soil management, and soil organic carbon balance. During his PhD, he initiated several international collaborations with several experts in different disciplines from UK and China on the research topics.
