Research

Dr. John Posada is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands; and as part of the multidisciplinary section Biotechnology and Society, he is leading the work in the area of “Integral Sustainability for the Biobased Economy”.

Dr. Posada’s research interests are broad and cover, amongst others: Design of sustainable biorefineries; Techno-economic and environmental assessment of (bio-)chemical processes; Social sustainability of biorefineries; and Integral sustainability (social, environmental and economic) assessment of bio-economy projects. To do so, his group combines knowledge and tools from engineering practice (e.g. conceptual process design, process simulation, supply chains design, process economics, environmental impacts assessment, social impacts assessment, multi-criteria analysis) and social sciences (e.g. qualitative research (interviews, workshops, questioners) and institutional/policy analysis). His research aims to help to develop long-term sustainable solutions within the bio-economy by simultaneously considering three key “design dimensions”: i) level of detail, ii) full production chain perspective, and iii) integral sustainability performance.