Videos

Too often, companies take too little account of the environmental impact of these inventions when developing new products. Gwenny Thomassen wants to change this: she developed a model to calculate both the cost price and the impact on the environment for products based on micro-algae.

Cinnamon, one of the main ingredients of Belgium's beloved speculaas 😋, is almost exclusively harvested by farmers in Kerinci, a small region in Indonesia. One would think these farmers are rich, but are they really? Sidi Rana Menggala has the answer.

"If we think in circles, we start producing and consuming differently. In his research, Nicholas Vijverman (Vlerick Business School - University of Ghent) studies how we can engage everyone - from government, producer to consumer - in the circular economy. ♻️

Yixing Sui is a kind of farmer. The 'crop' he is growing? Microalgae! These tiny living organisms might prove to be an important solution for the increasing food demands due to large population growth.

People are selling overnight stays in their spare rooms and rides in their car. Then why can't they sell their unused (solar) energy? In her research Ariana Ramos proposes new rules that would enable you as a consumer to trade energy with other consumers.

Recycling plastic is kind of like eating spaghetti. With this analogy Christian Taplan introduces us into the world of plastic recycling. Christian is working on a new and very promising type of recyclable plastic materials, called 'vitrimers'.

A question: if a pig farmer has 10.000 pigs and you know that 1 pig produces 4.5kg of manure each day, how much manure does the farmer have to deal with on a yearly basis? That's right: a sh*tload of manure. A good thing Natalia Donoso is researching how pig farmers can process this manure in a sustainable way.

Winter, with its cold temperatures, is not the favourite season of our farmers. Certain plants and crops suffer greatly from the cold. But did you know that these plants themselves have the key to withstand the cold? Antoine Persyn explains exactly how this works.