Pegah Nia presented an update about her thesis

On Monday, September 12, 2022, during our regular group meeting, Pegah, a Master’s student in our group, presented an update on her thesis. The topic of her master thesis is “Supply chain Modeling of (Woody/Agricultural) Biomass to Potash Mine in Saskatchewan. She estimated the amount of biomass that the potash mining facility requires to meet its heat demand and figured out the most economical pathway to deliver biomass to this facility. In her future work, Pegah will compare the cost of use of biomass versus natural gas and the potential GHG emissions reduction by switching from natural gas to biomass. Global potash demand is expected to double over the coming decades to meet the global population’s needs in a land-scarce, nutrient-depleted world as potash is used mainly as fertilizer. So, the use of low-carbon biomass as an energy source for process heat and facility heating will reduce the consumption of fossil fuels in potash mining operations.