Expansion of biosystems engineering studies with courses of biofuels and biomaterials in Lithuania

Abstract

A new branch of agricultural engineering is in the process of formation is bioenergy engineering. Non-food biomass and biofuels market is fast growing and there is big interest from companies to have educated graduates in this area. At present only few courses with introduction of biofuels are offered for students at the faculty of Agricultural Engineering of the Lithuanian University of Agriculture. Basics of renewable energy resources and biofuels technologies are presented in the courses offered on the Bachelor and Master level. The new module of Biomass Engineering has been developed for Master studies and contains four courses: Resources of Renewable Energy, Biomass Engineering, Engineering of Liquid biofuels and biolubricants, Engineering of Solid biofuels and Biogas. At the same time some developments of infrastructure were made as well: edited 9 textbooks, renovated 5 laboratories, trained teachers, PhD and Master students. Lithuania has ambition plans to develop bioenergy sector and to utilise more straw, liquid biofuels and biogas. There is high interest of Lithuanian research institutions in different areas of bioenergy.