After studying biology in Groningen I did my PhD thesis at the ETE group of Wageningen University and Research on sewage sludge reduction by aquatic worms. I have worked for nine years at water technology institute Wetsus in Leeuwarden to bring this topic closer to practice, increasingly in a more biobased and broader context: Next to be useful for the breakdown of organic waste invertebrates like worms and insects can be used as animal feed (e.g. for farmed fish) to replace less sustainable feedstocks.
At ACRRES, back at Wageningen University and Research, I work as researcher/project leader on different topics related to the valorization of low-value biomass for higher value applications. These are for example projects on algae and aquatic biomass, biopolymers and the production of invertebrates on organic (waste) streams.
