ON THE STANDARDIZATION OF BIOMASS/BIOFUELS TERMINOLOGY AND CERTIFICATION – A TAXONOMY/PARTONOMY ONTOLOGICAL APPROACH

摘要

The growing range of certification and standard-setting schemes developed to cover the biomass-tobiofuelsmarket under the sustainability framework has resulted in a significant degree of complexity that restricts theapplicability and the effectiveness of these schemes. While some experts believe that an increasing number ofcertification initiatives would just lead to beneficial competition, resulting in constant improvement in standards andstandard application, others point out that further proliferation of standards without a standardized terminology mightlead to loss of control and opportunity for meaningful participation, and substantial confusion among stakeholders.Albeit, the authors argue that there may be a way to capitalise on these synergies by integrating the products into one(meta)standard-setting system built on an ontological platform. This paper presents a methodological framework forbiomass/biofuels certification based on a cross-sectoral alignment ontology that (i) provides standardised terminologyacross related and/or allied domains (engineering, ecological, environmental, social, economic, etc.), (ii) assistsknowledge transfer and (iii) facilitates interoperability. The ontological platform developed focuses on the disclosureof common principles, terms and concepts as the basis to develop an effective and efficient standard-setting scheme,which could be equitably and transparently applied to products derived from a wide range of natural resources.