Miljoenengift Wageningen Universiteit

Collegevoorzitter Aalt Dijkhuizen twitterde vrijdag: “Got the biggest private donation in our history: 3.2 m euros. To be spent on our malaria research in Africa. Dear donor, thank you so much!!”

“Dat is ook alles wat erover bekend is”, reageert een woordvoerder van de universiteit. “En het gaat niet om een erfenis of legaat.” Hoeveel geld Wageningen Universiteit jaarlijks van particulieren krijgt, weet hij niet. “Dat zijn we in kaart aan het brengen, juist omdat fondsenwerving steeds belangrijker wordt.”

Wageningen Universiteit heeft net als andere Nederlandse universiteiten verschillende fondsen waarin donaties van particulieren – bijvoorbeeld alumni – en organisaties terechtkomen. Uit de fondsen worden onder andere buitengewoon hoogleraren gefinancierd en studiebeurzen aan getalenteerde studenten uit ontwikkelingslanden.

In het buitenland krijgen universiteiten vaker giften van filantropen. Zo ontving de universiteit van Oxford in september 90 miljoen euro om een nieuw college te openen. De Duitse Technische Universität Karlsruhe kreeg in 2008 tweehonderd miljoen euro, vermoedelijk de hoogste gift van een particulier aan een Europese universiteit. Maar aan kop staan de Amerikaanse universiteiten, die jaarlijks honderden miljoenen euro’s binnenhalen.

BP’s endeavours to stop the tremendous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are paying off. The oil company announced last weekend that it succeeded in funnelling approximately 1,000 barrels (160,000 litres) a day to a waiting tanker ship. This is approximately twenty percent of the leaking oil. The company inserted a long tube, connected to a tanker at the surface, into the larger of the two leaks.

This siphoned oil is however mixed with water and therefore worth less money. Will BP still process this oil in refineries or does it regard the oil as chemical waste? Moreover, what will the company do with the oil that is still accumulating rapidly on the ocean surface?

In answer to an email inquiry, a BP spokesperson said ‘the oil will be shipped to a Gulf Coast refinery and put into the refinery system, where it will be treated as off-spec crude’. Off-spec crude is oil of lesser quality. The spokesperson went on to say that this is also the case for the oil BP recuperates from the source at the bottom of the ocean, as well as the oil the company recuperates from the sea surface and the oil it recovers from the beaches.
Associate professor of oil refinery, Michiel Makkee (faculty of Applied
Sciences), is not surprised that BP wants to refine all the oil: “It’s no problem whatsoever to process the oil.”

Makkee’s opinion is the complete opposite of that of Dave Salt, a researcher at the British Institute Oil Spill Response. He doesn’t believe a word BP says about refining the oil it collects from the ocean surface and beaches.
“Normally, owing to the difference in density, you can easily separate oil and seawater from each other”, Salt says. “But in this case the two are so severely mixed that they’ve become an emulsion, which explains the orange colour of the spill. If you want to separate them from one another in that stage, you either have to heat the mixture or add some chemicals.”

According to Salt, the oil, which has been floating on the sea surface, is not worth the effort because it has deteriorated. “The more volatile fraction has evaporated”, he says, “and there is a lot of salt in the oil. Refineries are not used to processing such bad quality.”
Makkee agrees that the oil is of bad quality. “But”, he says, “there are refineries that can process any slush into high quality fuel. It just takes more effort. The company will calculate what the most cost-effective treatment is. If processing in a refinery is too expensive, it will treat the oil as chemical waste and have it burned in waste treatment plants, where it can be used to generate electricity.”