BE-Sustainable Magazine Issue 3

Be sustainable

The magazine of bioenergy and the bioeconomy

THE DANISH WAY TO THE BIOECONOMY

Macroalgae Developments | CHP goes Green | Integrated Biorefineries Optimizing Value from Biomass | Sustainability and Co-regulation

Sustainable Pathways for Algal Bioenergy

www.enalgae.eu | info@enalgae.eu

editorial

What does a knowledge-based economy look like?

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ow many times in the last years have we heard the saying that the Chinese character for crisis also means opportunity? I can only assume this is true, as I am totally illiterate in Chinese, and it seems there are actually some controversies among linguists on this. However during the preparation of this issue I believe we learned one example of how true this principle can be as we were getting more acquainted with the Danish bioenergy and bioeconomy sectors. When the first oil crisis hit the western world in the 70’s, Denmark was 90% dependent on foreign oil imports. By that time a strong policy commitment was built, to prioritize energy saving and diversify the country’s energy supply including a growing share of renewables. This long-standing and stable policy framework set the foundations for the country to develop a thriving renewable energy industry and this is particulary true for the Danish bioenergy sector.

Indeed the country has a target to use 100% renewable energy by 2050 and in 2012 an agreement to achieve a share of 35% renewable energy in the final energy consumption by 2020 was signed by 95% of the Parliament. Today almost 70% of renewable energy in Denmark stems from biomass. This is possible thanks to a large use of cogeneration and municipal district heating but also to the well-known expertise of the Danish industry to mobilize large quantities of challenging feedstock such as straw or renewable wastes and utilize them for combustion.

This is indeed a successful result of the cooperation between agriculture, industry and research along the years. Nowadays this same combined effort is focusing on how to integrate side streams to achieve the highest possible biomass conversion efficiency. This is the principle behind the Maabjerg Energy Concept, where industry giants such as Dong Energy and Novozymes have invested together with a consortium of municipalities and waste companies to develop an integrated biorefinery which promises to achieve a 96% energy efficiency. At the same time, Danish applied research is developing solutions to turn even more challenging feedstock such as seaweeds into a multitude of high-value products besides energy. Likewise, additional research is focused on how to intensify agricultural production while preserving sustainability, or how to integrate biomass with other renewable sources; for instance by using wind power to produce methane out of the CO2 contained in biogas and storing it into the gas grid.

In a few words, these efforts are all aiming at the same target: maximizing the efficiency of the way we will use our resources. While this is one of the main drivers behind the growing bioeconomy, the track-record of Danish bioenergy success stories shows that knowledge, applied to our production systems, is one of the keys Maurizio Cocchi Editor-in-Chief to achieve this and also to take advantage of editorial@besustainablemagazine.com opportunities out of crisis.

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summary

Be sustainable

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BE sustainable ETA-Florence Renewable Energies via Giacomini, 28 50132 Florence - Italy www.besustainablemagazine.com Issue 3 - June 2013

Editorial notes · M. Cocchi |

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News | Bioenergy and bioeconomy news around the world

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Regions · T.Y. Toftdahl | A World Leader in Bioenergy

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Regions · D.H. Lauritsen | Biomass in the Green State of Denmark

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Scenarios · L. Lange | Optimizing the Value from Biomass

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Resources · C. Felby et al. | Sustainable Biomass in Denmark from Existing Agriculture and Forestry

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Industry · J. Søgaard | A full-scale integrated biorefinery in 2017

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Industry · Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels Call for Solid Regulation

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Scenarios · K. Tybirk | Wind Power Stored into the Gas Grid

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Industry · UPM and VTT Fleet Tests with Renewable Diesel

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Research · A.B. Bjerre et al. | MacroAlgae Developments

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Research · B. Vad Mathiesen | Biomass for the Transport Sector in 100% Renewable Energy Systems

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Projects · E. Dubbers | Combined Heat & Power Becomes Even Greener

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Policy · C. Panoutsou | Resource Efficient Biomass Policies

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Policy · EC Progress Report on Renewable Energy

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Bioeconomy · O.M. Costenoble | Standardisation for the Bio-Based Economy

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Sustainability · J. van Dam | Co-regulation: "Fashion or Effective Tool for the Sustainability of Global Biomass Supply Chains?"

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BE Sustainable is published by ETA-Florence Renewable Energies, Via Giacomini 28, 50132 Florence, Italy Editor-in-Chief: Maurizio Cocchi | editorial@besustainablemagazine.com | twitter: @maurizio_cocchi Managing editor: Angela Grassi | angela@besustainablemagazine.com Authors: T.Y. Toftdahl, L. Lange, C. Felby, N. Scott Bentsen, V. Kvist Johannesen, U. Jørgensen, M. Gylling, K. Tybirk, A.B. Bjerre, K.S. Bech, L. Nikolaisen, B. Vad Mathiesen, E. Dubbers, C. Panoutsou, O.M. Costenoble, H. Willemse, F. Petit, J. van Dam, S. Spijkers, S. Ugarte, M. Gaebler, J. Søgaard Marketing & Sales: marketing@besustainablemagazine.com Graphic design: Tommaso Guicciardini Corsi Salviati Layout: Valentina Davitti, ETA-Florence Renewable Energies Print: Mani srl | Via di Castelpulci 14/c | 50018 Scandicci, Florence, Italy Website: www.besustainablemagazine.com The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

Cover image by © iStockphoto/Jean Schweitzer Image on page 8 by © Istockphoto.com/Anna Kuzilina Image on page 12 by © Istockphoto.com/Sohl

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Bioenergy and bioeconomy news around news

More than 100 anaerobic digestion plants installed in UK Nearly half of the AD plants currently in operation are ‘community’ digesters, where food waste is collected from multiple sources, like supermarkets, hospitality providers and households, to be converted into heat, power and fertilizer. A further 40% use ‘agricultural’ feedstock, like slurry, manure, crops or residues. The remaining digesters are ‘industrial’ sites treating on-site waste such as brewery effluent and food processing residues.

18 March 2013 http://tinyurl.com/ct2pdkq

Uk: more than half of the biofuel (66%) supplied met sustainable criteria in 2012 Last year, 632 million litres of sustainable biofuel were supplied in the UK. bioethanol represented 55% of the supply, while biodiesel made up 39% and biomethanol and MTBE made-up 6%. The main source for biodiesel was used cooking oil from the UK, which 22% of all biodiesel supplied.For bioethanol, the majority was corn supplied from the United States of America -27% of the amount.

2 May 2013 http://tinyurl.com/bv6ag6f

SkyNRG first operator capable of supplying rsb certified jet fuel into wing

EC funds biorefinery research projects The European Commission announced the approval of 39.8 million euro in aid for a research programme in biorefinery. The programme is called “Genesys” and it is granted by the French government to the P.I.V.E.R.T. (IEED, Institute of Excellence in Low-Carbon energy).The project aims for around 100 scientific publications per year and the filing of some 40 patents on oilseeds and lipids over the next decade.

SkyNRG, is the first aviation biofuel operator worldwide with Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels certification for their entire supply chain. This gives aviation, for the first time ever, the possibility to fly on RSB certified fuel. RSB is the leading multi-stakeholder derived global standard, ensuring that biofuels deliver on their promise of sustainability.

7 March 2013 http://tinyurl.com/c3xuuc8

15 May 2013 http://tinyurl.com/bsnojxm

Abengoa starts operation at its waste-to-biofuels plant in Salamanca The plant has a capacity to treat 25,000 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW), from which up to 1.5 million liters of bioethanol will be produced for use as fuel.

Abengoa’s technology is not just limited to treating the organic fraction of MSW but also enables the remaining components to be used, to obtain biodiesel and to recover energy to generate steam and electricity.

1 April 2013 http://tinyurl.com/c5uuvor

ESA approves “Biomass” satellite to monitor carbon stored in the forest A satellite that can "weigh" the Earth's forests has been given the go ahead by the European Space Agency. Biomass, as it will be known, is expected to launch in 2020. Scientists will use “Biomass” to calculate the amount of carbon stored in the world's forests, and to monitor for any changes over the course of the five-year mission.

7 May 2013 http://tinyurl.com/cyhb679

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Maersk funds research to develop lignin as alternative marine fuel sources A memorandum of understanding was signed with Progression Industry to develop a viable marine fuel from lignin that meets stringent parameters on price, technical performance, sustainability and emissions. Under this agreement Progression will produce 50,000 tonnes of a lignin based fuel that meets Maersk’s criteria.

22 March 2013 http://tinyurl.com/cq2jtlz

the world

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Biorefinery demo plant opened by Borregard in Norway The plant uses proprietary Borregaard technology and aims to produce costeffective and sustainable lignin and bioethanol from new raw materials.

The technology converts the cellulose fibres into sugars that can be used for second generation bioethanol, while other components of the biomass become advanced biochemicals.

16 April 2013

Sweden covers 51% of its energy supply with renewables, meets its RED target 8 years ahead of schedule The target set by the RED Directive for Sweden was a share of 49% by 2020 while according to the Swedish Energy Agency, in 2012 51% of Sweden’s energy supply was already from renewable energy sources. Bioenergy plays a fundamental role in meeting this target.

21 March 2013 http://tinyurl.com/cl963eu

http://tinyurl.com/d287skh

World’s largest biomass gasification plant inaugurated in Vaasa, Finland The technology of the new plant is based on Metso’s long-term development work.

Metso’s delivery included fuel handling, a large-scale dryer and a circulating fluidized bed gasifier, modification work on the existing coal boiler and a Metso DNA automation system. The bio-gasification plant was constructed as part of the existing coal-fired power plant, and the produced gas will be combusted along with coal in the existing coal boiler.

11 March 2013 http://tinyurl.com/cfrf9sl

UPM and VTT to initiate fleet tests on wood based diesel using Volkswagen cars UPM’s renewable diesel, known as UPM BioVerno, is an high-quality biofuel produced from residues of the forest industry, with no edible materials being used. Biofuel is produced by UPM, fleet tests are coordinated by VTT while cars are supplied by VV-Auto Group. Fleet tests with UPM BioVerno started in May. 26 April 2013 http://tinyurl.com/ck4p7m5

Virgin Australia, Brisbane Airport and SkyNRG plan to create Australia’s first bioport The three parties announced a feasibility study into the creation of Australia’s first “bio-port” at Brisbane Airport. The feasibility study will involve researching the locally available feedstocks in Queensland, sustainable and cost-effective methods for transporting and the most appropriate technology for converting them into biofuel. It is anticipated that the feasibility study will take 12 months to complete.

30 April 2013 http://tinyurl.com/c66v9cj

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A World Leader in Bioenergy Troels Yde Toftdahl | Head of Secretariat, Danish Bioenergy Association

Many regions claim to be a world leader in bioenergy, Denmark included. This is because a long-standing commitment to the development and deployment of sustainable bioenergy has led Denmark to become the home to some of the world’s leading companies in bioenergy research, development, technology manufacturing and advisory services.

Furthermore, world class research institutions, a business friendly environment and continued political commitment to renewable energy, makes Denmark attractive to investors in Danish bioenergy solutions.

When the oil crisis hit in the 1970s, 92 per cent of Denmark’s energy consumption was oil-based and only 1 per cent was covered by biomass. By the mid 1980s the oil was being replaced by coal, making the share of oil drop to a little over 50 percent with coal making up almost 40 per cent and biomass 5 percent. Over the next two decades, the biomass-share rose gradually to over 10 per cent of the total energy consumption.

Behind these numbers lies the secret behind Denmark as a world leader in bioenergy. While woody biomass was the main source of renewable energy in the 1970’s, and while this type of biomass continued to increase in use over the years, straw and municipal waste developed as biomass sources of equal importance.

This is as a result of government regulation and targeted innovation. A commitment to combined heat and power production, mandated co-firing of straw with coal, and a desire to make use of municipal waste for energy instead of leaving it in land-fills, proved to be an initial headache for operators, but developed into a competitive advantage for utilities and technology providers alike.

Straw was considered impossible to handle in large-scale boilers due to corrosion. Danish researchers analysed the problem and together with producers came up with a solution, which today is visible as ready-to-market boilers for “hard-to-handle” biomass types as well as more “predictable” biomass types, such as pellets and wood chips, because of course energy efficiency efforts and innovation processes were applied to all imaginable biomass types.

Regulations and the following innovation have generated valuable know-how regarding biomass sourcing and industrial symbiosis, energy optimization and quality assurance.

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This made companies pop up in the area of power plant development, construction and operation, delivering everything from spare parts of boilers to turnkey solutions, maintenance and advisory services, with foreign companies investing in Denmark because of the unique competencies and innovation environments available on a very concentrated area.

Practices which are today taken for granted in many parts of Denmark, are still considered novel if not impossible in other parts of the world. In Denmark it is however not an issue of how to source agricultural residues, utilize waste or turn wood into energy, but rather a how to do it in the most efficient manner.

And the quest to find alternatives to fossil fuels in heat and power generation does not end here, just as developments do not limit themselves to lighting the bulb and powering production processes. Having gotten a hold of wastes and residues and increasing energy efficiency, Danish companies are now looking towards gasification of residues and establishing advanced biorefineries using wastes and residues rather than the traditional biomass types used commercially today.

Denmark is not the only leading force in world bioenergy, just as there is no single Athletics champion. But when it comes to making use of waste, residues and achieving high energy efficiency – be it in traditional heat and power production or advanced biorefining, Denmark is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Danish Bioenergy Association (DI Bioenergi) is a membership driven section within the Danish Energy Industries Federation. Members are technology producers and suppliers, engineering and consultancy companies, utilities and business developers, all sharing a commitment to maintaining Denmark as a driving force within sustainable Bioenergy.

The Avedøre Power Station will be converted to 100% biomass

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Biomass in the Green State of Denmark Dan Howis Lauritsen | Communications Manager, State of Green

Today, approximately 70 per cent of renewable-energy consumption in Denmark stems from biomass, mostly in the form of straw, wood and renewable wastes. In the coming years, Danish consumption of biomass will continue to grow as a source of energy bringing sustainable heat and power to both residential and commercial buildings.

For decades, Denmark has utilized biomass to produce energy. In fact, the consumption of biomass for energy production in Denmark more than quadrupled between 1980 and 2009. Biomass has thus made a significant contribution to the reduction of Danish CO2 emissions. This is possible due to well-developed technologies for biomass production, handling, and exploitation.

Due to the extensive use of bioenergy, there is an abundance of expertise available in this field. In addition to hosting several top-efficient, full-scale biomass plants, Denmark is an industry hub and testing ground for modern energy technologies based on biofuels and biogas, and Danish companies and universities cooperate closely to offer world-class biobased solutions globally.

100% green heat for Copenhagen

A notable example of biomass extension can be found in Copenhagen, where the Danish energy company DONG Energy has entered into a recent heat agreement with the power supply companies VEKS and Metropolitan Copenhagen Heating Transmission company (CTR).

The agreement means that DONG Energy will convert Unit 2 at Avedøre Power Station, thus raising the bar from its current 80 % biomass production to a 100 % production based on wood pellets.

Total investment for the extension amounts to approximately DKK 100 million.

“The fact that we can extend our capacity to burn wood pel-

lets is a central part of DONG Energy’s strategy for renewable electricity and heat production”, says Thomas Dalsgaard, Executive Vice President at DONG Energy.

The biomass-based heat agreement is fully in line with the wish to increase the share of biomass-based power for the Copenhagen area: “The transition towards a higher share of green power from Avedøre Power Station is expected to reduce the CO2-emission from heat supply in the Copenhagen area by slightly more than 10% annually from 2025 and onwards“, explains Ayfer Baykal, Chairman of the Board of Directors at CTR. Lars Gullev, CEO of VEKS elaborates: “We strongly wish to offer green districting heating to our customers but it is important that it is able to compete with individual heating from oil or natural gas, otherwise it is not possible to pursue the national climate and energy targets of converting natural gas customers to district heating. The new agreement with DONG Energy is an important step in the right direction”.

The first CO2-neutral capital in the world

This example of green heat is yet another building block towards Copenhagen’s ambition to become the first carbon neutral capital in 2025. This goal is supported by a municipal strategic climate action plan where 50 initiatives are rolled out to meet the 2015 midterm goal of a 20 % CO2 reduction.

The goal for many cities is to achieve an environmental as well as economic balance when working towards a sustainable growth in the city. Copenhagen continues to integrate sustainable city solutions and studies show that growth in the green sector of the capital region has increased turnover by 55% over a course of five years.

About State of Green

As the official green brand for Denmark, State of Green gathers all leading players in the fields of energy, climate, water and environment and fosters relations with international stakeholders interested in learning from the Danish experience.

Stateofgreen.com is your online entry point for all relevant information on green solutions in Denmark and around the world. Here you can explore solutions, learn about products and connect with profiles. Many of the featured profiles and solutions welcome visitors and offer investment opportunities.

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OPTIMIZING THE VALUE FROM BIOMASS Lene Lange | Research Director, Aalborg University, Denmark

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scenarios

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er value products (e.g. food and feed ingredients, speciality iomass is a precious resource, renewable but also chemicals etc). Currently most focus has been invested into limited. Both prices and demand for biomass is developing logistics, equipment and technologies for effigoing up. It must be produced and processed cient combustion, increasing the percentage of renewables sustainably and valorized to its full potentials. in the energy system, but producing the lowest value prodIf done it can contribute significantly to feeding ucts only. However, we must already now start planning for the growing global population and providing a short cut to how we can move towards unlocking the full potentials of substitute for many of the products we now get from fossils. biomass through optimized biorefinery technologies.

Building new value chains from biomass (e.g. forestry and The new paradigm for a biorefinery: To get the full value crop residues; waste and byproducts from agroindustry; muout of the biomass, the process must be designed and enginicipality waste) is the basic building blocks for building the neered so that we can rescue the higher value products bebioeconomy. This whole area holds tremendous potentials fore we process for getting the maximum yield of the lower for creation of new jobs; and if we move fast enough also value products. for developing European techWith a careful choice of prenological leadership, opening treatment, conversion, separafor export of both technology The new paradigm for a biorefinery: To get the full value out of the biomass, the process must tion, recovery and product deand product; and contributing to be designed and engineered so that we can resvelopment we can unlock the that we globally move faster tocue the higher value products before we process full potentials of the biomass wards sustainability. for getting the maximum yield of the lower value products. –and only send the last left over The biomass composition is fraction for combustion. This highly complex, it holds several would mean that we would use types of components, which can lower amount of biomass for production of heat and electricbe developed into many types of products. Not only in the ity in power plants, but most likely more than compensated bottom of the value pyramid, but also products higher up by the expected increased amounts of available surplus wind the value chain. Depending on the conversion process we energy. design, we can move from a downgrading (producing low The most well studied example of a biorefinery procvalue products as electricity and heat) to an upgrade to highess is a biorefinery having wheat straw or corn stover as lignocellulosic feed stock. So far focus has been on designing a biorefinery process where the highest possible percentage of cellulose and hemicellulose is converted by the yeast into monomer sugars which then was fermented into bio-ethanol. This is now moved even further, in a carefully designed biorefinery process of lignocellulose materials we can typically get food ingredients, protein rich animal feed, chemicals, biomaterials and transport fuel, using the left over fraction for combustion.

New value chains from biomass conversion

Fig. 1 The Biomass Value Pyramid: Biomass holds potentials for being converted into also higher level value chains. Combustion for production of heat and electricity gives the lowest value only, while production of biomass based fuel, fine chemicals, functional biomaterials, feed and food ingredients give higher value.

New technologies open for optimizing the valorization even further: all three primary components, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, can be utilized as basis for separate value chains.

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By use of already commercialized enzyme blends, the cellulose fibers (made up of polymers of C6 sugars), can efficiently be decomposed enzymatically to a C6 monomer sugar platform. This platform can be used for fermentation into bioethanol, biochemicals, or biomaterials, e.g.bioplastics.

Under contained conditions it can also be used for growing modified microbes which produce higher value products such as pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals.

Hemi-cellulose is a highly complex structure. It consists of a backbone typically of e.g. xylose one of three most common C5 sugars. It is richly branched with side branches of a multitude of different types of lengths and composition.

This complexity holds potentials in itself to be developed into products of higher value than biofuel. A potential which is depleted if it is decomposed into monomer sugars, loosing all of nature´s complexity. The option is to keep the complexity and develop it into dietary fibers and prebiotics, by converting into C5 oligomers into healthy feed and food ingredients The lignin has already years ago been developed into a valuable feedstock for a biorefinery process, leading to a multitude of different value added products (Borregaard biorefinery, Norway (www.lignotech.com). Recently, a new approach has been taken, developing the lignin fraction of the lignocellulosic feed stock into carbon fibers and other new biomaterials with highly interesting functionalities.

Furthermore, three additional value chains can be extracted: the Phosphorus nutrient can be recovered as a separate product, proteins can be recovered up front and the last remnant fraction can be used for combustion.

In conclusion: we can get all, pharma, food, feed, fuel, fine chemicals and materials, from biomass.

New types of biorefineries open for faster development of the bioeconomy

The next concept to broaden is the biorefinery itself. There will be many types of biorefineries, designed to unlock the potentials of different types of feedstock: • the yellow biorefinery (feedstock: cereal straw and stover); • the green biorefinery (feedstock: fresh green leaves of e.g. grasses, after crops and beet roots); • The grey biorefinery (feedstock: sludge; wet, composite and dirty biomass); • The blue biorefinery (feedstock: marine biomass; seafood waste, sea weeds and macro algae); • the white biorefinery (feedstock: agroindustrial waste).

Among these types of biorefineries, the most low hanging 10 Be

fruit is probably valorization of selected types of byproducts and waste from agroindustrial food processing. The food processing waste is no longer to be seen as waste but as a new (food grade) resource. The grey biorefinery provides a short cut to commercial viability of biorefinery processes. It provides lower costs for logistics as the biomass is already assembled on one spot, in the plant itself; and it opens for lower pretreatment costs, as the food processing in itself may have served as pretreatment (opening the biomass structure and given access to enzymatic treatment and subcomponent recovery).

The development of all three value chains from lignocellulosic feed stocks may lead to a more rapid development of a commercially viable yellow biorefinery. Especially the hemiIn conclusion: we can get all, pharma, food, cellulose part of the biomass feed, fuel, fine chemimaterials may provide basis for cals and materials, from additional value chains, providbiomass. ing income for the biorefinery.

A whole spectrum of products within food and feed ingredients may be developed. Furthermore, a new segment of enzyme market may hereby emerge: enzymes for product development of biomass-based, hemicellulose derived products for food and feed. Such development may be in sink and synergy with the rapidly increasing understanding of the human biome, elucidating scientific basis for what stimulates a healthy gut flora.

Another very interesting feedstock is sludge, to be treated in a cost efficient manner in the grey biorefinery. The products to be developed from composite, wet and dirty biomass will not be among the highest in the value pyramid. Therefore the process cost should be held at a minimum. A very highly promising, low cost method is HTL (hydrothermal liquefaction). It results in a bio-oil as final product, applicable for heavy transport fuel e.g. for aviation or as substitute for bunker oil for marine transport. For the green biorefinery it should be emphasized that methods applicable for recovery of proteins from fresh plant materials have already been developed; similarly methods for recovery of plant nutrients (as e.g. phosphorous) has also been developed (Petzet & Cornel, 2011, Water Sci Technol 64(1): 29-35). Such P-recovery methods are relevant for all types of biorefineries.

The yellow and green biorefineries are expected to grow in importance by receiving more feed stock than what has been calculated so far. The huge amount of postharvest damaged cereals, vegetables and tuber crops can in future be seen to have potentials as biorefinery feedstock, resulting in production of food ingredients, animal feed, fertilizer and fuel;

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hereby opening for a sustainable conversion technology for low quality whole crop biomass.

One more trend is to be expected. There is increased resource efficiency to be achieved through economy at scale in biorefineries. But there is also potentials for faster implementation of new technologies when developing small scale biorefineries. Such small scale biomass upgrading equipment could e.g. be placed directly where both the feed stock is produced and the product of the biorefinery is to be used.

One example is development of a small scale green biorefinery where the green crop residues (grass, top of sugar beets or after crop) is converted into protein enriched animal feed on the same farm or in the same region as the feed stock is produced. Such small scale biorefinery could be mobile, moved to the neighboring farm after use. Another example is a biorefinery placed on site an agroindustrial plant where both the food and the energy produced from the waste stream could be used in running the plant and development of the product portfolio of the industry itself.

Additional input for spearheading the Bioeconomy

In the text above focus has been on in a sustainable and resource efficient manner unlocking the full potential of biomass through development of the biorefineries, through optimizing process technology and upgradingproduct development. But to kick start the bioeconomy much more is needed: new business models and new partnerships (including next generation industrial symbiosis) are needed. A significant effort within developSmall scale biomass upgrading equipment could ment of the needed skills and e.g. be placed directly competences are also a very where both the feed stock important element to get in is produced and the product of the biorefinery is to place; both within blue colbe used. lar and white collar jobs. Also the policies must be shaped to form the supportive framework conditions. First and foremost is the formation of a leveled playing field which holds positive incentives for developing upgraded valorization of biomass. Not giving special preference only for conversion to lower value products such as energy. Visionary political goals e.g. for percentage of sustainable biomass to be used for upgrading to higher value biobased products (fuels, chemicals, feed food and pharma) must be set. Biomass biorefinery regulatory and incentive schemes developed for ensuring that the soil quality is kept intact, water consumption kept at a minimum, and the plant nutrients circled back to the soil.

It is an important resource for development, information and knowledge in renewable energy and energy efficiency in Central Norrland.

The northern European region has very good potential to become a strong player in the social transition from fossil to renewable energy and Energidalen act as a major bridge builder and an important meeting place between projects and business, through good communication, the relevant information and coordination.

Cooperation, transparency and competence are our guiding principles.

Our attitude is that we should be able to maintain high availability and behave professionally in our work.

COOPERATION TRANSPARENCY COMPETENCE

For more information, please visit our website www.energidalen.com

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resources

sustainable biomass in denmark from existing agriculture and forestry Claus Felby, Niclas Scott Bentsen, Vivian Kvist Johannesen | University of Copenhagen, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources Uffe Jørgensen | Aarhus University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Agroecology Morten Gylling | Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics

Are we returning to the future?

With the exception of the last 200 years in the history of modern man, almost all our resources of energy and materials were based on biomass. Wood was for centuries the primary resource, and specifically for energy purposes it was not overtaken by coal until the middle of the 19th century.

Back then we also had liquid biofuel of the finest quality - it was based on whale blubber. By 1850 the whales were close to extinction, it was indeed an unsustainable biofuel. Fortunately the whales were saved by the introduction of fossil kerosene. But the wheel has turned again, and today the depletion of fossil resources and increasing climate change has put biomass back in its role as one of our indispensable resources.

Annually, terrestrial plants produce more than 130 billion tons of dry matter, corresponding to 5 times the current global energy consumption. Biomass is one of our most versatile resources. We eat biomass, we burn biomass for energy, we process biomass to materials and chemicals and we manage biomass in ecosystems for biodiversity and carbon storage. But without a sustainable supply of biomass none of the applications can be deployed to any large extent. Thus how can we approach the issue of biomass supply for energy without a number of conflicting interests?

In fossil energy systems a concentrated energy carrier is dispersed to be used. In contrast, biomass is a dispersed energy carrier that is concentrated before use; we cannot just dig up biomass from a bottomless hole in the ground. Conse-

quently, biomass and bioenergy are inevitably linked to the use of land, which is the factor ultimately limiting the use of biomass.

Denmark is a country dominated by agriculture. Of a total land area of 5.5 mil ha, approximately 2.5 and 0.5 mill ha of the land area is used for agriculture and forestry. Annually more than 18 mill tons of total biomass is harvested from agriculture and forestry.

Figure 1. Total harvested food and non-food biomass production from danish agriculture and forestry 2010.

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Livestock is the main production, but biomass from straw and wood has been used in the energy sector for more than 25 years. More than 7 mil tons of biomass and waste is used for energy and about half of this amount is imported wood.

Bioenergy constitutes approximately 14% of the energy supply, and the goal is over the next decades to at least double the amount of biomass used for energy. The issue of sustainability bioenergy is a major concern, and the future biomass supply is an issue of both debate and investigation.

In this article we describe a new approach to biomass supply by focusing on intensification of existing agriculture and forestry, rather than exploiting new land or substituting food production with energy production.

A new agricultural paradigm of sustainable intensification?

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scenario where we just increase the utilization of the existing agriculture and forestry resources.

A biomass optimized scenario where technical optimizations in both agriculture and forestry are implemented to produce a higher amount of biomass.

An environmentally optimized scenario with emphasis on reducing nutrient leaching and where biodiversity is strengthened e.g. by the creation of conservation woodland.

Increased productivity from the same land area

A first outcome of the work was the realization that most of our crops today only use a fraction of the growing season.

By adopting cropping systems with a longer growing season using perennial crops such as grasses, or by double cropping, the crop production per hectare can be doubled.

Also by simple modifications to harvest equipment the recovery of straw can be increased by 15%. However, this approach should be done with care observing of the soil carbon balance. In forestry the productivity can be increased by 20% with intensified recovery, still keeping within limits of the annual growth increment.

Breeding and selection of fast growing species is another factor to be included. Substituting e.g. rape with beets or oak with spruce will give a marked increase in biomass productivity per area. Also, it was found that simply selecting e.g. wheat varieties with higher straw yield but constant grain yield would contribute significantly to increased biomass production.

Biomass supply can be from dedicated energy crops, from forestry, or as part of existing agriculture. The latter option has the advantage that if the biomass supply is built into existing agriculture and forestry through intensification there is basically no extra land use, and much of the sustainability controversy may be overcome. But how do we approach intensification of an already intensified and modern agriculture and forestry in practice?

A hypothetical goal of an extra 10 million tons of biomass delivered form Danish agriculture and forestry was set up.

In a Danish setting this would add biomass equal to 20% of the current energy consumption, bringing the total delivery from nationally produced biomass close to 14 million tons, not counting the amount of biomass already used for fodder, food and industrial purposes.

Sustainability was built in as a paradigm such that the biomass increase should incur no reduction in food production, no expansion of the farmed area and the solutions had to have a positive impact on the aquatic environment and biodiversity. Preservation of soil fertility and carbon content were likewise important factors included.

To simplify matters three scenarios were analyzed: Figure 2. Distribution and amount of biomass types in the three scenarios.

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resources

A major factor for increasing the level of biomass utilization was the use of manure from livestock production. Only a minor fraction is used today. The use of manure infers a high reduction of greenhouse gases as well as it reduces the problems associated with nutrient leaching.

Land use change

Though the major part of the agricultural land will not be affected, the use of meadows etc. needs to be revisited. The traditional use of meadows for grazing is ceasing. From approx. 70,000 ha of meadow areas the grass and shrubs are harvested. This also helps to improve biodiversity from stemming the encroachment of nettles and willow due to the current surplus of nutrients in the environment. Biomass and nutrients can likewise also be harvested from approx. 7,000 ha of road verges, also here contributing to a more varied flora.

Also by introducing a larger share of perennial crops and catch crops it will be feasible to make quite significant environmental improvements. The leaching of nitrate from agricultural land can be reduced by approximately 23,000 tons and biodiversity will benefit in the environmentally optimized scenario.

It can be done!

duce the same level of food and animal feed as is currently produced. This is possible because one of the expected coproducts from the biorefining process is animal feed, and if 10-15 % of the straw, and grass and beets in the scenarios are converted to animal feed, it will compensate for the reduction in the area for growing dedicated feed crops.

The process of introducing new cropping and harvesting methods and new crops to agriculture is complex, and its implementation will not happen automatically if farmers do not perceive advantages from it. An active collaboration between industry, farmers, authorities and research will therefore need to be established.

A selection and rejection aspect will also be important in the process. It is not unimportant which production systems are selected for growing large quantities of biomass if we also expect to achieve large environmental benefits. Nitrate leaching from annual cropping systems is for example approx. three times higher than from perennial cropping systems.

Outlook

The challenges we have on concomitantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, finding new energy resources, increasing food production and improving the environment and biodiversity are so immense, that we need to find solutions that can benefit more aspects at the same time. A narrow focus on bioenergy production as e.g. in the case of rapeseed oil for biodiesel has been a learning process that did not benefit our

The results from the three different scenarios were quite surprising. For the business-as-usual scenario we could not meet the goal, but for the biomass and environment scenarios it was possible to produce an additional 10 and 8 million tonnes of biomass by 2020 within the framework of our existing agriculture and forestry without any adverse impacts on food and animal feed production.

Our results show that by using already existing technology and knowledge it is indeed possible to increase the biomass supply from an already well developed agricultural system. This can be done without extra land use or reduction in the food production. The proposed scenarios involve by 2020 an approximately 9% reduction in the size Figure 3. Land use change in the three scenarios. The figures should be compared against a total agricultural area of 2,5 mill ha and a total forest area of 0,5 mill ha. of the area needed to pro-

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planet in the longer run.

We have to rethink the whole chain from absorption of solar radiation into biomass to the production of a versatile range of products needed. Which crops can most resource efficiently produce biomass? How can they be harvested and stored efficiently for industrial use over the whole year?

How can they be processed down and converted into food, feed, materials and energy?

We believe that our results point toward new paradigms of sustainable intensification for crop production. Also by combining agriculture and biorefinery technologies we can, without compromising food production, contribute significantly to delivering many of today’s oil based products from plants. Due to the much higher resource use efficiencies possible in agricultural systems optimized for production of biomass, the emissions of nutrients, greenhouse gases and pesticides can be reduced while the output of products can be increased.

Such a development will not come by itself and calls for coordinated collaboration between science, industry, farmers and the political level. But the main point is that it is

indeed possible to produce food and fuel without using more land or increasing the environmental load, and this is where we should aim our efforts.

References

Gylling M, Jørgensen U, Felby C, Johannsen VK, Bentsen NS. 2012. +10 mio. tons planen - muligheder for en øget dansk leverance af bæredygtig biomasse til bioraffinaderier. http://www.foi.life.ku.dk/publikationer/specielle_foiudgivelser/10miotons.aspx Perspektiver for skovenes bidrag til grøn omstilling mod en biobaseret økonomi. Muligheder for bæredygtig udvidelse af dansk produceret vedmasse 2010-2100. Lars Graudal, Ulrik Braüner Nielsen, Erik Schou, Bo Jellesmark Thorsen, Jon Kehlet Hansen, Niclas Scott Bentsen og Vivian Kvist Johannsen IGN og IFRO http://sl.life.ku.dk/Nyheder/2013/~/media/Sl/Nyheder/2013/Seminarversion_skovenes_bidrag_biobaseret_oekonomi.ashx CEESA projektet. 2011 http://www.ceesa.plan.aau. dk/digitalAssets/32/32603_ceesa_final_report_samlet_02112011.pdf

Cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues THINK AHEAD, THINK SUNLIQUIDďż˝

Highly efficient sunliquid is an economic and sustainable process to generate biobased products from lignocellulosic biomass. It opens up new feedstocks not only for fuel, but also for sustainable chemistry from untapped resources – like cellulosic ethanol from straw.

WWW.CLARIANT.COM WWW.SUNLIQUID.COM

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A full-scale integrated biorefinery in 2017 Julie Søgaard | BioRefining Alliance

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n the recent years demonstration and industrial plants producing advanced and 2nd generation (2G) bio-ethanol made from residues such as straw or corn stover have been built around the world - or are just about being build.

In Denmark the demonstration bio-ethanol plant Inbicon near Kalundborg has been producing 2G bio-ethanol from wheat straw since 2009.

But in the beginning of 2017 the consortium Maabjerg Energy Concept I/S (MEC) expects to have the first Danish full-scale 2G bio-ethanol production ready near Maabjerg, Holstebro – situated in a rural area in Jutland.

The plant will produce 70 million litres of bioethanol per year from 250,000 tons of straw: "But this is not just another ethanol plant," Chairman of MEC, Jørgen Udby, says. "It is an integrated biorefinery."

Using side streams lead to high energy efficiency

MEC integrates the existing combined district heating and power plant 'Maabjergværket' from 1992 and a newly build biogas plant, Maabjerg BioEnergy, using manure and indus18 Be

Figure: a rendering of the Maabjerg Energy Concept (source maabjergenergyconcept.eu)

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trial waste as feedstock, with a future 2G bio-ethanol plant.

Through this unique concept the three plants will be interlinked so they can take advantage of each other’s production and side streams. The ethanol plant will produce bioethanol through mixed fermentation of both the C6 and C5 (molasses) sugars pulled from the straw by enzymes.

The by-product vinasse will be used in the biogas production and the lignin will be used as fuel in the heat and power production, while the district heating plant partly will work as a cooling medium for the bio-ethanol production steam.

"This integrated system will lead to an energy efficiency of no less than 96 per cent for the whole biorefinery," Jørgen Udby says.

Beside these central streams MEC expects to take advantage of several side streams, too, such as CO2 and phosphate, which can be sold to relevant industries.

"If we later on want to go further than just making advanced bio-ethanol and provide purified sugar streams for the chemical industry, it will be easy to add the necessary production modules," Jørgen Udby says.

Using an updated Inbicon technology with a 50 per cent higher ethanol yield It has been planned from the start, that MEC should use the Inbicon technology, IBUS, in its ethanol production.

Up until now only C6 sugars in this technology were used in the ethanol production while the molasses were a byproduct used either as animal feed or as feedstock in biogas production.

Originally, MEC planned to use the molasses in the biogas plant, but after Inbicon recently has increased its ethanol yield by 50 per cent using a new type of yeast, the plans have changed.

Through this new yeast both C6 and most of C5 sugars can be fermented. According to DONG Energy, which is the company running Inbicon, tests have shown this dramatically increased ethanol yield in the IBUS process.

The exact yields is a trade secret, but already when using the old and less efficient yeast the ethanol yield was competitive in the market.

The increased yield has also led to a serious reduction in the amount of feedstock. First, MEC expected to use around 400,000 tons of straw for the production of 70 million litres of ethanol. Now, only 250,000 tons are needed.

Additionally, they have found, that straw from both wheat and barley can be used. This means that the feedstock only needs to be collected in radius of 50 km rather than 100 km.

DONG Energy and Novozymes as investors in MEC

DONG Energy is not only providing an important part of the technology for the ethanol production, the company is also a central investor as the owner of 50 per cent of MEC. A consortium (partnership) of three local municipality energy and waste companies owns the other 50 per cent. "The reason why DONG Energy participates in this project is that we think MEC is the best platform in Denmark to demonstrate our Inbicon technology in full-scale," Executive Vice President of DONG Energy Thermal Power, Thomas Dalsgaard says and continues: "Through MEC we will be able to show our customers and partners abroad that our technology works in full-scale. This will benefit the commercialisation of the technology."

Novozymes who has provided the enzymes 19 Be

for the 2G bio-ethanol production at Inbicon also finds MEC interesting as a full-scale demonstration platform.

The big enzyme company has decided to invest in one of the preliminary stages of MEC. It is not an investment in the actual plant, but Novozymes is part of a so-called product development consortium: “We have decided to invest in this developing phase to prove to ourselves and our future costumers, that this concept works”, Vice President in Novozymes, Lars Christian Hansen says.

He finds this phase just as important as building the plant itself: “By having skilled people calculating and thereby optimizing the different processes from price and transportation of feedstock, over pipes to the final products, the project moves from being just a neat power point presentation to being proved as a good idea,” he says and continues: “In this way MEC is completely ready to start building the plant as soon as the framework conditions make it possible.”

Politicians need to create a market pull for 2G bioethanol and changed political framework conditions on both a Danish and especially European level are crucial in order to make investors believe that Maabjerg Energy Concept actu-

ally is a good investment and that they should continue being a part of the project.

Right now, there is not a market pull great enough for 2G bio-ethanol to create a proper demand for the future bio-ethanol production at MEC. The costs of both 1st generation (1G) biofuels made from food crops and fossils fuels are currently lower than the 2G fuel costs due to the more complex 2G production process.

“With current market and regulatory conditions, we would be producing 2G bio-ethanol with a deficit,” Thomas Dalsgaard from DONG Energy says.

Although, he thinks European policy makers will end up agreeing on changing the relevant directives in favour of more sustainable fuels, including 2G fuels, it will probably take some years before it is clear in which direction they will go and what will be the final decisions: “I believe that MEC offers a realistic option for Denmark to be a global front runner of advanced biorefining, but it requires a deliberate policy decision in Denmark. To get an early start, we can’t wait until EU makes a decision on the directives.” Thomas Dalsgaard says.

Image courtesy of BioRefining Alliance

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Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels Call for Solid Regulation

The Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels met the European Parliament in Brussels on the 8th of May 2013. The meeting was hosted by the ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy Committee), chaired by Mrs. Amalia Sartori.

The vice-President of the European Parliament, Mr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, welcomed the Leaders and introduced the positions of the EP ITRE Committee on the European Commission revision of the Renewable Energy Directive – RED. The positions expressed by Mr Alejo Vidal Quadras, the Rapporteur of the ITRE Committee and reported in his draft ITRE Draft Opinion, were supported by the Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels.

The Leaders sent a clear message to the Parliament members: "Second generation advanced biofuel technologies are ready to compete with conventional biofuels, with companies keen to invest in commercial projects given appropriate conditions", the Leaders said.

Such conditions include a long-term stable legislative framework and specific targets for the use of second generation advanced biofuels. The European advanced biofuel industry is the most technologically advanced in the world, leading the development and commercialization of biofuels in an innovative and competitive field. This is possible thanks to significant investment from the members of the LSB and considerable support from the European Commission and the Member States. These technologies and the associated sustainable biofuel chains are needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decarbonise transport and improve air quality. Furthermore, large-scale production of advanced biofuels would create thousands of permanent direct and indirect jobs.

"Now is the time to bring advanced second-generation biofuels to the market", the chairman of LSB said. "The industry is committed to delivering on its promise but we

need the stable long-term investment conditions which encourage investment while at the same time promoting true advanced biofuels. This will have a positive economic as well as ecological impact on the EU".

Today the competition in this sector is on the rise and promoting investment in advanced biofuels in the EU requires immediate action by creating a stable and reliable long-term framework. The risk for the EU is that investments will occur anyway but elsewhere, where more favorable policies and investment conditions exist, as in the US, South America, and Asia.

A minimum two per cent mandate for advanced biofuels should be set as a sub-target of the RED, with a well defined and growing pathway to 2025-2030, aligning policies with market realities, securing long-term perspectives and mobilising resources into commercial activities. Sustainability should be maintained as the reference criteria to evaluate any biofuel production. Certification schemes should also be further developed, harmonised and adapted to respond to the specific characteristics of lignocellulosic fuel chains, particularly when produced from agricultural and forestry residues and wastes (no land consuming feedstocks).

"These actions are essential if the EU wants to meet the Climate and Energy Policy targets", the Leaders said.

The Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels

The Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels is a group composed by the Chief Executive Officers of seven Leading European biofuel producers and European airlines. The initiative aims at supporting the development of second generation biofuels in Europe. The leaders of Chemtex, British Airways, BTG, Chemrec, Clariant, Dong Energy and UPM are joining forces to ensure the market uptake of advanced sustainable biofuels by all transport sectors.

www.sustainablebiofuelsleaders.com â—? info@sustainablebiofuelsleaders.com

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Wind power stored into the gas grid Wind and biomass energy integration

Can your car be fueled by manure and wind power? Maybe in the future - if you have a gas car and the promising innovations reach the market.

Knud Tybirk | Agro Business Park/Innovation Network for Biomass

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enmark is a country with a lot of wind, agriculture and animal husbandry and has some rather unique prerequisites for a sustainable energy future: • Intense animal husbandry and a strong focus on manure based biogas • Tradition for large co-operative/industrial biogas plants • Strong winds and a strategy to have 50% of power production from wind by 2020 – which is a very unstable energy supplier • A dense grid for natural gas • Universities and companies with a long tradition of working with research and development within renewable energy • A long term strategic goal to become free of fossil energy sources by 2050 These prerequisites open up for an interesting and innovative solution to replace fossil fuels for the transport sector.

straw, biogas and waste incineration. Today biomass covers 15 % of gross energy production. In addition, the growing wind sector today covers 4.5 % of gross energy production, and almost 30 % of national power consumption (figure 1).

The power production based on biomass and wind is planned to increase dramatically the coming years in Denmark according to the national Climate Commission. Biomass and waste is expected to cover more than 30 % by 2050. Wind is expected to cover around 40 % by 2050.

This ambitious strategy implies several challenges. One

Biomass is the key

Biomass can produce heat and electricity - we have done that for decades in Denmark, based on wood, Figure 1. Danish Climate Commission energy perspective for Denmark

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is to integrate this quantity of wind power in the power system, as this production varies considerable - often from day to day (figure 2). In addition, this variation does not follow the variation in power consumption with high power needs by the industry and business during 5 first working days of the week during day time. Much effort is being directed towards ensuring intelligent energy integration of the varying sources.

The transportation sector is the challenge

The second major challenge of the Danish Climate Strategy is to replace fossil fuels in the transportation sector, today fully dependent on gasoline and diesel. Currently, less than one percent of cars are fuelled by hydrogen, methane or electricity.

Neither biomass nor wind power can fully fuel our cars today. Biomass contains renewable carbon and can be stored. Wind produces high quality electricity, but cannot easily be stored. In Denmark much R&D effort is now directed towards combing biomass and wind power and storing this combined energy as methane in the gas grid and thereby provide a solution providing green gas for the transport sector.

Green gas on its way way

This cocktail of prerequisites and challenges has enabled new innovations with immense potential for the future energy supply without harming the environment and taking up land for energy crop production.

Biogas should be based on residues from agriculture

and communities, and the present goal is to reach 25 PJ already by 2020 (in 2011 the Danish biogas production was approximately 4.5 PJ).

Innovative solutions within renewable energy

Much research has been directed towards biogas, thermal gasification and incineration of straw, waste and wood. In addition, Danish companies have been involved in R&D on fuel cells that can help in the conversion processes from one energy form (chemical) to another form (electrical) with high efficiency. Energy Efficiency and system integration are also important R&D foci.

Within methanation, interesting initiatives are taking place with support from different Danish Energy R&D sources and three ongoing projects can exemplify this.

Power upgraded biogas by Haldor Topsøe A/S

This technology is to use catalytic conversion of the CO2 content in the biogas to methane by reaction with hydrogen produced from steam in a Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell (SOEC).

The project will on a scale of 10 Nm3/h demonstrate highly efficient upgrading of biogas to pipeline quality using this technology. In parallel a full scale plant will be designed and the economical aspects evaluated.

The project objectives are: • to design, construct and operate a pilot plant for methanation of CO2 in biogas by means of hydrogen produced from steam in a Solid Oxide Electrolyzer (SOEC) at a scale of approximately 10 Nm3/h

Figure 2. Forecast Power Supply/Demand in Denmark with a 3 weeks prognosis of wind Energy production in 2050. Grey is current pattern of electricity demand, light green is foreseen surplus supply from wind. In periods of surplus wind power it should be converted via electrolysis to hydrogen to methanate biogas. Source Energinet.dk

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corresponding to 40 kW SOEC capacity.

• to monitor the efficiency and durability of the process steps and estimate costs of a full scale plant, that can compete with traditional upgrading of biogas and elaborate a plan for market introduction and market development.

Figure 3. Methanation is the combination of carbondioxide and Hydrogen into methane.

• to analyze the value of the technology for the Danish electricwith CO2 to increase and enhance production of methane. ity and gas infrastructure.

This will make biogas production independent of biomass Methanation of biogas will at the same time offer storand enable storage of energy in the existing gas grid, thus age possibilities for wind produced electricity (and thus balancing electricity production in an energy system with reduce the need of power transmission), upgrading of bia high degree of renewable energy. ogas and extend the biogas resource with 50 – 80 %.

Thus we can have more and upgraded production of biPrevious projects have indicated that conversion effiogas while utilizing the synergies of a diversified energy ciency from electrical power input to lower heating value system that is highly reliant on wind and renewable genof methane of 74-76 % can be achieved. In addition there eration. The project will conduct a systematic analysis as is waste heat for district heating . These high efficiencies well as design of integrated systems in order to access the are obtainable due to the inherent high efficiency of the environmental impact and the economic outlook of the SOEC technology and the synergy with advanced methaproposal. nation technology capable of producing the steam used in Several advantages are expected to be developed based the SOEC unit. The project partners cover the complete on this idea, such as: 1) lower costs of biogas production, value chain from agricultural raw materials and electrical 2) storage of wind power as methane in the existing gas power to the utilization of the upgraded biogas. grid, 3) production of biogas independently of biomass Haldor Topsøe A/S will be the project coordinator and and 4) a more flexible electricity production. perform the design of the demonstration unit and the full The project is led by Danish Technical University. scale commercial plant. Haldor Topsøe will also supply Electrochaea - Methane from carbon dioxide the SOEC module and and catalyst for the methanation System Integration step. Other partners are Aarhus University, HMN and Electrochaea.DK (ECDK) deploys a patent-pending Naturgas Fyn, Ea Energy Analysis, Planenergi, Xergi, biological process to convert low-cost electricity into DDGC, EnergiMidt and Cemtec. pipeline-grade renewable gas for direct injection into the

SYMBIO - Integration of biomass and wind power for biogas enhancement and upgrading via hydrogen assisted anaerobic digestion

SYMBIO is a Strategic Research Council funded project proposing an innovative process, where hydrogen, produced by electrolysis of water using spare electricity from wind turbines, and CO2 is combined into methane biologically - in contrast to the catalytic approach described above.

This reaction can be means to two ends: 1. increased and upgraded production of biogas and 2. production of biogas independently of biomass.

This project will explore the new idea to use hydrogen, produced with excess power from wind turbines, together

existing natural gas grid. The core of the technology is a proprietary biocatalyst that can be deployed in a one-step or two-step system. Hydrogen is fed to a separate bioreactor and will react with carbon dioxide from anaerobic digestion.

The project objective is to build and operate a scalable bioreactor to meet key goals of the Danish energy strategy. In this project, which is hosted by Aarhus University's Biogas Research Centre, Electrochaea is partnering with E.ON, Erdgas Zürich, ewz, and Nordjysk Elhandel.

The project will efficiently integrate renewable electricity from the power grid into the natural gas grid, and increase production of green gas for energy storage and load balancing using the CO2 in biogas. Scaling to up25 Be

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grade CO2 from fermentation or flue gas is the long term goal.

The demonstration will convert the CO2 component of biogas into ‘Renewable Natural Gas’ for combustion at a local combined heat and power facility or into grid quality methane to upgrade biogas for storage and redistribution of power from Denmark’s growing wind energy capacity.

This project will refine technical and economic parameters for the design, construction and operation of commercial bioreactors suitable to Denmark’s and European centralized biogas facilities. ECDK anticipates it will acquire sufficient information during the project to design and engineer a replicable “skid” so the company can build and operate profitable Renewable Natural Gas upgrading operations at a minimum of 10 biogas sites in Denmark and subsequently in other EU markets.

The demonstration will take place at Aarhus University - Foulum’s existing test bioreactor and will run for test periods of 1,000 and 2.000 hours, under market pricing conditions.

The coming years

In principle, methanation of CO2 can be done without biomasses – capturing the CO2 emission from any energy production. Before the fossil biomasses are depleted (coal, oil, natural gas) we need to find sustainable carbohydrates substitutes. In the Danish case using anaerobic digestion of agricultural and societal wastes might be the first step.

Quite a few Danish farmers produce biogas (farm-scale or cooperative) and have invested in wind turbines today.

Typically, the Biogas plants produce electricity and sell the heat for district heating. The wind-power is sold directly to the power grid.

In the fossil free future, the wind power in time of excess production can be used for hydrogen production via electrolysis. Through methanation, the Danish Energy system can climb up a few energetic steps and increase the overall system efficiency.

In addition, we hope that through the two Danish clusters Innovation Network for Biomass and Green Gas Business Cluster to attract the attention and involve many SME’s in these activities, to create more innovation and jobs in the field.

Hydrocarbon fuels (gaseous and liquid) are very practical for present day societies and not easy to replace in the transport sector. Agricultural biomass can replace some fossil carbon usage directly for heat and electricity, but even better if combined with power produced by wind and solar panels towards a greener transport sector as well.

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Methanation: It is all about Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen Carbohydrates are combinations of C, H and O as the basic elements of biomasses. In addition Nitrogen Phosphorous and Potassium are important elements for plant to build proteins and fats. Plants can via photosynthesis (sun energy) build in CO2 and hydrogen to form biomass carbohydrates - stepping up the energy stairs. Plants hydrogenate CO2 in the photosynthesis. The biomass contains sun-energy bound chemically in complex carbohydrate structures and is mostly considered renewable. Biomass carbohydrates contain energy that can be released by natural processes such as oxidation/burning/decomposition/digestion - stepping down the energy stairs towards CO2.

When we control this process we can use the renewable energy. With methanation, we can now ‘redo’ photosynthesis partially (hydrogenate CO2) by combining hydrogen and CO2 into CH4 and create a valuable energy carrier that can be stored and used for many energy purposes.

In the simple form, raw biogas consist roughly of 60% methane (CH4) and 40% CO2 molecules. Upgrading of biogas usually means gas cleaning and removal of the CO2.

But this CO2 can be turned into more methane by reacting the CO2 with hydrogen (H2) produced by cheap wind power during times with strong wind and low power needs - via electrolysis. In this way you can get 100% methane molecules out of the raw biogas and make use of all available carbon.

You add wind energy (as H2) to the carbon and create a fuel for cars.

Methanation may sound straight forward, but the technology is far from simple. Methanation is expensive and has to fit into the energy system, where you need cheap biomasses, cheap renewable power and a gas grid for storage. However the implications are immense, if developed into commercially viable technologies.

The present work is supported by Central Denmark Region, Danish Ministry of Science and Education as well as and Energy Research, Development and Demonstration in Denmark, http://dev.energiforskning.omega.oitudv.dk/en

industry

UPM and VTT will Run Fleet Tests of Wood-based Diesel Using Volkswagen Cars UPM, VTT and Volkswagen-Auto Group will start fleet tests of renewable domestic diesel. Biofuel will be produced by UPM, fleet tests will be coordinated by VTT and cars will be supplied by VV-Auto Group. Fleet tests with UPM BioVerno will start in May, lasting several months.

UPM BioVerno diesel has previously been studied in engine and vehicle tests conducted by VTT amongst others.

The fleet tests will focus on investigating UPM renewable diesel in terms of fuel functionality in engine, emissions and fuel consumption.

"We are very happy to collaborate with renowned partners in the fleet tests, with sustainable development being the common denominator for us all," says UPM Biofuels Vice President Petri Kukkonen.

The fleet tests are a part of a larger project coordinated by VTT. The goal of this project is to encourage companies to commercialise renewable energy solutions in traffic.

"Advanced, sustainable biofuels are a great opportunity for Finland. The Commission will most likely restrict the use of biofuel made from food crops, meaning that the value of the forest industry residues will increase. VTT has wide expertise on engines and fuels, which complements UPM’s key competence in this project," says Research Professor Nils-Olof Nylund at VTT. Experienced test drivers from VTT will drive UPM BioVerno cars within the Helsinki metropolitan area and collect data for analysis during the 20,000-kilometre drive.

Innovative renewable diesel

UPM’s renewable diesel, known as UPM BioVerno, is an innovation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by traffic by up to 80% when compared with fossil fuels. This high-quality biofuel is produced from residues

of the forest industry, with no edible materials being used.

UPM BioVerno is an ideal fuel for all diesel-powered vehicles.

In 2012, UPM began the construction of the first biorefinery in the world producing wood-based renewable diesel. This refinery, located in Lappeenranta, Finland, will be completed in 2014. Its production capacity will be 100,000 tonnes equating to 120 million litres of renewable diesel a year.

Test drive vehicle: Car of the Year 2013

The model chosen for the test drive is the Volkswagen Golf 1.6 TDI equipped with DSG automatic transmission.

The new Golf has been nominated Car of the Year 2013 by the world’s leading automotive journalists.

One of Volkswagen’s long-term goals is to encourage behaviour that will benefit both the customers and the environment. "Be aware and save fuel. Think Blue." – This model of thought is an essential part of Volkswagen’s environmental responsibility programme, and also in terms of the technology used. It accounts for more energy-efficient production methods, promoting renewable energy and comfortable and responsible driving.

"As the largest automobile manufacturer in Europe, Volkswagen is committed to lowering the average CO2 emissions of their vehicles to 95 g/km in Europe by 2020," says Heikki Ahdekivi, Director at Volkswagen passenger cars.

Images courtesy of UPM

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MACROALGAE DEVELOPMENTS Macroalgae, or seaweeds, are the largest unexploited global biomass resource.

The production of macroalgae relies on sunlight for energy and assimilation of CO2 and nutrients, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) for biomass growth, with a production potential of more than 4-10 times larger than that of land-based crops.

Macroalgae serve as a sink to assimilate these elements (N and P), minimizing the effluent into the environment and converting them back into valuable carbohydrates and proteins.

Anne Belinda Bjerre, Karin Svane Bech, Lars Nikolaisen | Danish Technological Institute

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acroalgae offer vast potential as resources for an array of different applications including sustainable energy carriers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and ingredients for the food and feed industry (Holdt and Kraan 2011). Currently, the European seaweed industry relies on macroalgae collected from the wild with the exception of some Asian and African seaweeds, such as Kappaphycus and Eucheuma, which are cultivated for carrageenan extraction. The growing demand for raw materials for food, cosmetics and bioactive components, raises questions surrounding the sustainability of the European industry. There is an urgent need to upscale or develop methods for mass production of native seaweeds.

Large scale cultivation will not become a reality in Europe unless the price for cultivated macroalgae increases significantly. As an example, cultivated macroalgae for ethanol production can currently only obtain a selling price of â‚Ź20/ tonnes wet weight. In order to make cultivation economically sustainable and attractive to investors, the selling price should be closer to â‚Ź200/wet tonnes.

A mean to achieving this increased value is through an integrated biorefinery concept that includes both upstream and downstream process, in order to produce both low and high value products from the same biomass and to minimise waste. The future aim should therefore be to develop concepts and technologies for sustainable utilization of the marine algal biomass, and together with industrial end-users to

demonstrate the commercial potential for high added value products in an integrated biorefinery process.

Energy, food and feed production is the driver for development in the biorefinery area, however, as biorefineries become more and more sophisticated and utilise a varity of feedstocks, other products will be developed (Clark and Deswarte 2008, Kam and Kam 2004). The challenge in biorefinery is to make a profitable process economy which utilises a reliable supply of biomass feedstock and produces a vast array of value-added products and some low- value/ high-volume bulk products with total resource efficiency and no waste.

Open sea-based cultivation of macroalgae in Europe has huge potential, but information is required about the biology and life cycle of the specific algal crops and the different production options. Marine genomics research is generating new tools, such as functional molecular markers and bioinformatics, as well as new knowledge about statistics and inheritance phenomena that could increase the efficiency and precision of algal crop improvement. Marker-assisted breeding and selection will be accelerated by these novel approaches. In addition, it is expected that population genomics will help in the exploitation of algal genetic resources as well as in the development of association genetics.

Macro algae production worldwide

According to FAO (2011) approximately 15.8 million tonnes (wet weight) of macroalgae (brown, red and green algae) were produced by global aquaculture with a total es-

Figure 1: Manual harvest of Ulva lactuca in coastal waters. Ulva is a free floating macroalgae with a very high production rate, 4-5 times landbased crops on Dry Matter (DM) content.

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get an understanding of the growth conditions of Ulva lactuca, laboratory scale growth experiments describing N, P, and CO2 uptake and possible N2O and CH4 production was carried out. The macroalgae was converted to bioethanol and methane (biogas) in laboratory processes. Further the potential of using the algae as a solid combustible biofuel was studied. Harvest and conditioning procedures were described together with the potential of integrating macroalgae production at a power plant, and finally cost calculation of dry and wet Ulva lactuca as a biomass resource was carried out (figure 1).

The main outcome of the Ulva lactuca project was that the annual yield of this macroalgae is 4-5 times land-based energy crops, ethanol/butanol can be produced from pretreated Ulva of C6 and also C5 sugars, methane (biogas) yields of Ulva are at a level between cow manure and energy crops and co-firing of Ulva with coal in power plants is limited due to high ash content. In addition economic calculations showed that production of Ulva only for energy purposes at power plants is too costly. Figure 2 explains this because biomass for energy purposes is at the very bottom of the value pyramid.

Algae for biogas in Central Denmark Region is a 3 years project (2010-2013) funded by Central Denmark Region´s Growth Forum, EU´s 7th Framework Programme and the project partners. The main goals of the project is to establish and manage a land-based test and demonstration plant for cultivating macro algae in Grenaa, and optimize the growth of macro algae and their use for biogas production. Likewise, the project has established a business network with industry and SME´s with an interest in algae.

The project partners are the Danish Technological Institute, Aarhus University, DONG Energy A/S, Kattegat Centre, Macroalgae at Danish Technological Institute Ocean Centre Denmark and AkvaGroup.

Since 2008 Danish Technological Institute has been very In connection with the above mentioned project we have active in Research & Development of macroalgae with fostarted AlgaeCenter Denmark which is a consortium formed cus on large scale industrial use. It was not easy to find data in 2011 between Aarhus University, Kattegat centre (public and knowledge about large scale production of macroalgae, aquarium), Ocean Center Denmark and Danish Technologiand the first project was focused on collecting basic informacal Institute. AlgaeCenter Denmark has algae cultivation tion about the green macroalgae Ulva lactuca , also called facilities at the Kattegat Centre at Grenaa Harbour on the Sea Lettuce. (Nikolaisen et al. 2011) In this Danish funded eastcoast of project, methJutland. The ods for proProduct Value Share facility is ducing liquid, Food € 3,8 – 5,4 Billion 85% Denmark's gaseous and Hydrocolloids € 0.5 – 0,9 Billion 14% first recircusolid biofuel Fertiliser / animal feeds € 7.3 – 15 Million <1% lation system from Ulva Total € 4,3 – 6,3 Billion for research lactuca was Table 1. Estimated global value of seaweed products per annum (McHughes2003) and developexamined. To timated value of more than €3-5 Billion per year (McHughes 2003) which gives an average value of €312/tons wet weight. However, this average spans from 100-€135/tons of seaweed form Indonesia and the Philippines, €410/tons for seaweed from China and up to €1620/tons for high priced species (e.g. Nori) form Japan.

This world revenue of macroalgae is broken down as listed below, but is dominated by the use as either food directly, or as hydrocolloids with extensive uses as food additives. Although most of this (roughly €5 Billion) is used for foodstuffs, by far the major part of the non-food products derived from seaweed is based around hydrocolloids (McHughes 2003).

Globally, the production of macroalgae is almost exclusively based on cultivated species. In Europe, the majority of algae are wild harvested primarily in Norway, Ireland, Iceland and France. The total wild harvest of seaweed in Europe is approx. 200.000 tons/year, and it is unlikely to increase due to risk of negative impact on the benthic ecosystem. Beside the use of macroalgae for human consumption in Asia which amounts to 83% of the global production the main use of the biomass is for hydrocolloids production (16% of the global production). The production of hydrocolloids has historically been a very large industry in Denmark and is now produced by the company CPKelco at the production facility near Copenhagen. CPKelco is one of the largest producers of carrageenan in the world but imports most of the macroalgae in the Danish production from Indonesia, Philippines, Zanzibar and Canada (Mouritsen 2009).

The rest of the global production of macro algae (approximately 1%, see Table 1) is used for soil additives, agrochemicals, animal feed.

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ment in the use of macroalgae as a new resource. The main equipment are twelve large cultivation tanks for the controlled cultivation of seaweeds where fresh sea water is pumped in directly from Kattegat. As research facility we have a unique opportunity to document almost every aspect of algae growth and cultivation. In addition there is an important dissemination actitvity for schoolchildren and student where we on different technical levels can inform about macroalgae producFigure 3: Students visiting AlgeCenter Denmark in Grenå. The 12 cultivation tion (figure 3). tanks are filled with fresh salt water with continuous circulation. Different Nordic Innovation programme in Oslo has in 2011 types of algae can be tested at the same time. sponsored the Nordic Algae Network where Danish topic at the conference is: Macroalgae from research to Technological Institute is project manager. It is a disindustry and will also have presentations about microalgae semination projects among industries working with macrowww.algecenterdanmark.dk and microalgae in the North Atlantic Hemisphere. There are We are partners in a North Atlantic Algae project with the 18 industrial partners and 4 key actors running the project in title: Demonstration Project on Macro Algae Cultivation Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The main activities Rig and Ocean Biotechnology. The purpose of the demare workshops in the 4 countries and a 2-day conference at onstration project is to develop and prove the technical and the end of the project. The project aim is to help the induscommercial viability of a concept for cultivating macroalgae try partners to a leading position in the field of utilizing alin the open ocean. Also develop and test harvesting methods gae for energy purposes and for commercial exploitation of which ensure the storage stability of the product. Furtherhigh value compounds from algae. An additional aim is to more to analyse bioactive compounds with respect to how increase the synergy and facilitating collaboration between the produced algae can then be utilized as raw materials in the industries involved in the network and thereby increasfood production (carrageenan, alginate), energy production ing their ability to compete in this new field. (bioethanol, biogas), and other industrial ventures (iodine The 2-day conference in cooperation with Nordic Algae production, fish feed etc.). The contract owner is Ocean Network is arranged by AlgaeCenter Denmark and takes Rainforest on Faroe Islands, and the partners are from Scotplace at Grenå on 9.-10. October 2013. The conference land, Faroe Islands, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The is the 3rd Danish Macro Algae Conference. The main project is running from 2012 to 2014 and is sponsored by NORA (North Atlantic Cooperation in Oslo) and the project partners.

Our newest and high profiled algae project is a 3.2 million Euro project with Danish funding: The MacroAlgaeBiorefinery – sustainable production of 3G bioenergy carriers and high value aquatic fish feed from macroalgae. Acronym: MAB3.

The main objectives of Figure 2: The value pyramid. This figure shows the economic ranking and the market volume the MAB3 project are to of different products which can be extracted from algae. In the top are cosmetics in low voludevelop new technologies me at high prices, in the bottom biomass for energy purposes with high volume at low prices.

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in laboratory and pilot scale leading to a sustainable production and further conversion of two brown macroalgae i.e. Saccharina latissima and Laminaria digitata into three energy carriers - bioethanol, biobutanol, and biogas - and a protein rich fish feed supplemented with essential amino acids. S. latissima and L. digitata will be produced from only CO2 and natural resources, in that way making energy and food supply in a sustainable way. The whole production chain will be evaluated by and followed up by sustainability tools (e.g. LCA), a thorough feasibility study and a business plan for a full scale demonstration project. The project is running from 2012 to 2015. Danish Technological Institute is contract owner and there are in total 14 partners from Denmark, Germany, Italy and Ireland.

References

Bruhn A, Dahl J, Nilsen HB, Nikolaisen L, Rasmussen MB, Markager S, Olesen B, Arias C, Jensen PD (2011) “Bioenergy potential of Ulva lactuca: Biomass yield, methane production and combustion”. Bioresource Technology 102: 2595-2604

Holdt SL, Kraan S (2011) “Bioactive compounds in seaweed: functional food applications and legislation”. Journal of Applied Phycology 23: 543-597 Clark J and Deswarte F (2008) “Introduction to chemicals from biomass”. Wiley and Sons Ltd., publication FAO (Food and Agrigulture Organizations of the United Nations) (2011) “The state of world fisheries and aquaculture 2010”. FAO, Rome Gao K, Mckinley KR (1994) “Use of macroalgae for marine biomass production and CO2 remediation – a review”.

Journal of Applied Phycology 6: 45-60 Kam B, Kam M (2004) “Principles of biorefineries”. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 64: 137-145 McHughes DJ (2003) “A guide to the seaweed industry”.

FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No. 441. Rome, FAO. 105 p Mouritzen OG (2009) “Tang, Grøntsager fra Havet”. Nyt Nordisk Forlag: Arnold Busk Nikolaisen et al.: Energy Production from Marine Biomass (Ulva lactuca) 2011

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New biomass research at Danish Technological Institute Marine biomass at Danish Technological Institute

Photo: Peter Bondo Christensen

Danish Technological Institute is currently leading the project: The MacroAlgaeBiorefinery – sustainable production of 3. generation bioenergy carriers and high value aquatic fish feed from macroalgae (acronym: MAB3). The project aims at converting brown macro algae (Laminaria and Saccharina) to liquid biofuel and using the residuals for fish feed.

Danish Technological Institute is partner in AlgaeCentre Denmark which is a research- and development plant located in Grenaa, Denmark

Photo: Torben Skøtt

Torrefied biomass at Danish Technological Institute

Photo: Torben Skøtt

In the spring of 2011 at Danish Technological Institute's location in Sdr. Stenderup the Institute together with ANDRITZ Feed & Biofuel opend the doors to a plant for production, testing and experimenting with torrefaction and pelleting of biomass. It takes place in a new building of 770 m2, which will include facilities for integrated torrefaction and pelletization of biomass. The new plant is planned in cooperation with ANDRITZ Feed & Biofuel.

Danish Technological Institute • www.teknologisk.dk • www.algecenterdanmark.dk Peter Daugbjerg Jensen • Phone: +45 7220 1340 • Email: PDN@teknologisk.dk

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Biomass for the Transport Sector in 100% Renewable Energy Systems Brian Vad Mathiesen | Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University

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he transport sector is a key problem in a future energy system based 100% on renewable energy. In the last four decades Denmark has been successful in keeping the total primary energy consumption constant at around 800 PJ. This has been possible in spite of large increase in the energy consumption from the transport sector and a small increase in the electricity consumption. In 1980 we used less than 150 PJ for transport.

This has increased to over 200 PJ today, in spite of efficiency improvements in transport technologies. The transport sector has, in other words, eaten up the savings in the primary energy consumption stemming from re-insulation of dwellings, more CHP and more wind turbines in the system.

Two circumstances makes it particularly difficult to convert the transport sector to 100% renewable energy: first the sector is 95% dependent on oil and the large increase in transport demand in the past decades.

In research council project CEESA (Coherent Energy and Environmental System Analyses), which was funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council, the focus has been on 100% renewable energy systems for Denmark. A major part of the research has gone into scenarios for how the transport sector can evolve in the future, including to what extend bio-

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Figure 1. Transport energy consumption in Denmark.

fuels are needed and which types would be feasible.

CEESA has produced a series of alternative scenarios for 100% renewable energy in the transport sector. If we assume the transport growth that the official authority normally use, the transport need will be double in 2050 compared to today.

With a high growth in the transport need, the scenarios in CEESA show that even with the most optimistic assumptions regarding new technology, such a great demand is unlikely to be covered by biofuels based on Danish biomass resources without significant changes from food production to energy crops.

The results of the analyses show a doubling of the transport demand compared to today, which some predict is highly problematic if the aim is to become based on 100% renewable energy. Even though there is a great potential for use of electricity in the transport sector, the remaining transports require biofuels and/or synthetic fuels. Related to that, CEESA points to the possibility of combining hydrogen from electrolysis (using power from wind turbines) with carbon from gasified or processed biomass and carbon from the atmosphere. This can boost the biomass resource, reducing the total demand for biomass while creating liquid or gaseous fuels; easier to handle and use in the existing distribution network than hy-

research

drogen. In CEESA four principal routes are pointed out: 1. Fermentation combined with gasification and hydrogenation, 2. biomass gasification and hydrogenation, 3. CO2 hydrogenation 4. Co-electrolysis.

All routes make it possible to get electrons from intermittent renewable energy resources in to the tanks of trucks, ships and airplanes, thus reducing the pressure on biomass resources and allowing the sectors, not able to use power directly, to use energy from wind turbines. In light of this, one clear obstacle emerges: The price of biomass and technology plays in on the total costs. A transport scenario was designed where freight transport grows as business-as-usual but person transport only grows with 50 % compared to today, as opposed to 100% compared to today. In such a scenario we can drive just as much as today or even more in car in the future and at the same time shift to renewable energy. Some of the growth in road transport and air transport is transferred to rail in the scenario. Additionally the share of electric-plugin-hybrids and pure electric vehicles is increased to 85% of the personal car fleet. The rest of the transport sector (cars, trucks, ship and aviation) is fuelled with liquid fuels. As mentioned it is necessary to find a solution where biomass or other sources of carbon are combined with hydrogen. As an example on how this can be done CEESA includes a scenario where DME/methanol is produced by a combination

of gasification of biomass and CO2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;sequestration and subsequent hydrogenation and synthetises. Future research will show whether the synthetic liquid fuels is the better option in the form of DME/methanol or whether gaseous fuels such as methane is the better option. The results show: 1. The primary fuel supply may be lower than 150 PJ in the future, 2. It is technically possible to cover the transport demand and the demand for biomass in other parts of the energy system with biomass equalling the Danish biomass potential considering we only use residual ressources and do not make major changes to the current land use.

3. The total costs are less than the situation with high growth in the person transport demand, 4. The costs of hydrogenation are not significantly different compared to the costs from scenarios based on known types of biofuels and their development, and 5. Infrastructure investments in railroad et cetera are compensated by fuel savings and saved investments in road infrastructure.

The solutions for 100% renewable energy for transport are there however it does require that considerations are put into the increase in the transport demands and that electricity is highly prioritised for transport. Biomass is a valuable resource for which there will be plenty of options to use in the future food, material and energy supply.

Figure 2, The primary energy supply in the reference scenario with high growth in the transport demand and the recommendable scenario in CEESA with a moderate growth in the person transport demand combined with a high growth in the freight transport demand.

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COMBINED HEAT & POWER BECOMES EVEN GREENER Elisabeth Dubbers | Berlin Energy Agency

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he simultaneous generation of power and heat in one plant is called combined heat and power (CHP) generation or cogeneration. Compared to separate production of heat and power in conventional power plants and individual heating systems, CHP units achieve up to 40 % higher energy efficiency. If several CHP plants are connected and able to produce on demand they can even be used to stabilise the electricity grid, i.e. contribute as virtual power to a smart grid.

So far, most CHP units are fuelled by natural gas, but also biogas can provide low-carbon input for CHP plants. The gas mixture can either be used directly if there is demand close to the plant. Alternatively the biogas can be upgraded to bio-methane which has the same quality as natural gas.

This has the advantage that the bio-methane can be injected and transported in the natural gas grid and thus be used more flexibly.

bioenergy CHP penetration rate of 70% is a clear frontrunner and Denmark with 16% still above average, while in some other countries the share of bio-energy in CHP plants is not even measureable.

There is still untapped potential for a bigger role of bioenergy in CHP plants. According to the European Environmental Agency (EEA) in 2009 on average 11% of the CHP plants in the EU were fuelled by bioenergy. The picture among the member states is very diverse. Sweden with a

Based on the studies and experiences from the project CHP Goes Green success factors for bio-energy CHP have been identified. Important drivers for green CHP are ambitious energy and climate targets and policies on local, national and EU-level. Especially with regard to bio-energy

State of the art and untapped potentials

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The project CHP Goes Green

"CHP Goes Green" is a two-year project started in June 2011 and supported by the EU Intelligent Energy for Europe Programme, to promote an increased use of renewable energy sources whilst improving its efficiency by using CHP. Eight model cities and regions in five EU member states (Berlin, Frankfurt, Hannover, Paris, Lyon, Prague, Graz, Riga) are part of the project. In the last two years the partners generated and spread vast knowledge on green CHP. Besides framework analyses and feasibility studies they conducted workshops, technical trainings and coachings. In some regions also new bio-energy CHP plants have been initiated (for example the best practice case at the fire brigade in Berlin described below).

Success factors

the policies and targets should be linked to other areas such as land use, waste management and agricultural development.

As one instrument to achieve energy and climate targets obligations can be set. For example, the German Renewable Energy Heat Act applies to new buildings and older public buildings after a fundamental renovation.

It introduced a quota system with obligations to cover a minimum share of the heat demand with renewable energy. The share depends on the type of renewable sources used – for example minimum 30% when using biogas in a CHP plants and minimum of 50% when using biomass in a high efficient heating system.

Further options to achieve the targets are financial and regulatory support schemes. This could involve a feed-in tariff, investment incentives, access to loans and / or easy grid access. In Germany the CHP Act guarantees a grid connection and a certain minimum bonus paid 6-10 years for each kilowatt-hour (kWh) generated in a CHP plant. The smaller the CHP plant the higher the bonus which ranges currently from 2,4 to 5,51 Euro-Cent per kW/h.

If the operator chooses biogas to fuel the CHP plant a different support scheme can be used in Germany: the feed-in tariff according to the Renewable Energy Act. The guaranteed feed-in-tariff for bio-gas CHP is 11,44 Euro-Cent per kWh for a period of 20 years. In addition, there are different bonuses for specific technologies or raw materials. In best case the bonuses can sum-up to 23,2 Euro-Cent per kWh. However, one has to keep in mind that bio-methane costs still twice as much as natural gas. For this reason the financial and regulatory incentives have a big impact on the economic feasibility of bio-energy CHP. Beyond the support schemes the competitiveness can be improved through economies of scale, industry with continuous heat demand and long operating hours, a high district heating penetration and the long-term availability of costefficient biomass sources.

Last but not least awareness-related factors are key factors for success. These refer amongst other to a green attitude within society, a favourable public discussion on bio-energy and the ability to link different solutions and stakeholders.

The political, regulatory, economic and awareness-related success factors for green CHP with examples from Germany give an idea how to push a very energy efficient, low-carbon and still reliable heat and electricity supply. Given the advantages, bio-energy CHP can contribute considerably to

the EU energy and climate targets which aim to increase the EU's energy efficiency by 20 % and to cover 20% of EU energy consumption by renewable energy sources until 2020.

Best Practice Case: Fire-station Berlin

Facts and figures: • Total area 21.000 qm • CHP-unit with natural gas: 240 kWel, 365 kWth • Thermal power: 2.190 MWh/yr.

• Electric power: 1.440 MWh/yr.

• 1.350 t CO2-reduction/yr.

At the station of the Charlottenburg-Nord professional fire brigade the Berlin Energy Agency (BEA) is operating a bionatural gas / biomethane fuelled CHP plant.

With an output of 240 kWel and 365 kWth, the CHP plant is one of the first and biggest plants of its kind in Berlin.

Compared to conventional power generation with fossil fuels, annual carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 1,350 tons.

Heat is supplied centrally from a heating system located in the basement of the administrative building. In addition to the CHP, BEA also has installed a new natural gas fuelled condensing boiler with a thermal output of 854 kW to support the existing low-temperature boiler at times when large amounts of heat and hot water are required (peak load). All of the power generated is fed into the public grid and paid for as specified in the Renewable Energies Act. The bio-natural gas is supplied by GASAG. The gas comes from various biogas plants located in Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.

To reduce the heat requirement of the property with a heated floor space of 21,500 square meters, Berlin Immobilien Management as the building manager has completely modernised the administrative building of the fire station West.

Among other things, it has used thermal insulation and replaced the windows as well as the electrical installations.

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Resource Efficient Biomass Policies Calliope Panoutsou | Imperial College London This article is prepared under the Biomass Policies project funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

The Biomass Policies project is financed by Intelligent Energy Europe and it aims to develop integrated policies for the mobilisation of “resource efficient” indigenous biomass value chains in order to contribute towards the 2020 bioenergy targets set within NREAPs & 2030, and other European and national policies. It will do so by capitalising on the knowledge of three recent studies (Biobench ; Biomass Futures and a study for the European Environment Agency ) and through collaboration with selected Energy Agencies in the participating countries, i.e. AT, BE, DE, EL, ES, HR, IE, NL, PL, SK and the UK as well as key stakeholders from the policy and market sectors.

It aims to impact the Member State (MS) policy for the mobilization of indigenous resource efficient biomass value chains, with the focus on highly relevant value chains. The active involvement of national agencies in the project highly increases the expected impact at national policy level.

Policy demand in the biomass sector

Following the requirements of the Renewable Energy Directive the National Renewable Energy Action Plans of the 27 MS stated that biomass is expected to contribute more than half to the 20% renewable objective of the gross final energy consumption (ECN 2011, BEE 2011, Biomass Futures, 2012).

Complementing the above “demand- driven” policy landscape, a resource-efficient Europe -Flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 Strategy in January 2011 (COM/2011/21) aims at building smart, sustainable and inclusive growth for Europe. It establishes resource efficiency as the guiding principle for all EU policies.

Consequently, during the last five years, policy formation in the biomass, bioenergy & biofuels fields has experienced intense activity, starting from the basic targets of the RED and paths towards their achievement from the Member States in their NREAP and the subsequent reporting periods, and following with several other initiatives for sustainability and market support at Member State level. However, most NREAPs were prepared without fully recognizing market dynamics including: the ETS; delayed deployment of 2nd generation biofuels; implications of sustainability criteria on supply (particularly ILUC); competition with 38 Be

other biomass using sectors; cooperation mechanisms included in the RE Directive; and the appreciation of longerterm resource efficiency and climate policies. Furthermore, opportunities of the bioeconomy such as cascading use of bioenergy, and the linking of electricity, heat, transport and bio-material markets were not reflected in the NREAPs. Recently, both EEA and EU funded projects, like Biomass Futures and Biobench, as well as other ones have developed concrete and update information on biomass potentials by Member State (MS) and the role biomass can play to meet the 2020 targets. An important conclusion from these studies has been that NREAP targets for biomass heat, electricity and transport will not be reached under present regional and national policy/support schemes and market developments in most EU27 countries. More concentrated efforts are needed at MS level to mobilize sustainable resources and prioritise resource efficient biomass value chains by developing balanced biomass policy frameworks which interrelate energy, economy, agriculture, climate change, nature conservation and ecosystem services.

Market response

The market for bioenergy & biofuels has also seen major increases in the last few years due to the high policy and subsequent industrial demand.

Biomass in the heat sector: The highest biomass share is that of the heat market that covers 55% of all renewable energy sources in EU27. Observ’ER reports that the volume of heat sold by heating networks increased by 18% from 2009 to 2010, which equates 6.7 Mtoe in 2010, and 68.7% of this was delivered by cogeneration units whose heat production increased at a slightly quicker pace, namely 19.3% between 2009 and 2010. If the heat consumption directly provided by solid biomass combustion (i.e. without recovery via heating networks) is added into the equation, total solid biomass heat consumption should stand at around 66 Mtoe in 2010 (59.9 Mtoe in 2009), which amounts to 10.1% growth.

Biomass in the electricity sector: Biomass electricity generation is based on solid biomass, biogas and the biodegradable fraction of MSW. According to Observ’ER , bioelectricity production from solid biomass continued to

grow through 2010 (8.3% up on 2009) and rose to 67 TWh, albeit at a slower pace than in 2009 (when it rose 11.3% between 2008 and 2009), as a number of countries such as Germany and Sweden switched their priority to producing heat in 2010.

Biofuels in transport: In the year 2000, the share of biofuels in transport market was 0.2%, in 2005 it increased to 1.1%, whilst it is anticipated to reach 7.4% by 2020 and 9.5% by 2030 (EC, 2007). According to the recent AEBIOM statistics, the consumption of biofuels for transport (biodiesel & bioethanol mainly) reached up to 13.9 Mtoe in 2010. The highest share of biofuel used in transport comprises of biodiesel (77,3%) and bioethanol (21,1%) with vegetable oil retaining a very low shares (0.9%) & biogas used for transport only in Sweden and certain places in Germany.

These figures illustrate impressive growth rates across the three sectors in recent years.

However, they must be considered against 1) the relatively low starting point for most EU27 MS, 2) the large untapped indigenous potential, 3) the indications that these market growth rates may not be sufficient to reach the 2020 targets and 4) the heterogeneous success rates among individual MS. Despite the constant sectorial growth at EU27 level and the ambitions set in RED and the individual NREAPs, it is acknowledged that these targets are not easy to meet within seven years unless targeted efforts are applied at MS level aiming to mobilise resource efficient bioenergy value chains assessed with harmonised indicators in â&#x20AC;&#x153;easy-to-followâ&#x20AC;? approaches and to create the respective policy and support measures that will frame them.

How will the Biomass Policies project support policy makers at national level?

Recent results from the Biomass Futures project estimated that the EU biomass potential ranges between 375 to 429 MTOE depending on the sustainability criteria applied.

This could in theory cover at least 2.5 times the amount that is needed to realize the total bioenergy demand as set in the NREAPs for 2020. However, in the demand analysis performed by the project with the RESolve1 model it is 1. The RESolve model is an optimization model developed

by ECN. The model fulfills given demands for biofuels for transport, electricity and heating using biomass in a least cost manner with respect to fossil references.

predicted that only a part (37%) of domestic biomass supply could actually be exploited by 2020 due to primarily lack of clearly focused policies and support measures at local/ national level that can promote efficient resource mobilisation. Practically given current present incentives and wider cost-benefit ratios for bioenergy production, no use is made of agricultural residues (e.g. straw, cuttings and prunings, manure) and additionally harvestable roundwood potentials. a.

One question that immediately arises from the above analysis on biomass supply is how can MS themselves accurately define and characterise their indigenous feedstock options in terms of cost-supply and logistical aspects of their deployment as well as sustainability risks.

The Biomass policies project will build on information from Biomass Futures, the EEA study and Biobench and develop practical guidelines for data collection and a clear simplified approach to estimate and monitor sustainable biomass supply at national level. b.

A second question from the demand supply analysis performed in the Biomass Futures project is whether there is a mismatch between supply and demand and how to best address this in the future monitoring process of NREAPs along with prioritising efficient and sustainable value chains.

The Biomass Policies project will also develop guidelines on how to select & prioritise sustainable- resource efficient bioenergy value chains. c.

A high number of Member States, given their specific biomass policy- related features (i.e. NREAP reporting targets, incentives, support schemes, etc.) are expected to

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Strategic consultancy, engineering and communication. miss their anticipated 2020 targets. Changes in policy formation/ stimulation measures will therefore need to take place at the level of MS and regions and this project will give guidance on how to do this.

A major element of the Biomass Polices project is to work alongside with national administrations to develop integrated biomass policy and support frameworks at the national level, tailored to meet their requirements and support the resource efficient mobilization of indigenous biomass value chains.

In short, the work in Biomass Policies, starting from data and information generated in the Biomass Futures and Biobench projects, will build up a concise knowledge base both for the efficient resource mobilisation (sustainability criteria; costs, logistics, availability) and for the assessment of resource efficient biomass value chains (with a set of consistent technical indicators). This will be further used to develop “tailored” policy and support frameworks at EU27 and national level for a set of highly relevant biomass value chains for ten Member States and one Acceding country (HR) that will provide answers and guidance to the following policy related issues: • How to manage with competition for the biomass feedstocks?

• How to optimise with various national sustainability rules?

• How to support mobilization of important indigenous biomass resources, for which value chains and how to address resource efficiency in policy, through cogeneration, cascading use of biomass, biorefinery approaches?

• How to address different scales (domestic; industrial; CHP, etc.) of biomass use in policy?

• How to close the large gap with bio-heat targets?

• How to engage cooperation mechanisms (particularly the joint projects) to mobilise relatively cheap indigenous biomass resources and contribute towards achieving the RES targets cost-effectively?

• How to find a level- playing field way to promote advanced biofuels?

• How should the future support schemes look like?

The project will run from April 2013 to March 2016 and involves seventeen partners across Europe.

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policy

Biofuel Markets and Sustainability: Facts and Figures from the EC Progress Report on Renewable Energy In accordance with the reporting requirements set out in the 2009 Directive on Renewable Energy, every two years the European Commission publishes a report on the progress of renewable energy in the Union. The report assesses Member States’ progress in the promotion and use of renewable energy along the trajectory towards the 2020 renewable energy targets. The latest report was published last 27 March and also covers the sustainability of biofuels and bioliquids consumed in the EU, as well as the impacts of this consumption. Here is a bief summary of the main findings of the report.

Production and consumption of biofuels

In 2010, the use of renewable energy in transport was 4.70%, consisting of 13.0 Mtoe of sustainable biofuels or 4.27% and 1.3 Mtoe of renewable electricity, or 0.43%.

Between 2008 and 2010, the volume of biofuels consumed in the EU increased by 39%. In 2010 about 75% of the biofuels used in the EU was biodiesel, while 21% was bioethanol and about 4% resided in “other liquid biofuels”. Only 1.4% (177 ktoe) of all EU consumed biofuels was produced from so-called double counting biofuels.

Adoption of sustainability criteria

13 voluntary schemes for certifying the sustainability of biofuels have been approved by the Commission so far. Regarding the transposition of the biofuel sustainability criteria of the Directive into Member State’s legislations, the report shows that there are still some gaps though legal proceedings have begun to ensure that effective sustainability regimes are in place. At the same time, the main exporting countries (Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, and Malaysia) have adopted new regulatory measures to improve their environmental practices in biofuels related areas.

Regarding measures for air, soil and water protection, the report finds that all current EU agricultural practices obligatory under EU Common Agricultural Policy and environmental legislation, apply to biofuel feedstock production and as such, separate biofuels-specific measures are not necessary.

Land use and social impact

The global net land use for biofuels consumed in the EU is less than 3Mha. Within the EU estimates range from 2%

(Poland) to 6% (France) of national cropland. Outside the EU the land dedicated to the production of feedstock for EU biofuels is less than 1% of the cropland.

Regarding the social sustainability of biofuels, the report states that given the time lags between land acquisition and biofuels production and flaws on the ILC Land Matrix database, it is not yet clear if EU biofuels demand contributes any abuse of land use rights in non EU countries, however the monitoring of this issue must continue. The Commission states that it is particularly important to assess whether EU biofuels consumption has contributed in any way to the significant food price increases and impact on food affordability that occurred in 2008 and 2011 and the poor U.S. 2012 harvest, and to what extent other factors such as bad weather, bad harvests, rising global demand, increased oil prices have also contributed.

An analysis developed on behalf of the Commission has found that grain use for bioethanol production constituted only 3% of total cereal use in 2010/2011 and is estimated to have minor (1%-2%) price effect on the global cereals market. As far as biodiesel is concerned, though EU biodiesel consumption is greater than ethanol, the estimated price effect on food oil crops (rapeseed, soybean, palm oil) for 2008 and 2010 was only 4%.

GHG emission savings of biofuels use

The 4.7% share of biofuels is estimated to have generated 25.5 Mt CO2eq savings, though this estimate does not include indirect agricultural intensification effects or indirect land use change effects which might have reduced the actual CO2 savings from biofuels. When these emissions are included, estimated savings are significantly reduced. For this reason the Commission has proposed amendments to the Fuel Quality and Renewable Energy Directives, to more firmly take account of indirect land use change effects resulting from EU biofuel consumption. The proposal includes limiting the contribution that food-based biofuels can make towards the 10% target to 5%, enhanced incentives to encourage the development of second generation biofuels from non-food feedstock, like waste or straw are proposed. This proposal is now with Parliament and the Council of Ministers, and will clarify EU biofuels policy up to 2020.

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STANDARDISATION for the Bio-Based Economy O.M. Costenoble and H. Willemse | NEN - Netherlands Standardization Institute F. Petit | DSM.

T

he growing interest for the substitution of fossil resources with bio-based alternatives has triggered a rapid growth of innovative technologies and new bio-based materials. The high level of innovation creates a very dynamic market for bio-based products, in which companies are confronted with a large number of uncertainties. These may limit new products and technologies from growing into full scale commercial products.

The so-called Bio-Based Economy (BBE) has several characteristics. Firstly, all bio-based (chemical) producers are exposed to severe competition with the bioenergy sector for biomass resources. Secondly, as the chemical and biotechnological industry are science- based; they are acknowledged to be highly knowledge intensive. Companies operating in the bio-based industry have a relatively high R&D intensity, making a very innovative sector. Due to the nature of their feedstock, there is heterogeneity among the value chains, meaning a lot of variety in downstream industrial applications. Finally, most of the technologies developed in the bio-based industry are at the beginning of the second phase of the technological lifecycle (rapid growth), also referred to as the S-curve. Therefore, as recognised by Annita Westenbroek, director of the Dutch Biorefinery Cluster, a partnership of agricultural and bio-based industrial companies is essential. The chemical industry and agriculture do 42 Be

not cooperate well enough to know each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs and strengths.

One of the main other challenges for the real take-off of bio-refineries and the bio-based economy is a clear, harmonized and unambiguous set of standards about the properties of the products placed on the market. Standards are voluntary agreements that are developed through a multistakeholder consensus process, involving industry, NGOs and government. These are of interest or cooperation and exchange within the BBE chain-of-custody. But apart from business-to-business, reliable information on product properties is also of interest for business-to-consumer communication. Once products underpin the needs of policy makers, standards (and the certification linked to it) can also be used in business-to-procurer relationship, when the authorities become consumer at the end of the chain as well.

The above means, the BBE market needs to consolidate the state of the art. Thereby developing a solid basis for commercialisation of new technologies and products and creating a point of reference as a basis for further research. Development of standards in close relation with research is essential to create levels of stability in this market, while still supporting innovation and development of new technologies.

European standards

The European Commission shares this vision and has submitted several requests (mandates) to CEN, the Euro-

bioeconomy

whether many products will fail this analysis.

"What we do is standardization. We are not going to determine in CEN/TC 411 what is a good or a bad product. It is up to others, on the basis of our standards". He makes the comparison with the speed limits: "We tell what the definition of speed is. But it is up to others to determine the speed limits".

The work in CEN/TC 411 is based on the prinFigure: Mercedes-Benz A-Class engine cover in bio-based polyamide from DSM ciples of interaction between and coherence of legislation, standardization and certification in pean Standardization Organization, for the development the field of bio-based products. It will form the basis of of standards in the field of bio-based products. Following disseminating the best technical knowledge of the Eurothese EC mandates, CEN initiated a new Technical Compean stakeholders. These principles are used to analyse the mittee: CEN/TC 411 "Bio-based products". This TC, with developments in European and international (ISO) standa Dutch Chair (DSM) and Secretariat (NEN), has commitardization and the development of certification schemes in ted to the development of a comprehensive set of standards the field of the sustainability of (biomass used for the profor bio-based products. The first question for CEN was duction of) bio-based products. Sustainability schemes for 'What are bio-based products?' Fredric Petit, Sustainability biomass for energy are currently extending their scope to Director of DSM and Chairman of CEN/TC 411 explains: bio-based products. One example is NTA 8080, originated “These are products based on renewable feedstock, so not as a Dutch subsidiary support system for biomass co-firing, originating from fossil sources”. He underlines the need later accepted by the EC as a voluntary scheme for biofuels, for terminology standards. “This is one of the spearheads. but is now being revised to incorporate bio-materials and The definition of bio-based is 'derived from biomass', but bio-chemicals. Sustainability of bio-based products may should be worked out in further detail". Mr Petit acknowlbecome common practice, well before the development of edges that there are products which popularly are referred legal requirements. to as bio-based, but in practice are not. "An example is deKBBPPS gradable polymers, which are made on the basis of fossil From the start CEN/TC 411 has assembled agriculture raw materials. These cannot be called bio-based products, at and forestry producers through for instance Copa Cogeca least following the terminology as it is now". Further, CEN/ and FEDIOL, feedstock converters via AAF, CEPI, EIHA TC 411 will consider how the 'bio-based content ' is deterand CITPA, and final product makers under CEPE, ESIG or mined. Petit: "To determine the age of a given substance, PlasticsEurope1. This guarantees the earlier identified necand hence whether it is derived from ‘old’ fossil resources essary partnership essential in bringing bio-based products or from ‘young’ renewable resources, one can measure the to the market. The close connection for CEN with research isotope C14. This is a common methodology. As part of is arranged via the project KBBPPS (Knowledge Based the work, we will answer the question whether to look to Bio-based Products' Pre-Standardization) which started in the carbon element only or to also include other atoms."

August 2012 under the EU FP7 research programme. For Sustainable products this, a research consortium between the Agricultural UniSustainability criteria also forms an object of investigaversity of Athens, the University of York, Wageningen Unition. "If everyone's talking about sustainability and food 1. COPA-COGECA = Committee of Agricultural Profesvs. fuel vs. material, than we want to develop standards on sionals - General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperahow to determine sustainability I am thinking in particular tives, FEDIOL = EU Vegetable Oil and Proteinmeal Induof LCA (Life Cycle Analysis). This means that you take the stry, AAF = European Starch Industry Association, CEPI production phase, use phase and end-of-life phase into ac= Confederation of European Paper Industries, EIHA = European Industrial Hemp Association, CITPA = Internacount for all the elements of the product. The product can tional Confederation of Paper and Board Converters in have benefits in one phase, but the point is that the product Europe, CEPE = European Council of producers and imshall be sustainable throughout its whole life cycle". porters of paints, printing inks and artists’ colours, ESIG = Petit doesn't want to or even cannot answer the question European Solvents Industry Group.

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news

the development of test methods and also to use the project versity, ECN, OWS and nova-Institute has been established. results for ASTM and international standards.

As the leading CEN institute in the field, NEN manages this Continuous exchange with CEN/TC 411 guarantees a project. In addition, associations like EuropaBio, European swift adoption of the results in the end. The developed methBioplastics and Association Chimie du Végétal (ACDV) odologies should form a concept for all bio-based products are connected, just as research groups like Scion in New and are not product-specific. The bio-content and –degradZealand, Beta-Analytic in the UK and Michigan State Uniability methods will be tested up to the level of repeatability versity in the USA cooperate in the project. in order to present indications of quality levels, classes and The project executes pre- and co-normative research for correlation with actual field behaviour. For the validation, bio-based products, to be used directly in the CEN standthe KBBPPS resources and timeframe are too limited. That ardization process. KBBPPS aims at increasing the uptake is thus up to CEN. speed of standards and certification systems for bio-based products. This project covers research and demonstration on Biodegradation and ecotoxicity standards still bio-based carbon content determination and biomass conincomplete tent methods not solely dependent on 14C-analysis. Here As first research task, the KBBPPS project reviewed curECN, York and Wageningen play a leading role together rent biodegradation and ecotoxicity standards. It was found with American partners. On one side the needs and possithat there is good progress in standards development but bilities will be studied from a holistic viewpoint of element significant gaps remain. The review is an important start to depletion by human use of resources in the future and from empowering the bio-based products' market and improving an overall industry perspective when covering all bio-based product information for consumers. It looked at the curmaterials, intermediates and products. On the other side rent biodegradation test methods in different environments practical solutions for stakeholders, lab and field tests will (fresh water, marine environment, anaerobic environment, be explored. The possibilities for improving sample prepasoil and compost) and the existing test procedures for evaluration, fractionation and thermal treatments will be studied ating environmental safety. in order to cover bio-based carbon and other bio-based eleThe review focussed on how the test methods for bioments determination. lubricants and bio-solvents apply to consumers’ perceptions Next, practical solutions for stakeholders, lab and field of the prefix "bio". Consumers often perceive "bio" as a tests on biodegradation or biological derived elements will synonym for “good for the environment” and will regard be investigated. OWS and Athens have years of experience such products as environmentally friendly or environmenwith for instance degradation in soil and will interchange tally acceptable. However, for some products this is not alwith our Australasian contacts. The goal in the end is that ways the effect wished for: biodegradation is not in all cases the results can be copied one-to-one into European standeffective. To ensure consumers receive accurate product ards. A last element is the identification and resolution of information, the report recommends development of biofunctionality related bottlenecks. Therefore, KBBPPS will present insight into the functionality of bio-based products and the specific qualities originating from their biomass origin. There are specific standards that cover some aspects, but the goal is to investigate and develop concepts that are generally applicable.

Each study in KBBPPS starts with an inventory in literature and a stakeholder enquiry in order to determine the boundaries and start-point. A first industry workshop to exchange ideas was held in conjunction with the "International Conference on Industrial Biotechnology and Bio-based Plastics & Composites" in April 2013 in Cologne, Germany.

The participation of around 40 experts also from Figure: Biodegradation testing at Mifsud S.L. USA and Thailand, led to agreement to coordinate 44 Be

bioeconomy

based specifications and labelling systems. Standardised test methods should set the benchmark for specifications, which encompass well-defined pass criteria for different characteristics (e.g. biodegradation, environmental safety, bio-based content, performance). These criteria should be chosen to suit the objective of the specification, which then forms the basic principles for labelling systems.

The biodegradability review found that current specifications, acceptance criteria and labelling systems are already clearly defined for compostable plastics and packaging, but only to a lesser degree for other environments and processes (such as fresh water, soil, marine, anaerobic digestion and gasification). Existing specifications and labelling systems specifically for plastics, bio-lubricants and bio-solvents have been reviewed for environmental impact, and difficulties and gaps in the existing specifications are defined. The report concludes that neither standard specifications nor labelling systems have been developed for products which end up in an anaerobic digester. Also, more environmentally friendly (standardization) alternatives for use in a marine environment have still to be developed. Finally, for lubricants and solvents used in fresh water and on soil improvements or updates concerning specific products are needed. The latter will be the next task of the KBBPPS project partners.

Figure: Bio-line, biodegradable toys

Bio-based product selection

Another result after eight months of work and two workshops with stakeholders, is a selection of 26 categories of bio-based materials, intermediates and products. The selection has been made on the basis of criteria like relevant market share, market growth potential, but also on biomass source and average biomass content. The idea was to develop a clustered market overview on bio-based materials, intermediates and products. The first reactions from the industry on the list are quite positive. The selection will form the basis of prioritizing proposals to resolve some of the bottlenecks in the market. It identifies a product set to have an optimal check of the methodologies. The impacts of the different test methodologies (for instance bio-carbon vs. biomass content) and labelling on the example products from each category are assessed. This will be extended by a techno-economical evaluation on the different standard measurements methodologies (efficiency, expenditure and benefits), plus the acceptance by the consumer. At the end of the KBBPPS work, a resolution action plan for standardization, certification and policies will be reported.

INTERNATIONAL VDI CONFERENCE 2013

BIOMASS TO ENERGY Feedstock potentials & technical solutions Renown speakers will present their results on the following topics: • European legislation, economic and political framework aspects • Relevant feedstocks, potentials and sustainability • Established and emerging markets • Future technologies: Torrefaction and hydrothermal carbonization • Energetic usage of biomass – Exclusive insights into European operators’ best practices • Gasification of biomass – Technology, processes and operational experience OFFICIAL PARTNERS

Date and venue:

Chairman:

September 3-4, 2013 Munich, Germany

Dr. Jan Grundmann, Generalbevollmächtigter, Vattenfall Europe New Energy GmbH, Geschäftsführer, Energy Crops GmbH

An event organized by VDI Wissensforum GmbH www.vdi-international.com/biomass

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news

Co-regulation: “Fashion or effective tool for the sustainability of global biomass supply chains?”

Jinke van Dam, Sofie Spijkers, Sergio Ugarte | SQ Consult Martina Gaebler | Programme for Social and Environmental Standards

Environmental and socio-economic concerns around biofuels production are especially discussed for feedstock originating from countries where the risk of non-compliance is high. Assuring sustainability of biofuels requires therefore that feedstock production and trade occur under the frame of regulation and control mechanisms that can be enforced on an international level.

The European Renewable Energy Directive (RED) allows economic operators in the European Union (EU) to use private sustainability certification schemes to prove compliance with mandatory sustainability criteria for biofuels and other bioliquids. This concept of combining public regulation and private initiatives is referred to as co-regulation. The European Commission (EC) implements co-regulation under the RED via the recognition of private sustainability certification schemes.

Co-regulation builds upon the combined strengths of public regulation and private initiatives. Strengths in public regulation include democratic legitimacy, applicability to all firms within the jurisdiction, and enforceability through national supervisory agencies. Weaknesses include slow development, no applicability outside the national jurisdiction and often high implementation costs for private sector parties.

Private initiatives are often flexible, quick and innovative in nature; they may have an international focus and can be applied across national boundaries.

While the recognition of private schemes in public regulation has the potential to combine the strength of both regulatory areas, there are also risks attached to the process.

Lack of clarity and guidance during the implementation of co-regulation may end up in some weak private initiatives combined with lenient national regulation, resulting in high environmental or socio-economic concerns. Contradictory demands on private initiatives by different governments may increase implementation costs. Furthermore, if the dynamics of private initiatives is not fully understood, then co-regulation may not be efficient or it may be used in a way that endangers its neutrality and credibility (e.g. for protectionist purposes).

The risks involved in co-regulation, make it evident that 46 Be

careful design, implementation and constant monitoring of such processes are needed to secure their effectiveness.

EU co-regulation and the use of private sustainability certification schemes

The co-regulation process in the EU is rather new. It started in 2011, and has undergone since then a steep learning curve.

By November 2012, thirteen private certification schemes have been recognised by the European Commission (EC).

The scope and assurance level of these recognised certification schemes is heterogeneous. Issues like accreditation, sampling requirements, level of verification, stakeholder consultation, complaints procedures, transparency and recognition of other recognised schemes, are not mentioned in the RED as requirements for recognition, or are only generally defined. This results in a variation in assurance requirements between schemes for those points where the RED lacks guidance or leaves room for interpretation.

The EC is required under this co-regulation process, to assess the effectiveness and operation of recognised private sustainability certification schemes. This assessment gains importance as the share of certified biofuels used in the EU is constantly increasing along with national implementations of RED in Member States. Recent research done by SQ Consult shows that by the end of 2012, about 81% of certificates were issued within the EU where sustainability risk can be considered low; about 14% of the certificates were issued outside the EU in countries with a sustainability risk low to medium, and 5% of certificates were issued in countries with higher risk of poor sustainable practices. This suggests that, while the current co-regulation process seems in general effective to assure sustainability, it may be challenged in the future when more biofuels originate from countries with higher risk of poor sustainability practices.

In the context of higher risk countries supplying biofuel or biofuel feedstock to the EU, certification schemes with a narrow scope of sustainability requirements, and with lower levels of assurance, have a higher probability of not ensuring that sustainability claims are properly fulfilled. Besides this, cross-recognition of certificates may ‘greenwash’ biofuels originated in high risk countries. The assessment of the ef-

sustainability

fectiveness of the recognised certification schemes should therefore include as well a revision of the recognition procedure. These assessments may result in the need to set corrective measures, such as possibly more defined and stricter criteria for the recognition of certification schemes, especially with respect to their level of assurance.

For robustness of the co-regulation process, this assessment could be complemented with an evaluation of the status and robustness of the RED implementation at Member State level. The latest draft of the Renewable Energy Progress Report published by the EC explains that particularly in the larger Member States representing the bulk of biofuel consumption, the implemented national sustainability framework for biofuels works effectively. However, in some Member States there is still scope for improvements.

Boosting the effectiveness of co-regulation in the EU - Lessons learned

Recently proposed changes to the RED are in debate in the European Council and in the European Parliament.

These changes aim at promoting the production and use of more sustainable (advanced) biofuels. These changes will most probably require that current co-regulation is adapted to serve effectively the wider types of feedstock, including lignocellulosic biomass, wastes and residues that may benefit from multiple counting measures. While the idea might sound simple, its implementation may be influenced by many technical and political factors that shall be addressed for ensuring a robust sustainability framework for the biofuels industry.

SQ Consult has recently finished a study commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) published in April 2013.

This study evaluates the experiences gained with the implementation of the co-regulation process within the RED. The evaluated aspects include: • Availability and clarity of the administrative procedure for the recognition of private sustainability schemes for biofuels; • Transparency and confidentiality of the process; • Technical assessment framework; • Cross acceptance rules between private certification schemes; • Parallel recognition procedures at Member State level.

This study, largely based on interviews with different stakeholders, has identified bottlenecks in the RED co-regulation procedure for recognition of private certification schemes.

Conclusions and steps forward Our research shows though that the lack of clarity and guidance from the EC for the implementation of this co-regulation process may result in a variety of private certification schemes (with different scopes and different levels of assurance) applied to countries that have different contexts of sustainability risk. This situation may potentially produce lower levels of sustainability assurance compared to what the RED intended.

The deficiencies in the co-regulation process also increase the risk of schemes not being recognised on an equal basis, or that some schemes are recognised too long after its competitors. These deficiencies affect the competition between certification schemes and may result in important losses of market share for some of them as consequence.

Overall, these deficiencies contribute to a strong perception of insufficient transparency and lack of credibility. It is therefore highly needed to understand and monitor the individual performance of certification schemes and to assess whether they meet the desired level of sustainability in their target countries. The importance of a high minimum level of assurance is largely underestimated in the recognition procedure.

Clear and more detailed guidance from the EC on the recognition criteria for certification schemes will help to avoid that freedom of interpretation reduces the overall effectiveness of this co-regulation. It is recommended that the EC establishes a more defined and stricter recognition framework, especially in verification requirements, in the next revision of the RED. Rules for the harmonisation between certification schemes, and for cross recognition, should also be more effectively established. These actions would set incentives for schemes to continuously improve their standards and operations.

Furthermore, biofuel certification should be placed in the broader context of sustainable biomass production. This is especially important given the growth of sustainability certification schemes in an international context with increasing multiple end-uses (biobased products, food, fuel, and energy) and purposes. Regulating one use of biomass disregards the fact that the supply chains of other uses are closely linked, especially for agricultural commodities. This multitude of use forms requires sustainability criteria that set incentives to significantly improve the sustainability performance of agricultural production and trade. The EC has an important role in shaping such incentives and to contribute to the harmonisation of sustainability requirements for all biomass uses.

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calendar

news

Upcoming bioenergy events JUNE 03-07/06/2013

EU BC&E 2013 - 21th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Copenhagen, Denmark

10-13/06/2013

International Fuel and Ethanol, workshop and expo

St. Louis, Missouri, USA

17-19/06/2013

AEBIOM European Bioenergy Conference 2013

Brussels, Belgium

19-20/06/2013

Biochemicals & Bioplastics 2013

Frankfurt, Germany

28-30/06/2013

2013 Pellet Fuels Institute Annual Conference

Asheville, North Carolina, USA

2013 China International Bio-Energy Summit & Expo

Beijing, China

03-04/09/2013

Biomass to Energy. Feedstock potentials & technical solutions

Munich, Germany

10-12/09/2013

National Advanced Biofuels Conference and Expo

Omaha, Nebraska, USA

20-23/09/2013

BIT's 2nd Annual International Congress of Algae 2013

Hangzhou, China

23-27/09/2013

6th Global Jatropha Hi-tech Integrated Nonfood Biodiesel Farming & Technology Training Programme

Jaipur, India

30/09-02/10/2013

European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology

Brussels, Belgium

30/09-03/10/2013

Algae Biomass Summit

Orlando, Florida, USA

09-10/10/2013

EBEC - European Bioenergy Expo and Conference

Coventry, United Kingdom

16-17/10/2013

Argus European Biofuels and Feedstocks Trading 2013

London, United Kingdom

16-18/10/2013

SGC International Seminar on Gasification

Gรถteborg, Sweden

19-21/10/2013

Plant Based Summit

Paris-Porte Maillot, France

25/10/2013

Global Algae Biodiesel World 2013

Jaipur, India

29-30/10/2013

World Bio Markets USA

San Francisco, California, USA

05-09/11/2013

California Green EMT

Los Angeles, California, USA

21-22/11/2013

2nd Global Moringa Meet 2013

Jaipur, India

JULY 03-05/07/2013

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OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

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