- Biogas for Europe's Future!
SEBE – Sustainable and Innovative European Biogas Environment
Project Outline
Awareness of climate change and the need to reduce human impacts on the environment has increased significantly over the past years worldwide and throughout Europe. Consideration of greenhouse gas emissions closely links to the context of energy. In developing a European strategy to meet the obligations of the Kyoto agreement, targets have been included for the EU to produce a certain percentage of its energy from renewable sources. Anaerobic Digestion (AD) with biogas production has a major role to play in this. Biogas production makes use of a naturally occurring anaerobic process and supplies a controlled technical environment that allows catching and utilising the gases produced. The anaerobic biological process degrades and stabilises organic material by microorganisms and leads to the formation of methane and inorganic products including carbon dioxide. Methane gas is an energy carrier and can therefore be used to generate energy. The produced energy has the potential to displace other energy sources such as fossil energy. This reduces greenhouse gas emissions and contributes towards a more sustainable energy concept. The project SEBE aims at coordinated further development of biogas utilisation and AD technology within the EU CENTRAL programme area (the programme area includes regions from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Ukraine). The programme is financed by the European Regional Development Fund. Within the project SEBE 14 partners with complementary and diversified core competencies work together towards a sustainable development of biogas within Europe:
- Biogas for Europe's Future!
ICS Internationalisierungscenter Steiermark GmbH, Graz, Austria (Lead Partner)
Znanstvenoraziskovalno središče Bistra Ptuj (Scientific research centre Bistra Ptuj), Ptuj, Slovenia
Environment Park S.p.A. - Parco Scientifico e Tecnologico per l’Ambiente (Environment Park S.p.A. - Science & Technology Park for the Environment), Torino, Italy
Energiepark Bruck/Leitha, Bruck an der Leitha, Austria
Główny Instytut Górnictwa (Central Mining Institute), Katowice, Poland
Obcianske zdruzenie No Gravity (Citizenship Association No Gravity), Bratislava, Slovakia
University of Stuttgart, Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management, Stuttgart, Germany
Ressourcen Management Agentur (RMA) (Resource Management Agency (RMA)), Vienna, Austria
Agencja Rozwoju Regionalnego SA w Bielsku-Bialej (Regional Development Agency), Bielsko-Biala, Poland
Centro Ricerche Produzioni Animali CRPA SpA (Research Centre on Animal Production), Reggio Emilia, Italy
ÖTGW-RCHS, Österreich-tschechische Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Znojmo, Czech Republic
VEE Sachsen e.V. Vereinigung zur Förderung der Nutzung Erneuerbarer Energien (Association of promotion the use of Renewables Energies), Dresden, Germany
Asociatia Romana Pentru Promovarea Energiei Regenerabile – ARPER (Romanian Association for Promotion of Renewable Energy), Biled, Romania
Délalföld Fenntartható Környezetéért Alapítvány (Foundation for Sustainable Environment of South Great Plain), Szeged, Hungary
By using a transnational approach the project consortium establishes a common understanding of possibilities, policies and frameworks within the EU Central area. The project SEBE intends to promote more widespread and in particular sustainable implementation of anaerobic digestion. It is within the core aims of the project to focus attention on what makes AD schemes work across Europe and to identify areas which need further development and harmonization. Different operating environments (legal, economical, logistical, technical), availability of qualified personnel, current and potential resources and other regional factors will be regarded in order to identify drivers and obstacles to more widespread implementation of AD in the EU Central area. Bio-
- Biogas for Europe's Future! gas utilisation strategies (e.g. electricity production, upgrading of biogas to biomethane) are one major aspect. In addition, guidelines and a transnational strategy for future education and training on the biogas sector will be elaborated and regional development consulting will be carried out. Special interest will be given to selected specific topics by carrying out pilot actions (e.g. awareness raising campaigns and training courses/ programmes in several regions, feasibility studies, studies on technologies such as decentralized microgas networks, offgas utilisation, pre-treatment optimisation, digestion process). It is one key element of SEBE to establish and to strengthen good relationships to networks, key players and stakeholders in the area of anaerobic digestion. A series of transnational Competence Knowledge Centres will be established in order to facilitate dissemination of knowledge. Research results will be compiled and will also form the basis of a political concept paper. A Policy Advisory Board is about to be formed. It consists of external stakeholders, decision makers and opinion leaders not directly included within the project consortium, and helps both to communicate project results and to access further relevant international and national organisations and interest groups. SEBE builds up a communication and operating environment able to last beyond the project timeframe, i.e. after the year 2013.
www.sebe2013.eu (website is currently about to be launched)
Lead partner: ICS Internationalisierungscenter Steiermark, Koerblergasse 117, 8020 Graz, Austria
Project partner responsible for letters-of-interest: University of Stuttgart; Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management; Bandtaele 2, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany Contact: Dr. Sigrid Kusch, sigrid.kusch@iswa.uni-stuttgart.de