Sustainable bioenergy and its crucial role in driving the green transition in industries
The annual EU Industry Days together with the EU Industry Week (local events) are Europe’s flagship annual events dedicated to the industry and play an important role in showcasing latest innovations to ensure Europe’s industries contribute to EU long-term energy and climate objectives while improving their competitive position. These events represent the main platforms to discuss industry challenges and co-develop opportunities and policy responses in an inclusive dialogue with a wide range of stakeholders. In the framework of the EU Industry Week, on 23rd February 2021 Bioenergy Europe – the voice of bioenergy in Europe – hosted an online event, entitled “Sustainable bioenergy: a circular approach to EU strategic autonomy and green transition”. The webinar brought together almost 200 participants from different sectors and organisations to learn about innovative approaches to ensure sustainable bioenergy within the green transition. Eduardo Cembrano Burgos (Fundación CIRCE) presented practical examples of bioenergy use in industry, with a particular focus on Horizon 2020 projects such as RE4Industry aiming at identifying the most suitable and economically- and technologically-feasible renewable solutions for energy-intensive industries. Two additional EU-funded projects, relevant for the sector, RETROFEED and BAMBOO, were introduced as well. In this context, the technical feasibility of developing such solutions from a circular and bio-based approach was shown, in different types of intensive industries. Either for the incorporation of alternative raw materials for their production processes (such as combustion ashes from biomass or organic waste), or the substitution of fossil fuels by other renewable sources, such as biofuels from agricultural and forest biomass, or biochar. Besides, the need to involve the different key actors in the whole chain to truly achieve the intensive sectors decarbonization was emphasized: starting with the industries themselves, sectoral organizations, potential markets, political and regulatory entities, and also the European society. CIRCE’s session followed Luc Pelkmans’ (IEA Bioenergy) overview on bioenergy use in industry and preceded a panel debate moderated by Michal Dlugosz and Giulia Cancian (Bioenergy Europe), including high-level experts of the sector: Anna-Liisa Myllynen (Stora Enso Wood Products), Carita Ollikainen (Valmet Corporation) and Mihkel Jugaste (Granuul Invest), who brought practical examples of circularity, challenges and opportunities for the complex bioenergy value chain, and how financial and legislative certainty can promote the ‘strategic autonomy’ of the EU industry, reinforce its resilience and contribute to the green recovery of the EU economy. The local event, in partnership with the European Commission was led by Bioenergy Europe; among the co-organisers were IEA Bioenergy, CERTH - Centre for Research and Technology, WIP Renewable Energy, EEIP - Energy Efficiency in Industrial Processes, ETIP Bioenergy, FNR - Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe and the Horizon 2020-funded RE4Industry project consortium. The recording of the event can be found here (https://re4industry.eu/2021/03/09/sustainable-bioenergy-and-its-crucial-role-in-driving-the-green-transition-in-industries/). For more information – Dr Clara Ángela Jarauta (CIRCE) cajarauta@fcirce.es – Asier Rueda Hernandez (CIRCE) arueda@fcirce.es – Cristina Calderón (Bioenergy Europe) calderon@bioenergyeurope.org – Marianna Santavenere (EEIP) marianna.santavenere@ee-ip.org More information www.re4industry.eu Disclaimer This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 952936. The responsibility for the information and the views set out in this press release lies entirely with the authors. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
Keywords
industry, bioenergy, biomass, bioeconomy, energy intensive industry, eu project, h2020