Towards sustainable biomass utilisation
The term biomass refers to the renewable energy that originates from biological material such as plants, plant-derived material and manure. By-products from the wood-based industry, dedicated energy crops or biodegradable waste could be used for the production of biomass. Using combustion, gasification or pyrolysis, this biomass is then transformed into biofuels, heat or electricity and used for energy production purposes. Employing a business focus, the EU-funded 'Biomass mobilisation' (BIOMOB) project aimed to identify opportunities for commercialisation of applied research into biomass mobilisation. For this purpose, the consortium needed to improve the transfer of knowledge from research institutions to companies. An additional challenge was posed by the fact that although biomass is produced in rural areas, renewable energy research is usually undertaken in urban areas. To bridge this distance gap, BIOMOB partners also investigated means of mobilising the productive capacity of rural areas for biomass. Regional challenges were therefore addressed by profiling the biomass resources in each region and identifying any regional shortcomings between resources and the research and technological development (RTD) capabilities. Results indicated that biomass energy production in certain European regions was hampered by poor awareness and low investment. Coupled with the subsidised costs of other energy sources, biomass renewable energy was often found to be economically unviable. BIOMOB formulated recommendations that aimed to expand local biomass energy systems while establishing cooperations in energy production. Furthermore, technological and networking innovation processes were proposed depending on the distance between the biomass and the energy production networks. Partners concentrated their efforts on three types of case studies that reflected the different organisations of biomass utilisation chains, namely one stakeholder, one link in a chain and cooperative biomass utilisation chains. The overall conclusion of the study was that successful and sustainable biomass utilisation chains were multifunctional in the use of land and biomassand were embedded in the local communities. The under-development of biomass energy production observed was addressed through regional action plans that introduced biomass business strategies and incentive plans to generate investment opportunities in the sector.
