Final Report Summary - BIOMOB (Biomass mobilisation)
Executive summary:
Biomass refers to renewable energy coming from biological material such as trees, plants, manure, and municipal waste. The overall concept of BIOMOB was the development of research-driven clusters for biomass mobilisation. The challenge was to identify appropriate biomass synergies between regions, research themes and enterprise opportunity. There were four regions in the project, namely Mid West (Ireland), Mid-Jutland (Denmark), North Great Plain (Hungary) and North Central Region (Bulgaria) representing the full range of biomass challenges, with each region providing a development organisation, university and private company.
BIOMOB was structured around six 'work packages' (WPs), or groups of activities.
Regional challenges focussed on biomass mobilisation in the regions and gained a deeper understanding of the research and technological development (RTD) implications of biomass. Overall recommendations included to establish new types of cooperatives or clusters in energy plant branches or in energy processing capacities; establish and expand local energy systems (in supplying of heat, electricity, waste management, agricultural and forestry market, local and outer transport); marketing and education on the use of biomass.
International benchmarking provided case studies, showing how 'business utilisation chains' (BUCs) contributed to the development of biomass and synthesising some of the most central lessons learnt from comparing these cases. The different case studies represented different modes of organisation that related to the diverse natures of the BUCs, i.e. single stakeholder, one link in a chain and cooperatives. These three types of case studies generated conclusions about four issues, namely whole-chain perspectives, stakeholders, involvement of RTD and rural development.
Action plans had two parts. Individual plans in which each of the regions set out its strategy for mobilising biomass. The joint action plan (JAP) focussed on collective plans ensuring the establishment of appropriate collaborative support structures and knowledge transfer activities between the participating regions in biomass mobilisation, particularly on exploiting the strengths of biomass, innovation in biomass supply chains and proposals for a network of biomass regions.
Business development brought final delivery of results to biomass enterprises in each region, linking the project outcomes with enterprises and potential users in the regions. The local and transnational results were systematically introduced to groups of firms and customised to the growth strategies of individual enterprises.
Exploitation identified proposals prepared to the level necessary to respond to opportunities presented by the availability of, for example, national funding or structural funds, including a manual of good practice in the mobilisation of biomass through research-driven clusters.
Dissemination generated a range of activities at local and European levels on biomass mobilisation. This activity included mentoring and university-university exchanges as well as university-industry linkages.
Project context and objectives:
There were four regions in the project, namely Mid West (Ireland), Mid-Jutland (Denmark), North Great Plain (Hungary) and North Central Region (Bulgaria), with 13 partner organisations, drawn from development organisations, higher education and the private sector.
BIOMOB partnership
Ireland
Shannon development (lead partner), Moher Technologies company, University of Limerick, Mid West Regional Authority
Hungary
INNOVA Észak-alföld development agency, College of Nyíregyháza, Bio-genezis company
Denmark
Samsoe Energy Academy, University of Aarhus, Region Midtjylland
Bulgaria
University of Ruse, Ruse Municipality, Business Support Centre for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), Ruse
Technical support was provided by the European Biomass Industry Association and by three external experts (EUBIA).
Biomass refers to renewable energy coming from biological material such as trees, plants, manure, and municipal waste. Using various transformation processes such as combustion, gasification, or pyrolysis, the biomass is transformed into biofuels, bioheat or bioelectricity and used for energy production purposes. Biomass is a carbon-neutral renewable energy feedstock.
Biomass originates from forest, agricultural and waste streams:
1. forest and wood-based industries produce wood, which is the largest resource of solid biomass. The sector covers a wide range of different biofuels with different characteristics, such as wood logs, bark, wood chips, sawdust and more recently pellets. Pellets, due to their high energy density and standardised characteristics, offer great opportunities for developing the bioenergy market worldwide.
2. agriculture can provide dedicated energy crops as well as by-products in the form of animal manure and straw. Available land can be used for growing conventional crops such as rape, wheat, maize etc. for energy purposes or for cultivating new types of crops such as poplar, willow, miscanthus and others.
3. biodegradable waste is the biomass that can cover several forms of waste such as the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, wood waste, refuse-derived fuels and sewage sludge.
The overall concept of BIOMOB was the development of research-driven clusters for biomass mobilisation. The project had a strong business focus and its ultimate goal was to see knowledge based enterprises grow and thrive in the biomass sectors. This would support the sustainable use of biomass. At a time of intense demand for renewable energy, real possibilities existed for the transformation of regional economies through the commercialisation of applied research in the mobilisation of biomass. The challenge was to identify appropriate biomass synergies between regions, research themes and enterprise opportunity.
The required step-change in the creation of new enterprise in the biomass sector was dependent upon an optimised transfer of knowledge between research centres and entrepreneurial companies. The transfer of knowledge from research institutions to companies needed to be intensified. Furthermore, while much of renewable energy research was undertaken in urban areas, rural areas are the main producers of biomass. This geographical separation of research from production thus militated against fully exploiting the potential of rural areas to act as producers of biomass. By integrating more forcefully research with production of biomass, BIOMOB aimed to mobilise the productive capacity of rural areas for biomass.
Since the start of the industrial age, populations and prosperity moved towards sources of energy. The challenge in a 21st century context was to rapidly switch farming enterprises from food production to biomass production and to do so in such a way that the benefits which accrued stayed in the local economy, that they stimulated and were complementary to local knowledge based employment and, furthermore, that proximity to cheap energy was used as a means of attracting inward investment and countering the threat of local population decline. Mobilisation of biomass could thus provide a vital development stimulus.
The origins of the BIOMOB project lay in the CORE-Business project, completed under the 'Intelligent energy altener' programme that lasted over the period from 2003 to 2005. CORE-Business produced a replicable methodology for using economic argument to overcome the social and socioeconomic barriers to deployment of renewable energy. The major constraints for mobilisation of biomass were identified by CORE-Business. In particular, there was no harmonisation and little consistency between the regional strategies, support frameworks and management practices that were facilitating biomass production in rural regions. This concluding point of CORE-Business was the starting point of BIOMOB. The BIOMOB project thus proposed to develop a JAP for the mobilisation of biomass. It focussed on the selection and optimisation of research agendas for research-driven clusters in regions that were rich in diverse forms of biomass.
Project results:
Main results
The main results of the project were structured around three leading WPs:
1. Regional challenges: profile of the biomass resources in each region and analysis of the biomass capabilities for research; identification of the regional deficit between the biomass resources and the RTD capabilities.
2. International benchmarking: analysis of organisational innovation in biomass production and utilisation, especially on the interlinking between authorities, RTD capabilities and biomass resources.
3. Action plans aimed to show how the biomass and RTD deficit could be resolved in each region, based on the outputs of the regional challenges and the international benchmarking, leading to the collaborative view of the JAP.
Regional challenges
The aim of this action was to profile the biomass resources in each region; perform analysis of the biomass capabilities for research; identify of the regional deficit between the biomass resources and the RTD capabilities.
Biomass resources
There was no significant difference among the physical areas of the four analysed regions, but in the share of agricultural land the Mid West Ireland was in more unfavourable position compared with the other regions. The area of forests was similar to each other. Taking into consideration the typical yields per hectare in plant growing and in forestry as well as the number of inhabitants (solid and liquid municipal wastes), theoretically the greatest potential could be expected in the Hungarian region of North Great Plain. Financial and technical conditions, as well as alternative ways of utilisation, could modify to a considerable extent the available amount of biomass for energy purpose in practice.
Industrial and financial resources
The industrial resources in the North Great Plain, Hungary were typically SMEs, most of them produced pellet or briquette, but there were several examples for stove factories and integrators of energy plants, also. In Mid Jutland, Denmark, there were biodiesel and biogas plants as well as bio-fuelled district heating systems; turnkey establishment of biomass fired boiler plants, cogeneration systems and biogas plants; specialisation within the boiler technologies (combustion, waste heat recovery) and the connected activities (soot blowing); holdings for low use of energy in the production and transport processes; complex energy supply (heat, electricity, water) for municipalities. In the Mid West Ireland there were boiler and district heating network installers, boiler equipments suppliers, biobriquette producer from sawdust raw material, wood chip and fuel wood suppliers, waste contractors, specialised on site energy recovery systems for disposal of poultry litter. In the North Central Bulgaria there was substantial production of biofuels.
Financial resources were significant in each of the regions, comprising tax incentives, investment supports, government policies, supplemented by EU programmes.
RTD capabilities
In Hungary the majority of biomass related research was concentrated in the University of Debrecen. The biomass research was mostly focussed on enhancement of biogas production; utilisation of remote sensing techniques and geographic information for biomass production; demonstration and economics of use of liquid biofuels, i.e. clean and energy efficient vehicles in mobility initiatives for local integration and sustainability; biomass use for energy purpose and the future prospects in rural development. A second research centre connected with biomass operated in this region in the College of Nyíregyháza. Projects of their research included mineral nutrition of energy plants; investigation of the cultivation problems of energy willow; investigation of the utilisation of biofuels in internal-combustion engines and investigation of the biogas utilisation for energy purposes. In Mid Jutland, Denmark, energy-oriented research was concentrated in the regional technology centre on bio-energy (CBMI, founded 2006). This had a facilitating and coordinating role in building network cooperation among the relevant actors in research and development (R&D) activities on biofuels in the region and creation of projects and initiatives that would evolve into commercial technologies and processes. Main activities were the technical information and news website, electronic newsletters and printed leaflet (e.g. a standard biogas 'cookbook' for combined ownership models of biogas plants); 'CBMI Topic' with relevant articles and reports such as short notices, heavy research reports or popular articles; selection and composition of different organic materials on the basis of economy, sustainability and practical application in the biogas process production of biogas for fuel cells improvements to the physical process in biogas plants in order to increase productivity.
In Mid West Ireland the Carbolea Research Group (University of Limerick) might be the most important element of biomass related research in the area, including evaluation and development of biorefining feedstocks and technologies; diesel miscible biofuels from the residues and wastes; analysis of Irish waste materials; novel catalysts for the dry reforming of methane to syngas and hydrogen; evaluation of agricultural feedstocks and biorefining technologies; pyrolysis and gasification unit; biochar production, characterisation and plant growth trials, formic acid derived from biomass for catalytic olefins hydrogenation. The Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre was a new research centre within the Limerick Institute of Technology and had projects with local SMEs aimed to deliver added-value bimolecular and improved processing technologies. Tipperary Institute had a particular strength in the field of biomass and bioenergy, especially in sustainable regions.
In North Central Region, Bulgaria, the University of Rousse had bio-energy related special fields in improvement of energy plant production (stimulation of seed production after pre-sowing electromagnetic treatment, impact of the agro-technical terms on the rapeseed production under different soil treatment); use of alternative fuels (biofuel production from rapeseed oil, pre-esterification of triglycerides of rapeseed oil, fuel from renewable sources in combustion systems, economical and ecological indices of diesel motor engines working with different kinds of fuel and integrated power farm).
The gaps between the present situation and future possibilities were different across the regions. The unfavourable factors were very similar in case of Hungary and Bulgaria. These included poor awareness for education of potential local users. Also the capital intensive nature of investment and production, the lack of financing as well as subsidised costs of other energy sources (natural gas, electricity, district heat) might make them economically unviable, especially in the least developed areas where they could be established. In Ireland the dominance of small scale consumers and the relatively low agricultural area limited the size of potential market; however this factor might also promote local utilisation. In Denmark technologies based on cereals straw burning were commonly used, but simultaneously collecting and use of rape straw as well as producing other energy crops were fallen into the background. Thanks to the most effective advisory and informatics system, biomass potential was better utilised and more specified in both the latter regions.
Overall recommendations included to establish new types of cooperatives or clusters in energy plant branches or in energy processing capacities; establish and expand local energy systems (in supplying of heat, electricity, waste management, agricultural and forestry market, local and outer transport); marketing and education on the use of biomass.
International benchmarking
The benchmarking exercise focussed on the benchmarking analysis of organisational innovation in biomass production and utilisation, especially on the interlinking between authorities, RTD capabilities and biomass resources. The underlying hypothesis of the report was that the further away the biomass network was from the dominant fossil energy based networks, the more demanding were the innovation processes of the marketing of the new energy products.
Analytically we distinguished between three different kinds of innovations:
1. incremental innovation
2. novel innovation and
3. multifunctional innovation, ranked in order of increasing distance to existing energy utilisation networks.
Incremental network innovation:
An example here was the production of biodiesel from rape or sunflower oil, which was readily introduced into the fossil energy consumption systems. In a chain perspective, only the refining process from rape oil to diesel needed development. The primary production of rape oil was based on well established technology, knowledge and practice. Vegetable oil was available on the market and no special arrangements needed necessarily to be taken. On the outlet side biodiesel was a marketable product that could substitute diesel made from fossil fuels and could readily be used in various kinds of diesel engines, although it depended on a policy regime that supported the utilisation, either by directives or tax incentives.
Novel network innovation
The production and utilisation of other kinds of biomasses for energy consumption became much more complicated from a network perspective, such as willow and miscanthus. New knowledge and infrastructure was needed for these on how to plant, grow, harvest, store, market and convert into energy carriers for the market outlet. To develop such chains, a whole range of actors needed to adjust to each other more or less simultaneously to obtain the full bioenergy potential of the utilisation chain. An investment in any of the links relied on investments in the other links also.
Multifunctional innovation
To complicate matters, many types of biomass might not be commercially attractive from a pure energy marketing perspective and from a reduction of emissions perspective alone. However, they could be very attractive including other aspects, like the harvesting of biomass as part of a nature conservation and landscape management practice. The income from the sales of the bioenergy produced might not come near to covering all the expenditure involved in harvesting and transportation; however, from an overall economic perspective, there might be a net benefit. It would take a much more complex organisation and systems of redistribution of added value in the biomass utilisation chain in this kind of innovation to provide the necessary incentive for the full range of stakeholders to participate.
The more multifunctional the utilisation of biomass became, the larger the possible synergy effects and possible net gain, seen from a general value adding perspective. At the same time, it also meant that it had to be more locally and contextually embedded to obtain these synergy effects, both in terms of utilising the different forms of energy produced, i.e. thermal, chemical and electricity from kinetic energy and in terms of avoiding energy waste in processing and transporting the biomasses, for example drying and pelleting.
Nine case studies
Case studies were used in the project. The benchmarking exercises focussed on how the organisation of these BUCs and the involvement of public authorities and RTD bodies contributed to the development and success of biomass and the report synthesised some of the most central lessons learnt from comparing these cases. Each case study represented a distinct and identifiable BUC.
Nine strategic benchmarking were selected:
1. Case 1: 'Tisza' wood chips producers productive group cooperative, Hungary
2. Case 2: Biomass power plant in Szakoly, Hungary
3. Case 3: Swedish Salix programme
4. Case 4: Biogas plant in Nyírbátor, Hungary
5. Case 5: Biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Güssing, Austria
6. Case 6: The biogas production technology in Germany, Germany
7. Case 7: Astra bio plant Ltd, Bulgaria
8. Case 8: Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie Munich, Germany
9. Case 9: Production chain for miscanthus in the United Kingdom, from grass to grid.
The different case studies represented different modes of organisation that somehow related to the different natures of the BUCs. In the following we will describe and discuss some of the features and advantages and disadvantages of these organisations, in three types, namely one stakeholder, one link in a chain and cooperatives.
One stakeholder BUC
Here the chain of operation from biomass to electricity was organised internally on the farm, and no other stakeholders were involved in the ownership and internal management of the biogas production. Small farm based biogas plants were an example of a simple organisation with few links and actors involved in the chain from biomass to electricity, but on the other hand this particular structure represented a BUC dominated by a single stakeholder and was therefore very vulnerable to changing conditions.
One link in a chain BUC
In two of the cases we found organisations or companies that could be labelled as a link in the BUC. By this we meant companies that operated in an existing market and technology on the biomass input side and in an existing technology on the energy output side. However, the energy production process could be driven by financial support and legislation. The BUC was novel innovation in the sense that it gave rise to a new supply channel and the utilisation of biomass resources, where some of these recourses would not have been utilised without the plant. On the other hand, the plant lacked novel network innovation, for example the construction of a CHP plant to obtain a much higher use efficiency of the input energy. So this case was an example of a potential multifunctional innovative BUC that lacked public support so that it could establish a district heating system. A related issue was the need for RTD bodies to support the implementation of newer and more effective, but also more demanding, technology.
Cooperatives BUC
The involvement of entrepreneurs with cooperatives seemed to be a good organisational platform, both because it was owned by the farmers and because it had the entrepreneurial capacity to overcome the challenges. One of the main advantages of this organisation compared to one stakeholder plants was that it was much more multifunctional in its operations. The plant could utilise a whole range of inputs and had the opportunity to mix the input to optimise the energy production and to solve environmental problems simultaneously. The organisational strengths were that it involved heterogeneous actors representing different interests.
Conclusions
These three types of case studies generated conclusions about four issues, i.e. the whole-chain perspectives, stakeholders, involvement of RTD and rural development.
A whole-chain perspective
Multifunctional and sustainable development of biomass utilisation chains seemed to require not only novel technological innovation, but also novel development of energy chains and infrastructure. This stimulated simultaneous development within all links of the chain, from the production of the biomass, via harvest, storage, transport and to the conversion into various forms of energy and utilisations such as district heating and industrial production.
Stakeholder involvement of the BUC
One important tool in the promotion of sustainable development of BUC was the regional involvement of various kinds of stakeholders by establishing multiple driving forces. There were two means of doing that; one was to create incentive structures at all links of the chain and the other was to involve different stakeholders with different interests.
Involvement of RTD
The involvement of RTD bodies was important for the development of BUC but was not a simple matter, mainly for two reasons. Often, RTD activities were not converted into practice because of the lack of public support for commercial developments. The other reason for non-involvement of RTD was the lack of connection between research and practice. In the case studies, it was reported that several research studies were conducted, but none of the stakeholders could give examples of any of these research results being exploited in practice.
BUC, multifunctionality, sustainability and rural development
In summary the main challenges for the development of novel, successful and sustainable BUCs were that they had to be multifunctional in the use of land and biomasses, involve the whole supply chain, be embedded in local resources and communities and thus contribute to rural innovation.
Action plans
The Action plan aimed to show how the biomass and RTD deficit could be resolved in each region, based on the outputs of the regional challenges and the international benchmarking, leading to the collaborative view of the JAP.
Regional action plans
Samsoe in Mid Jutland
The Mid Jutland region had significant potential for creating business and to reap the derived effects in relation to energy and environment on biomass. One reason was that the region had a range of natural resources with untapped potential in relation for renewable energy. The region housed one third of Denmark's agricultural land and one third of the livestock production. Similarly, the region had many businesses in the area, e.g. primary production, manufacturing and service in addition to strong knowledge environments.
Samsoe was a 'renewable energy island' already utilising almost half of the island's available biomass. Samsoe undertook a mission to become fossil-free in 2030, to function as a test bed for the overall national Danish goal of becoming fossil-free in 2050. The remaining biomass resource on Samsoe would have to be utilised to cover the major remaining challenge of transportation. Samsoe had substantial experience in organising local stakeholders in energy projects building on local acceptance and ownership of energy production facilities, in the past mainly wind turbines and district heating. For Samsoe, central to utilisation of a varied biomass input was the establishment of a multi-functional biogas plant producing fuel for the local ferry.
The biogas plant should be able to treat all forms of organic materials that will be available on the island and could produce several different fertiliser products. This placed special requirements for the construction concept. The facility would include at least two lines (one conventional and one organic). It should also be able to handle all types of biomass, both liquid as solid and it should have the capacity to sanitise certain products, while it should be prepared for expansion. Finally, the facilities could upgrade the produced biogas to natural gas quality, either under pressure or in liquid form, depending on the customer's requirements. A large biogas plant would thus be the heart of all future management of organic waste and other biomass as well as acting as a redistribution centre for energy.
The biogas was to be upgraded and used as fuel for a new ferry, built in the spring of 2011 and commenced in the autumn between Sælvig (Samsoe) and Hou (Jutland). The ferry was prepared for the use of natural gas or purified biogas. The ferry company built ferries that were able to run on liquid natural gas (LNG). The cost of upgrading biogas to LNG had to be investigated further and would have to be incorporated in a business plan for the biogas company. As an alternative operating the ferry on non-upgraded biogas could be explored.
The ferry would be able to absorb a maximum of around 2.4 million m3 of methane.
Depending on how the process heat of the biogas plant and heating to upgrade to be produced (with its own engine generator sets or straw heat from the existing district heating systems) would be needed between 90 % and 75 % of the above biomass resources. When establishing the sale of biogas to the ferry a separate biogas stand at the harbour would be able to add more costumers. This made it possible to gradually adapt and convert local transportation to biogas. Especially heavy vehicles, mainly buses and domestic trucks, had potential for biogas operation.
The technology design of a biogas plant was largely dependent on the available biomass resource.
The aim would be to choose a biogas plant design that could handle a variable resource input. The economy of the system should be assessed. The interlinked dependency of several aspects should be investigated:
1. farmers increasing and decreasing their livestock or growing a suitable amount of crops for the biogas plant
2. local entrepreneurs and the ferry company converting to biogas having conversion costs and a demand for supply security, and
3. the biogas plant running at low enough costs to be able to sell biogas cheaper than fossil fuel.
Ruse
The overall function of the Ruse plan was to give the stakeholders information on the geographical and economical status of the region, to show the resource potential and opportunities for business development in the field of biomass, as well as the utilisation of the cooperation and networking capacities of the three major actors (research institutions, companies and development organizations for the mobilization of biomass).
The Municipal Strategic Development Plan of Ruse from 2007 to 2013 was based on the results of a complex analysis of the processes and trends of development of Ruse municipality in midterm plan and was pursuant to the National Regional Development Strategy and Regional Development Strategy for Ruse region. The aim was to reduce waste and increase quantities of recycled and recovered waste and the introduction of effective waste management systems. Programmes, projects and activities to implement and consistently covered the whole territory of the municipality from the centre of the city of Ruse to villages and were detailed in the municipal programme for waste management. On the other hand, the objective included implementing energy efficiency and recovery of degraded land and reducing erosion processes with a view to safeguarding the ecological balance.
Development of innovative small and medium processing plants and upgrading of existing material and technical base were supported. The process of cooperation of agriculture producers, processors and research units would be encouraged. A further concern was the introduction of innovations in production, processing and marketing. Skills development and knowledge transfer of new technologies, renewable energy sources, bioenergy and organic farming products would be supported. Farmers and other land users would be assisted to implement methods to protect the environment and the natural resources.
The proposed actions should include but not be limited to:
1. activation of links between researchers, producers and end-users of biomass resources
2. organisation of campaigns focussing on promoting best practices of biomass utilisation and national and regional incentives for enhanced use of renewable energy sources
3. study the potential economic and environmental benefits of decentralised renewable energy systems and biomass utilisation technologies and equipment expedient for SMEs and small and medium farms
4. support for joint research including as well regional companies producing biomass
5. attracting scientists from other scientific organisations in partnerships at regional level, including young PhD students
6. active dissemination of research results to companies and users of biomass resources
7. development of projects for utilisation of biomass resources not only from agricultural sources, but also taking into consideration the use of municipal biomass waste.
However, several bottlenecks limited this:
1. researchers' qualified labour was still underpaid compared to similar experts at European level. This made it unattractive to young scientists, encouraging a continuous brain drain
2. the region proved potential in applying scientific methods to increase yields of crops but lacked scientific and research capacity in the field of high-tech RTD. The region needed to address efficient and economically viable processes and technologies for biomass utilisation
3. current biomass projects were all aimed only at the 'big business' and there was no tendency for practical actions to scale down to projects suitable for SMEs and/or individual farmers
4. additional research infrastructure was needed to address the specific needs of companies and meet global challenges
5. to date, a structured regional development plan for use of biomass resources did not exist, thus there were no practices or lessons from previous experiences that could be identified.
In conclusion, in view of the dramatic rise of crude oil prices and upward trends in the price of refined products, alternative recycling procedures took on a new value and we believed that state of the art recycling processes should be thoroughly studied and pilot project(s) should be elaborated and implemented based on the specific features of the region and the EU regulations.
North Great Plains
The energy consumption of the North Great Plain region was examined in comparison with the characteristics of energy consumption in the other regions. The data suggested that, in Hungarian energy production, fossil energy sources dominated with a proportion of approximately 70 %. The data also suggested that the proportion of renewable energy sources was still very low. The capacity of the fossil power plants of the North Great Plain region was almost four times higher than the capacity of the renewable power plants, and while 95 MW energy was produced by a few hydrocarbon power plants, the 25 MW was distributed among 10 power stations using renewable energy. Most of the latter were based upon biogas, with two wind generators and almost half of the energy was produced by the hydroelectric sources.
The evaluation of the data on the generation of energy from biomass was made considerably difficult by the fact that neither the county nor the region had any standardised statistics of the quantity of the energy used. However, the structure of the energy consumption of the region was not different from the national average. The structure and regional distribution of energy use had considerably shifted towards imported natural gas. There was a significant increase in two areas, namely household heating and electric power generation. At present more than 60 % of the energy used for heating in the households was imported.
The biomass potentials originating from forestry, agriculture, food wastes, municipal solid waste (MSW) and waste water sludge were estimated in the North Great Plain region. Crop production had the largest potential in the region. Due to the decreasing trends in livestock, the biomass potential from animal husbandry was not very significant. The most important energy source in the region was natural gas, utilised primarily for heating. The most economical solution was therefore replacing some of the energy source by an alternative, obviously with biomass which was available in the region in substantial volumes.
Based on this situation and discussions with local experts we worked out an action plan for the region with the following three key elements:
1. increase the energy efficiency of institutions and houses. We examined the natural gas consumption in family houses in the region. The heat consumption trends of family houses in the region were very unfavourable, most of the houses being 'close to average' category in the Hungarian rankings. The improvement of energy efficiency in all the municipality and public buildings and also in 50 % of the family houses was a reasonable objective and should be the first to be realised. Based on statistical data and consultations with experts, we made a cost estimation of modernisation of houses heated by gas in the region. To be able to make the calculations we averaged the buildings as 65 m2 houses. We calculated the insulation need and the replacement of doors and windows. The estimated specific cost of modernisation is was HUF 2.5 million per house.
2. establishing new energy plantations. As a result of the increase of institutions' and houses' energy efficiency, the natural gas consumption could be decreased. To replace thus natural gas with energy plants required around 50 000 to 80 000 hectares' area. The total area of the region was 1 772 865 hectares. Thus, 80 000 was only 4.5 % of the total area. There were 100 000 to 140 000 ha fallow areas in the region which were not utilised for intensive cultivation. This was far more than needed.
3. utilisation of biomass for heating instead of imported natural gas. Replacement of natural gas based heating by biomass based heating (wood chips, straws) would lead to employment of 4 000 people for 10 years, development of local industry and increasing income for the local municipalities from local business tax.
Mid West
The Mid West bio-energy action plan stated that to deliver the 2020 heat target, a capital investment of EUR 148 million was needed in biomass equipment and about 700 commercial scale biomass installations over the next 11 years. This would equate to about EUR 13.5 million invested and over 60 schools, hospitals etc. converting to biomass each year until 2020.
To promote this level of demand there were six proposed short term priority actions:
1. biomass revolving loan scheme, whereby a fund would be established offering 100 % interest free loans for biomass equipment
2. market awareness and segmentation
3. research and development into new biomass conversion technology
4. biomass CHP
5. development of policy support
6. form an industry partnership biomass group.
The principal resources in the Mid-West Region examined in the plan were:
1. Forestry: Traditional analysis of wood supply and demand, centred on wood removals from forests and wood input to industries, was inadequate. A more complex approach, based on comprehensive wood resource balances, was necessary. This required original research and data gathering, notably unrecorded sources of wood supply (trees outside the forest, logging residues, and post consumer recovered wood) and use (wood energy in private households and small CHP plants) and input and output conversion factors for wood-using industries. On the supply side data weaknesses were found in woody biomass outside the forest, post-consumer recovered wood and used logging residues. On the consumption side, little or weak information was found in particular on wood use for energy, as well as conversion factors (calculating wood raw material equivalent from units of products). Wood supply from new sources should be expanded, notably through expansion of the area used to grow wood (whether or not this area was considered 'forest'). Wood supply from existing sources (forest and non-forest) should be expanded, e.g. through higher wood removal.
2. Miscanthus: On the nutrition requirement of this crop comparatively little was understood. Trials were conducted to gain a better understanding, and more trials would be required. Due to large leaf areas and deep-rooting systems, the rate of water-use was higher compared to traditional annual crops. There was a need to develop a prediction yield model to account for miscanthus yield losses due to water deficits in dry years and during cold or frost spells.
3. Willow: Much more work was required on the various willow clones and their yields on commercial farms in Irish climatic conditions. Of especial importance would be studies of the optimal applications of herbicides for weed control, and research was needed into willow disease control such as rust and beetle infestations which represented the major biological threats to willow plantations. The main extra cost associated with willow was the increased harvesting costs. This might reduce over time as specialised machines were developed.
Grass: A new report carried out on behalf of Bord Gáis proposed that at least 7.5 % of Ireland's natural gas could be supplied using grass and waste. Anaerobic conversion processes could provide enough natural gas to heat the equivalent of 300 000 Irish homes per year. Once the renewable gas was cleaned and upgraded it could then be used locally or piped into the national grid for distribution. Research would need to be carried out on cost analysis to ensure that the energy input in growing and harvesting the grass, plus transport cost of grass or silage to the anaerobic digester plants, plus operational cost, was lower than the energy potential of the biogas produced. The region had sufficient biomass resource to meet its targets; however, this resource and the targets were totally dependent upon energy users converting to biomass. Whilst there was a fuel price incentive to convert to biomass fuels, the capital costs of biomass systems created a significant barrier. The current economic downturn and difficulties in obtaining credit appeared likely to make this the key issue for market development of biomass in the short and medium term. %:%: The JAP
The JAP was agreed around three key issues:
1. Exploit the strength of biomass. The partners were agreed that biomass was an under-utilised resource in all the regions. Agricultural solid waste, forestry, thinnings, cereals and energy crops were in good supply but had not been exploited to the extent that is possible. The reason for this was that there were several 'structural' factors in each of the regions that held back biomass from achieving its full potential.
2. Innovation and biomass supply chains. The development of the biomass supply chain was not a simple task, it took a whole array of simultaneous efforts, from producing harvesting, transportation, storing, processing, to utilisation, sale and distribution. Our present energy systems were built and organised around primary fossil fuel, mediated in easy transportable forms such as coal, oil, gasoline and electricity. In more recent years also natural gas pipelines were established in many areas. The closer the bioenergy carriers came to one of these fossil based forms the easier it was to adjust to the existing energy network and market. However, what might be seen as optimal from a traditional energy network perspective was not necessarily optimal seen from a resource optimisation point of view of the potential bioenergy production.
3. Network of biomass regions. During the project, the issue of international networking with other biomass regions attracted considerable discussion: how to share the results of the BIOMOB project with other projects? develop new projects for the BIOMOB partnership? use venture capital funds for sustainability of project results? join a network and create a specific working group of BIOMOB partners? establish a network organisation, but which model to follow? EUBIA confirmed that a 'Biomass regions' network could have significant potential in developing the regional biomass approach further. EUBIA proposed to develop this approach further.
Potential impact:
Impact on business
One of the overall objectives of the BIOMOB project was delivery of results to biomass enterprises in each region, thus linking the project outcomes with enterprises and potential users in the regions. This sought to demonstrate the systematic introduction of biomass business strategies to groups of firms and the customisation of biomass-related business cases to the growth strategies of individual enterprises.
The enterprises which were identified through this process were as follows:
1. In Mid-West Region, Ireland: Hotel and leisure complex currently using a 0.8 MW natural gas heating installation in the process of considering a switch to woodchip; similar hotel and leisure complex currently using a light fuel oil heating installation in the process of considering a switch to woodchip; gasification project seeking to attract a supply of municipal solid waste which was sent to landfill.
2. In Észak-Alföld Region, Hungary a 2 MW district heating scheme project which was considering the use of a woodchip biomass solution and comparing it with a fossil fuel (natural gas) solution; similar district heating scheme but with lower installation costs.
3. In Ruse Region, Bulgaria, a business which was until then disposing of MSW-using landfill was considering the use of two biomass solutions, either combustion or gasification. A similar business but where the gate fees for the disposal of MSW were increased from the very low level which was charged in Bulgaria.
The results of each model run were then considered and compared with the existing or conventional solutions, usually fossil fuel energy sources in the case of the energy supply company (ESCo) model and landfill as a means of disposing of municipal solid waste in the case of the feedstock model).
The financial planning tools developed within BIOMOB clearly assisted the establishment of the business cases for these projects and identified the most sensitive input parameters, thus helping project promoters to focus on the key financial inhibitors and facilitators of their businesses.
The following were identified as key parameters in these business plans:
1. the ESCo model for heat supply was shown to compete with 'own and operate' solutions, particularly if the risk associated with the latter was taken into account
2. the current low price of natural gas weakened the economic argument for the uptake of biomass
3. the default capex for gasification was about 20 % higher than for incineration
4. operating costs were about 10 % higher on the incineration option than for gasification. Project financing costs were similar.
5. the potential to realise cash from other byproducts such as char (gasification) and the cost of ash disposal (incineration) had a strong influence on the business cases
6. as a consequence of the above, legislation on emissions and ash disposal strongly influenced the profitability of projects
7. there was at present substantial country to country variation in the gate fees for municipal solid waste disposal to landfill and to biomass plant. This had a substantial negative impact on business cases for waste to energy projects in Bulgaria and Hungary. It was understood that legislative changes were in progress and these should mitigate this effect.
Exploitation
Regional funding proposals
EU member states submitted their national renewable energy action plans (NREAPs) in 2010 and should in the coming years implement these national strategies to comply with the Renewable Energy Source (RES) directive.
Challenges and opportunities in the four project regions were significant. Examples of funding opportunities of suggested actions that could be taken to overcome these hurdles through research and technological development as well as specific measures were identified.
Measures could, and should, be taken at the EU level, the member state levels and local regional level. The weak parts of the supply chains should be identified and directed incentives should be applied to solve the barriers and create a positive opportunity for investments in the sector. This could create substantial amounts of new green jobs in the regions. Many useful measures and funding opportunities were available directed towards parts of the supply chains, but still also many barriers existed, e.g. administrative procedures and lack of planning that should be solved at the member state level.
Local stakeholder networks were very important for biomass supply chain development and the relations to and support from local authorities was crucial. This factor accounted for the general political support and was often also reflected in the smoothness of administrative procedures, permits etc. The active development and use of local stakeholder networks could make things easier. Several regions emphasised the need to develop and establish public-private partnerships (PPPs). Also the energy supply companies should become part of the solution. Adequate structures and institutions should be developed for efficient and flexible research and technical development, including innovation to make efficient use of international funding for cooperative projects to increase knowledge transfer, as well as national and EU support for specific investments.
It could be concluded that public investments and funding of initiatives had substantial potential in creating new jobs and other societal benefits. This could be achieved through market development, cooperation, PPPs, RTD and innovation. The public sector reflected the political will to reduce dependency of fossil fuels and reduce climate gas emissions. This should lead the way with investments and an implementation framework. When the market was opened and the legislation and support schemes were ready, the private sector would follow and release the full potential and give broad and long term societal return on the investments.
Replication
From the findings of the BIOMOB partner regions it was clear that, compared to some other branches of renewable energy, the potential of biomass was significantly under-developed. This was due in large part to the mismatch between the feedstocks, user demand and technological capability. In some regions, abundant feedstocks were going unused due to lack of industrial involvement, uncoordinated supply chains and a lack of education and understanding of the economic facilitators and inhibitors. In other regions, cutting edge biomass related RTD was finding little or no uptake by local industry which, in an economic crisis, was starved of investment funds and likely to adopt the most conservative established technology (such as combustive biomass). BIOMOB sought to point the way to regional mobilisation of biomass, building on the triple helix model of the regions of knowledge programme and by demonstrating the socioeconomic advantages of a coordinated approach to biomass mobilisation.
Perhaps the foremost lesson learned was that, on the one hand, subsidies and incentives, including public procurement initiatives, were essential for kick-starting the take-up of biomass as an energy source (and the consequent stimulation of RTD activity). But, on the other hand, clear business cases should be established to warrant the necessary investment by both public and private entities. In an attempt to help both private enterprise and those involved in public sector procurement to justify investment, simple 'level playing field' economic calculations should be made to clearly show the benefits of the biomass alternative in comparison to conventional fossil fuel solutions.
Investigation of possible structures
The feasibility of becoming a knowledge and innovation community (KIC) in the European Institute of Technology (EIT) was examined. The partners' aspiration to become a KIC in the EIT was scrutinised and compared with other options for an ongoing collaborative structure. Main other areas examined beside EIT climate KIC were the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), BioCLUS project cooperation, Biomass Excellence Programme, Interreg and Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funds opportunities, venture capital opportunities and other relevant possibilities. The main questions of the investigation were the following: share the results of the BIOMOB project with other projects? develop new projects for the BIOMOB partnership? use venture capital funds for sustainability of project results? join a network and create a specific working group of BIOMOB partners? establish a network organisation, but which model to follow?
Dissemination
Local dissemination
Seminars and workshops were the preferred method of local dissemination and resulted in substantial discussions and local reviews of the BIOMOB implications. Overall, there were 22 workshops involving 409 participants across the four partner areas. Through the mass media there were 24 publications in the partner areas, including press releases, published reports and public presentations. Most significantly, there were two television broadcasts and four radio broadcasts featuring BIOMOB.
Key topics addressed by the local workshops included:
1. Mobilising biomass to energy in a possible biogas project
2. Innovation and solutions in biomass technology
3. Elaboration on a biogas project with the local stakeholders
4. Pre-sowing treatment of rape seeds
5. Presentation of a preliminary mapping of locally available biomass resources to the local stakeholders
6. The development of demand: Convince key stakeholders in the public sector
7. Presentation of a preliminary master plan on the utilisation of biomass
8. Biomass industry has developed but there is weak market demand
9. The possibilities and limitations for plant fed biogas plants
9. Regional user group meeting, to inform the participants about the BIOMOB project, its aims and tasks
10. Inform the regional stakeholders and the members of the user group about the draft of the regional action plan
11. the first energy day for municipalities event
12. session organised under the first energy day for municipalities event, to overview the programme of BIOMOB and to discuss the dissemination.
12. session organised under the ENERGOexpo 2011.
A series of local publications and presentations were also made on these topics.
Mentoring and exchange
Overall, there were four major exchanges, one in each of the partner areas, with 41 presentations on the biomass sector, providing for a very fruitful mentoring and exchange programme.
EU dissemination
Members of the BIOMOB partnership made a poster presentation at the 18th Biomass Conference held in Lyon, 2010.
In November 2010, the visit by the President of Ireland to Samsoe was marked by a presentation on BIOMOB to the President. The event was recorded on Irish national television via RTE news and reported on in newspapers in Ireland and Denmark. The information was disseminated at EU level to the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Research Marie Geoghegan-Quinn and to Irish policy-makers in Brussels via EUBIA.
A joint paper on biomass and regional development was presented to the European Biomass Conference (Berlin, 2011), in collaboration with two other FP7 Regions of Knowledge (RoK) projects, namely BIOCLUS and RESGEN. From the experience of the three projects, three issues emerged as being of special importance to the linkage of biomass with the regions, i.e. strategic research and innovation agendas, decentralised sustainable energy solutions and regional innovation. The paper recommended that future development in the linkage of biomass with regional development concentrated on these three issues.
List of websites:
'http://www.biomob.eu/'.
Biomass refers to renewable energy coming from biological material such as trees, plants, manure, and municipal waste. The overall concept of BIOMOB was the development of research-driven clusters for biomass mobilisation. The challenge was to identify appropriate biomass synergies between regions, research themes and enterprise opportunity. There were four regions in the project, namely Mid West (Ireland), Mid-Jutland (Denmark), North Great Plain (Hungary) and North Central Region (Bulgaria) representing the full range of biomass challenges, with each region providing a development organisation, university and private company.
BIOMOB was structured around six 'work packages' (WPs), or groups of activities.
Regional challenges focussed on biomass mobilisation in the regions and gained a deeper understanding of the research and technological development (RTD) implications of biomass. Overall recommendations included to establish new types of cooperatives or clusters in energy plant branches or in energy processing capacities; establish and expand local energy systems (in supplying of heat, electricity, waste management, agricultural and forestry market, local and outer transport); marketing and education on the use of biomass.
International benchmarking provided case studies, showing how 'business utilisation chains' (BUCs) contributed to the development of biomass and synthesising some of the most central lessons learnt from comparing these cases. The different case studies represented different modes of organisation that related to the diverse natures of the BUCs, i.e. single stakeholder, one link in a chain and cooperatives. These three types of case studies generated conclusions about four issues, namely whole-chain perspectives, stakeholders, involvement of RTD and rural development.
Action plans had two parts. Individual plans in which each of the regions set out its strategy for mobilising biomass. The joint action plan (JAP) focussed on collective plans ensuring the establishment of appropriate collaborative support structures and knowledge transfer activities between the participating regions in biomass mobilisation, particularly on exploiting the strengths of biomass, innovation in biomass supply chains and proposals for a network of biomass regions.
Business development brought final delivery of results to biomass enterprises in each region, linking the project outcomes with enterprises and potential users in the regions. The local and transnational results were systematically introduced to groups of firms and customised to the growth strategies of individual enterprises.
Exploitation identified proposals prepared to the level necessary to respond to opportunities presented by the availability of, for example, national funding or structural funds, including a manual of good practice in the mobilisation of biomass through research-driven clusters.
Dissemination generated a range of activities at local and European levels on biomass mobilisation. This activity included mentoring and university-university exchanges as well as university-industry linkages.
Project context and objectives:
There were four regions in the project, namely Mid West (Ireland), Mid-Jutland (Denmark), North Great Plain (Hungary) and North Central Region (Bulgaria), with 13 partner organisations, drawn from development organisations, higher education and the private sector.
BIOMOB partnership
Ireland
Shannon development (lead partner), Moher Technologies company, University of Limerick, Mid West Regional Authority
Hungary
INNOVA Észak-alföld development agency, College of Nyíregyháza, Bio-genezis company
Denmark
Samsoe Energy Academy, University of Aarhus, Region Midtjylland
Bulgaria
University of Ruse, Ruse Municipality, Business Support Centre for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), Ruse
Technical support was provided by the European Biomass Industry Association and by three external experts (EUBIA).
Biomass refers to renewable energy coming from biological material such as trees, plants, manure, and municipal waste. Using various transformation processes such as combustion, gasification, or pyrolysis, the biomass is transformed into biofuels, bioheat or bioelectricity and used for energy production purposes. Biomass is a carbon-neutral renewable energy feedstock.
Biomass originates from forest, agricultural and waste streams:
1. forest and wood-based industries produce wood, which is the largest resource of solid biomass. The sector covers a wide range of different biofuels with different characteristics, such as wood logs, bark, wood chips, sawdust and more recently pellets. Pellets, due to their high energy density and standardised characteristics, offer great opportunities for developing the bioenergy market worldwide.
2. agriculture can provide dedicated energy crops as well as by-products in the form of animal manure and straw. Available land can be used for growing conventional crops such as rape, wheat, maize etc. for energy purposes or for cultivating new types of crops such as poplar, willow, miscanthus and others.
3. biodegradable waste is the biomass that can cover several forms of waste such as the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, wood waste, refuse-derived fuels and sewage sludge.
The overall concept of BIOMOB was the development of research-driven clusters for biomass mobilisation. The project had a strong business focus and its ultimate goal was to see knowledge based enterprises grow and thrive in the biomass sectors. This would support the sustainable use of biomass. At a time of intense demand for renewable energy, real possibilities existed for the transformation of regional economies through the commercialisation of applied research in the mobilisation of biomass. The challenge was to identify appropriate biomass synergies between regions, research themes and enterprise opportunity.
The required step-change in the creation of new enterprise in the biomass sector was dependent upon an optimised transfer of knowledge between research centres and entrepreneurial companies. The transfer of knowledge from research institutions to companies needed to be intensified. Furthermore, while much of renewable energy research was undertaken in urban areas, rural areas are the main producers of biomass. This geographical separation of research from production thus militated against fully exploiting the potential of rural areas to act as producers of biomass. By integrating more forcefully research with production of biomass, BIOMOB aimed to mobilise the productive capacity of rural areas for biomass.
Since the start of the industrial age, populations and prosperity moved towards sources of energy. The challenge in a 21st century context was to rapidly switch farming enterprises from food production to biomass production and to do so in such a way that the benefits which accrued stayed in the local economy, that they stimulated and were complementary to local knowledge based employment and, furthermore, that proximity to cheap energy was used as a means of attracting inward investment and countering the threat of local population decline. Mobilisation of biomass could thus provide a vital development stimulus.
The origins of the BIOMOB project lay in the CORE-Business project, completed under the 'Intelligent energy altener' programme that lasted over the period from 2003 to 2005. CORE-Business produced a replicable methodology for using economic argument to overcome the social and socioeconomic barriers to deployment of renewable energy. The major constraints for mobilisation of biomass were identified by CORE-Business. In particular, there was no harmonisation and little consistency between the regional strategies, support frameworks and management practices that were facilitating biomass production in rural regions. This concluding point of CORE-Business was the starting point of BIOMOB. The BIOMOB project thus proposed to develop a JAP for the mobilisation of biomass. It focussed on the selection and optimisation of research agendas for research-driven clusters in regions that were rich in diverse forms of biomass.
Project results:
Main results
The main results of the project were structured around three leading WPs:
1. Regional challenges: profile of the biomass resources in each region and analysis of the biomass capabilities for research; identification of the regional deficit between the biomass resources and the RTD capabilities.
2. International benchmarking: analysis of organisational innovation in biomass production and utilisation, especially on the interlinking between authorities, RTD capabilities and biomass resources.
3. Action plans aimed to show how the biomass and RTD deficit could be resolved in each region, based on the outputs of the regional challenges and the international benchmarking, leading to the collaborative view of the JAP.
Regional challenges
The aim of this action was to profile the biomass resources in each region; perform analysis of the biomass capabilities for research; identify of the regional deficit between the biomass resources and the RTD capabilities.
Biomass resources
There was no significant difference among the physical areas of the four analysed regions, but in the share of agricultural land the Mid West Ireland was in more unfavourable position compared with the other regions. The area of forests was similar to each other. Taking into consideration the typical yields per hectare in plant growing and in forestry as well as the number of inhabitants (solid and liquid municipal wastes), theoretically the greatest potential could be expected in the Hungarian region of North Great Plain. Financial and technical conditions, as well as alternative ways of utilisation, could modify to a considerable extent the available amount of biomass for energy purpose in practice.
Industrial and financial resources
The industrial resources in the North Great Plain, Hungary were typically SMEs, most of them produced pellet or briquette, but there were several examples for stove factories and integrators of energy plants, also. In Mid Jutland, Denmark, there were biodiesel and biogas plants as well as bio-fuelled district heating systems; turnkey establishment of biomass fired boiler plants, cogeneration systems and biogas plants; specialisation within the boiler technologies (combustion, waste heat recovery) and the connected activities (soot blowing); holdings for low use of energy in the production and transport processes; complex energy supply (heat, electricity, water) for municipalities. In the Mid West Ireland there were boiler and district heating network installers, boiler equipments suppliers, biobriquette producer from sawdust raw material, wood chip and fuel wood suppliers, waste contractors, specialised on site energy recovery systems for disposal of poultry litter. In the North Central Bulgaria there was substantial production of biofuels.
Financial resources were significant in each of the regions, comprising tax incentives, investment supports, government policies, supplemented by EU programmes.
RTD capabilities
In Hungary the majority of biomass related research was concentrated in the University of Debrecen. The biomass research was mostly focussed on enhancement of biogas production; utilisation of remote sensing techniques and geographic information for biomass production; demonstration and economics of use of liquid biofuels, i.e. clean and energy efficient vehicles in mobility initiatives for local integration and sustainability; biomass use for energy purpose and the future prospects in rural development. A second research centre connected with biomass operated in this region in the College of Nyíregyháza. Projects of their research included mineral nutrition of energy plants; investigation of the cultivation problems of energy willow; investigation of the utilisation of biofuels in internal-combustion engines and investigation of the biogas utilisation for energy purposes. In Mid Jutland, Denmark, energy-oriented research was concentrated in the regional technology centre on bio-energy (CBMI, founded 2006). This had a facilitating and coordinating role in building network cooperation among the relevant actors in research and development (R&D) activities on biofuels in the region and creation of projects and initiatives that would evolve into commercial technologies and processes. Main activities were the technical information and news website, electronic newsletters and printed leaflet (e.g. a standard biogas 'cookbook' for combined ownership models of biogas plants); 'CBMI Topic' with relevant articles and reports such as short notices, heavy research reports or popular articles; selection and composition of different organic materials on the basis of economy, sustainability and practical application in the biogas process production of biogas for fuel cells improvements to the physical process in biogas plants in order to increase productivity.
In Mid West Ireland the Carbolea Research Group (University of Limerick) might be the most important element of biomass related research in the area, including evaluation and development of biorefining feedstocks and technologies; diesel miscible biofuels from the residues and wastes; analysis of Irish waste materials; novel catalysts for the dry reforming of methane to syngas and hydrogen; evaluation of agricultural feedstocks and biorefining technologies; pyrolysis and gasification unit; biochar production, characterisation and plant growth trials, formic acid derived from biomass for catalytic olefins hydrogenation. The Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre was a new research centre within the Limerick Institute of Technology and had projects with local SMEs aimed to deliver added-value bimolecular and improved processing technologies. Tipperary Institute had a particular strength in the field of biomass and bioenergy, especially in sustainable regions.
In North Central Region, Bulgaria, the University of Rousse had bio-energy related special fields in improvement of energy plant production (stimulation of seed production after pre-sowing electromagnetic treatment, impact of the agro-technical terms on the rapeseed production under different soil treatment); use of alternative fuels (biofuel production from rapeseed oil, pre-esterification of triglycerides of rapeseed oil, fuel from renewable sources in combustion systems, economical and ecological indices of diesel motor engines working with different kinds of fuel and integrated power farm).
The gaps between the present situation and future possibilities were different across the regions. The unfavourable factors were very similar in case of Hungary and Bulgaria. These included poor awareness for education of potential local users. Also the capital intensive nature of investment and production, the lack of financing as well as subsidised costs of other energy sources (natural gas, electricity, district heat) might make them economically unviable, especially in the least developed areas where they could be established. In Ireland the dominance of small scale consumers and the relatively low agricultural area limited the size of potential market; however this factor might also promote local utilisation. In Denmark technologies based on cereals straw burning were commonly used, but simultaneously collecting and use of rape straw as well as producing other energy crops were fallen into the background. Thanks to the most effective advisory and informatics system, biomass potential was better utilised and more specified in both the latter regions.
Overall recommendations included to establish new types of cooperatives or clusters in energy plant branches or in energy processing capacities; establish and expand local energy systems (in supplying of heat, electricity, waste management, agricultural and forestry market, local and outer transport); marketing and education on the use of biomass.
International benchmarking
The benchmarking exercise focussed on the benchmarking analysis of organisational innovation in biomass production and utilisation, especially on the interlinking between authorities, RTD capabilities and biomass resources. The underlying hypothesis of the report was that the further away the biomass network was from the dominant fossil energy based networks, the more demanding were the innovation processes of the marketing of the new energy products.
Analytically we distinguished between three different kinds of innovations:
1. incremental innovation
2. novel innovation and
3. multifunctional innovation, ranked in order of increasing distance to existing energy utilisation networks.
Incremental network innovation:
An example here was the production of biodiesel from rape or sunflower oil, which was readily introduced into the fossil energy consumption systems. In a chain perspective, only the refining process from rape oil to diesel needed development. The primary production of rape oil was based on well established technology, knowledge and practice. Vegetable oil was available on the market and no special arrangements needed necessarily to be taken. On the outlet side biodiesel was a marketable product that could substitute diesel made from fossil fuels and could readily be used in various kinds of diesel engines, although it depended on a policy regime that supported the utilisation, either by directives or tax incentives.
Novel network innovation
The production and utilisation of other kinds of biomasses for energy consumption became much more complicated from a network perspective, such as willow and miscanthus. New knowledge and infrastructure was needed for these on how to plant, grow, harvest, store, market and convert into energy carriers for the market outlet. To develop such chains, a whole range of actors needed to adjust to each other more or less simultaneously to obtain the full bioenergy potential of the utilisation chain. An investment in any of the links relied on investments in the other links also.
Multifunctional innovation
To complicate matters, many types of biomass might not be commercially attractive from a pure energy marketing perspective and from a reduction of emissions perspective alone. However, they could be very attractive including other aspects, like the harvesting of biomass as part of a nature conservation and landscape management practice. The income from the sales of the bioenergy produced might not come near to covering all the expenditure involved in harvesting and transportation; however, from an overall economic perspective, there might be a net benefit. It would take a much more complex organisation and systems of redistribution of added value in the biomass utilisation chain in this kind of innovation to provide the necessary incentive for the full range of stakeholders to participate.
The more multifunctional the utilisation of biomass became, the larger the possible synergy effects and possible net gain, seen from a general value adding perspective. At the same time, it also meant that it had to be more locally and contextually embedded to obtain these synergy effects, both in terms of utilising the different forms of energy produced, i.e. thermal, chemical and electricity from kinetic energy and in terms of avoiding energy waste in processing and transporting the biomasses, for example drying and pelleting.
Nine case studies
Case studies were used in the project. The benchmarking exercises focussed on how the organisation of these BUCs and the involvement of public authorities and RTD bodies contributed to the development and success of biomass and the report synthesised some of the most central lessons learnt from comparing these cases. Each case study represented a distinct and identifiable BUC.
Nine strategic benchmarking were selected:
1. Case 1: 'Tisza' wood chips producers productive group cooperative, Hungary
2. Case 2: Biomass power plant in Szakoly, Hungary
3. Case 3: Swedish Salix programme
4. Case 4: Biogas plant in Nyírbátor, Hungary
5. Case 5: Biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Güssing, Austria
6. Case 6: The biogas production technology in Germany, Germany
7. Case 7: Astra bio plant Ltd, Bulgaria
8. Case 8: Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie Munich, Germany
9. Case 9: Production chain for miscanthus in the United Kingdom, from grass to grid.
The different case studies represented different modes of organisation that somehow related to the different natures of the BUCs. In the following we will describe and discuss some of the features and advantages and disadvantages of these organisations, in three types, namely one stakeholder, one link in a chain and cooperatives.
One stakeholder BUC
Here the chain of operation from biomass to electricity was organised internally on the farm, and no other stakeholders were involved in the ownership and internal management of the biogas production. Small farm based biogas plants were an example of a simple organisation with few links and actors involved in the chain from biomass to electricity, but on the other hand this particular structure represented a BUC dominated by a single stakeholder and was therefore very vulnerable to changing conditions.
One link in a chain BUC
In two of the cases we found organisations or companies that could be labelled as a link in the BUC. By this we meant companies that operated in an existing market and technology on the biomass input side and in an existing technology on the energy output side. However, the energy production process could be driven by financial support and legislation. The BUC was novel innovation in the sense that it gave rise to a new supply channel and the utilisation of biomass resources, where some of these recourses would not have been utilised without the plant. On the other hand, the plant lacked novel network innovation, for example the construction of a CHP plant to obtain a much higher use efficiency of the input energy. So this case was an example of a potential multifunctional innovative BUC that lacked public support so that it could establish a district heating system. A related issue was the need for RTD bodies to support the implementation of newer and more effective, but also more demanding, technology.
Cooperatives BUC
The involvement of entrepreneurs with cooperatives seemed to be a good organisational platform, both because it was owned by the farmers and because it had the entrepreneurial capacity to overcome the challenges. One of the main advantages of this organisation compared to one stakeholder plants was that it was much more multifunctional in its operations. The plant could utilise a whole range of inputs and had the opportunity to mix the input to optimise the energy production and to solve environmental problems simultaneously. The organisational strengths were that it involved heterogeneous actors representing different interests.
Conclusions
These three types of case studies generated conclusions about four issues, i.e. the whole-chain perspectives, stakeholders, involvement of RTD and rural development.
A whole-chain perspective
Multifunctional and sustainable development of biomass utilisation chains seemed to require not only novel technological innovation, but also novel development of energy chains and infrastructure. This stimulated simultaneous development within all links of the chain, from the production of the biomass, via harvest, storage, transport and to the conversion into various forms of energy and utilisations such as district heating and industrial production.
Stakeholder involvement of the BUC
One important tool in the promotion of sustainable development of BUC was the regional involvement of various kinds of stakeholders by establishing multiple driving forces. There were two means of doing that; one was to create incentive structures at all links of the chain and the other was to involve different stakeholders with different interests.
Involvement of RTD
The involvement of RTD bodies was important for the development of BUC but was not a simple matter, mainly for two reasons. Often, RTD activities were not converted into practice because of the lack of public support for commercial developments. The other reason for non-involvement of RTD was the lack of connection between research and practice. In the case studies, it was reported that several research studies were conducted, but none of the stakeholders could give examples of any of these research results being exploited in practice.
BUC, multifunctionality, sustainability and rural development
In summary the main challenges for the development of novel, successful and sustainable BUCs were that they had to be multifunctional in the use of land and biomasses, involve the whole supply chain, be embedded in local resources and communities and thus contribute to rural innovation.
Action plans
The Action plan aimed to show how the biomass and RTD deficit could be resolved in each region, based on the outputs of the regional challenges and the international benchmarking, leading to the collaborative view of the JAP.
Regional action plans
Samsoe in Mid Jutland
The Mid Jutland region had significant potential for creating business and to reap the derived effects in relation to energy and environment on biomass. One reason was that the region had a range of natural resources with untapped potential in relation for renewable energy. The region housed one third of Denmark's agricultural land and one third of the livestock production. Similarly, the region had many businesses in the area, e.g. primary production, manufacturing and service in addition to strong knowledge environments.
Samsoe was a 'renewable energy island' already utilising almost half of the island's available biomass. Samsoe undertook a mission to become fossil-free in 2030, to function as a test bed for the overall national Danish goal of becoming fossil-free in 2050. The remaining biomass resource on Samsoe would have to be utilised to cover the major remaining challenge of transportation. Samsoe had substantial experience in organising local stakeholders in energy projects building on local acceptance and ownership of energy production facilities, in the past mainly wind turbines and district heating. For Samsoe, central to utilisation of a varied biomass input was the establishment of a multi-functional biogas plant producing fuel for the local ferry.
The biogas plant should be able to treat all forms of organic materials that will be available on the island and could produce several different fertiliser products. This placed special requirements for the construction concept. The facility would include at least two lines (one conventional and one organic). It should also be able to handle all types of biomass, both liquid as solid and it should have the capacity to sanitise certain products, while it should be prepared for expansion. Finally, the facilities could upgrade the produced biogas to natural gas quality, either under pressure or in liquid form, depending on the customer's requirements. A large biogas plant would thus be the heart of all future management of organic waste and other biomass as well as acting as a redistribution centre for energy.
The biogas was to be upgraded and used as fuel for a new ferry, built in the spring of 2011 and commenced in the autumn between Sælvig (Samsoe) and Hou (Jutland). The ferry was prepared for the use of natural gas or purified biogas. The ferry company built ferries that were able to run on liquid natural gas (LNG). The cost of upgrading biogas to LNG had to be investigated further and would have to be incorporated in a business plan for the biogas company. As an alternative operating the ferry on non-upgraded biogas could be explored.
The ferry would be able to absorb a maximum of around 2.4 million m3 of methane.
Depending on how the process heat of the biogas plant and heating to upgrade to be produced (with its own engine generator sets or straw heat from the existing district heating systems) would be needed between 90 % and 75 % of the above biomass resources. When establishing the sale of biogas to the ferry a separate biogas stand at the harbour would be able to add more costumers. This made it possible to gradually adapt and convert local transportation to biogas. Especially heavy vehicles, mainly buses and domestic trucks, had potential for biogas operation.
The technology design of a biogas plant was largely dependent on the available biomass resource.
The aim would be to choose a biogas plant design that could handle a variable resource input. The economy of the system should be assessed. The interlinked dependency of several aspects should be investigated:
1. farmers increasing and decreasing their livestock or growing a suitable amount of crops for the biogas plant
2. local entrepreneurs and the ferry company converting to biogas having conversion costs and a demand for supply security, and
3. the biogas plant running at low enough costs to be able to sell biogas cheaper than fossil fuel.
Ruse
The overall function of the Ruse plan was to give the stakeholders information on the geographical and economical status of the region, to show the resource potential and opportunities for business development in the field of biomass, as well as the utilisation of the cooperation and networking capacities of the three major actors (research institutions, companies and development organizations for the mobilization of biomass).
The Municipal Strategic Development Plan of Ruse from 2007 to 2013 was based on the results of a complex analysis of the processes and trends of development of Ruse municipality in midterm plan and was pursuant to the National Regional Development Strategy and Regional Development Strategy for Ruse region. The aim was to reduce waste and increase quantities of recycled and recovered waste and the introduction of effective waste management systems. Programmes, projects and activities to implement and consistently covered the whole territory of the municipality from the centre of the city of Ruse to villages and were detailed in the municipal programme for waste management. On the other hand, the objective included implementing energy efficiency and recovery of degraded land and reducing erosion processes with a view to safeguarding the ecological balance.
Development of innovative small and medium processing plants and upgrading of existing material and technical base were supported. The process of cooperation of agriculture producers, processors and research units would be encouraged. A further concern was the introduction of innovations in production, processing and marketing. Skills development and knowledge transfer of new technologies, renewable energy sources, bioenergy and organic farming products would be supported. Farmers and other land users would be assisted to implement methods to protect the environment and the natural resources.
The proposed actions should include but not be limited to:
1. activation of links between researchers, producers and end-users of biomass resources
2. organisation of campaigns focussing on promoting best practices of biomass utilisation and national and regional incentives for enhanced use of renewable energy sources
3. study the potential economic and environmental benefits of decentralised renewable energy systems and biomass utilisation technologies and equipment expedient for SMEs and small and medium farms
4. support for joint research including as well regional companies producing biomass
5. attracting scientists from other scientific organisations in partnerships at regional level, including young PhD students
6. active dissemination of research results to companies and users of biomass resources
7. development of projects for utilisation of biomass resources not only from agricultural sources, but also taking into consideration the use of municipal biomass waste.
However, several bottlenecks limited this:
1. researchers' qualified labour was still underpaid compared to similar experts at European level. This made it unattractive to young scientists, encouraging a continuous brain drain
2. the region proved potential in applying scientific methods to increase yields of crops but lacked scientific and research capacity in the field of high-tech RTD. The region needed to address efficient and economically viable processes and technologies for biomass utilisation
3. current biomass projects were all aimed only at the 'big business' and there was no tendency for practical actions to scale down to projects suitable for SMEs and/or individual farmers
4. additional research infrastructure was needed to address the specific needs of companies and meet global challenges
5. to date, a structured regional development plan for use of biomass resources did not exist, thus there were no practices or lessons from previous experiences that could be identified.
In conclusion, in view of the dramatic rise of crude oil prices and upward trends in the price of refined products, alternative recycling procedures took on a new value and we believed that state of the art recycling processes should be thoroughly studied and pilot project(s) should be elaborated and implemented based on the specific features of the region and the EU regulations.
North Great Plains
The energy consumption of the North Great Plain region was examined in comparison with the characteristics of energy consumption in the other regions. The data suggested that, in Hungarian energy production, fossil energy sources dominated with a proportion of approximately 70 %. The data also suggested that the proportion of renewable energy sources was still very low. The capacity of the fossil power plants of the North Great Plain region was almost four times higher than the capacity of the renewable power plants, and while 95 MW energy was produced by a few hydrocarbon power plants, the 25 MW was distributed among 10 power stations using renewable energy. Most of the latter were based upon biogas, with two wind generators and almost half of the energy was produced by the hydroelectric sources.
The evaluation of the data on the generation of energy from biomass was made considerably difficult by the fact that neither the county nor the region had any standardised statistics of the quantity of the energy used. However, the structure of the energy consumption of the region was not different from the national average. The structure and regional distribution of energy use had considerably shifted towards imported natural gas. There was a significant increase in two areas, namely household heating and electric power generation. At present more than 60 % of the energy used for heating in the households was imported.
The biomass potentials originating from forestry, agriculture, food wastes, municipal solid waste (MSW) and waste water sludge were estimated in the North Great Plain region. Crop production had the largest potential in the region. Due to the decreasing trends in livestock, the biomass potential from animal husbandry was not very significant. The most important energy source in the region was natural gas, utilised primarily for heating. The most economical solution was therefore replacing some of the energy source by an alternative, obviously with biomass which was available in the region in substantial volumes.
Based on this situation and discussions with local experts we worked out an action plan for the region with the following three key elements:
1. increase the energy efficiency of institutions and houses. We examined the natural gas consumption in family houses in the region. The heat consumption trends of family houses in the region were very unfavourable, most of the houses being 'close to average' category in the Hungarian rankings. The improvement of energy efficiency in all the municipality and public buildings and also in 50 % of the family houses was a reasonable objective and should be the first to be realised. Based on statistical data and consultations with experts, we made a cost estimation of modernisation of houses heated by gas in the region. To be able to make the calculations we averaged the buildings as 65 m2 houses. We calculated the insulation need and the replacement of doors and windows. The estimated specific cost of modernisation is was HUF 2.5 million per house.
2. establishing new energy plantations. As a result of the increase of institutions' and houses' energy efficiency, the natural gas consumption could be decreased. To replace thus natural gas with energy plants required around 50 000 to 80 000 hectares' area. The total area of the region was 1 772 865 hectares. Thus, 80 000 was only 4.5 % of the total area. There were 100 000 to 140 000 ha fallow areas in the region which were not utilised for intensive cultivation. This was far more than needed.
3. utilisation of biomass for heating instead of imported natural gas. Replacement of natural gas based heating by biomass based heating (wood chips, straws) would lead to employment of 4 000 people for 10 years, development of local industry and increasing income for the local municipalities from local business tax.
Mid West
The Mid West bio-energy action plan stated that to deliver the 2020 heat target, a capital investment of EUR 148 million was needed in biomass equipment and about 700 commercial scale biomass installations over the next 11 years. This would equate to about EUR 13.5 million invested and over 60 schools, hospitals etc. converting to biomass each year until 2020.
To promote this level of demand there were six proposed short term priority actions:
1. biomass revolving loan scheme, whereby a fund would be established offering 100 % interest free loans for biomass equipment
2. market awareness and segmentation
3. research and development into new biomass conversion technology
4. biomass CHP
5. development of policy support
6. form an industry partnership biomass group.
The principal resources in the Mid-West Region examined in the plan were:
1. Forestry: Traditional analysis of wood supply and demand, centred on wood removals from forests and wood input to industries, was inadequate. A more complex approach, based on comprehensive wood resource balances, was necessary. This required original research and data gathering, notably unrecorded sources of wood supply (trees outside the forest, logging residues, and post consumer recovered wood) and use (wood energy in private households and small CHP plants) and input and output conversion factors for wood-using industries. On the supply side data weaknesses were found in woody biomass outside the forest, post-consumer recovered wood and used logging residues. On the consumption side, little or weak information was found in particular on wood use for energy, as well as conversion factors (calculating wood raw material equivalent from units of products). Wood supply from new sources should be expanded, notably through expansion of the area used to grow wood (whether or not this area was considered 'forest'). Wood supply from existing sources (forest and non-forest) should be expanded, e.g. through higher wood removal.
2. Miscanthus: On the nutrition requirement of this crop comparatively little was understood. Trials were conducted to gain a better understanding, and more trials would be required. Due to large leaf areas and deep-rooting systems, the rate of water-use was higher compared to traditional annual crops. There was a need to develop a prediction yield model to account for miscanthus yield losses due to water deficits in dry years and during cold or frost spells.
3. Willow: Much more work was required on the various willow clones and their yields on commercial farms in Irish climatic conditions. Of especial importance would be studies of the optimal applications of herbicides for weed control, and research was needed into willow disease control such as rust and beetle infestations which represented the major biological threats to willow plantations. The main extra cost associated with willow was the increased harvesting costs. This might reduce over time as specialised machines were developed.
Grass: A new report carried out on behalf of Bord Gáis proposed that at least 7.5 % of Ireland's natural gas could be supplied using grass and waste. Anaerobic conversion processes could provide enough natural gas to heat the equivalent of 300 000 Irish homes per year. Once the renewable gas was cleaned and upgraded it could then be used locally or piped into the national grid for distribution. Research would need to be carried out on cost analysis to ensure that the energy input in growing and harvesting the grass, plus transport cost of grass or silage to the anaerobic digester plants, plus operational cost, was lower than the energy potential of the biogas produced. The region had sufficient biomass resource to meet its targets; however, this resource and the targets were totally dependent upon energy users converting to biomass. Whilst there was a fuel price incentive to convert to biomass fuels, the capital costs of biomass systems created a significant barrier. The current economic downturn and difficulties in obtaining credit appeared likely to make this the key issue for market development of biomass in the short and medium term. %:%: The JAP
The JAP was agreed around three key issues:
1. Exploit the strength of biomass. The partners were agreed that biomass was an under-utilised resource in all the regions. Agricultural solid waste, forestry, thinnings, cereals and energy crops were in good supply but had not been exploited to the extent that is possible. The reason for this was that there were several 'structural' factors in each of the regions that held back biomass from achieving its full potential.
2. Innovation and biomass supply chains. The development of the biomass supply chain was not a simple task, it took a whole array of simultaneous efforts, from producing harvesting, transportation, storing, processing, to utilisation, sale and distribution. Our present energy systems were built and organised around primary fossil fuel, mediated in easy transportable forms such as coal, oil, gasoline and electricity. In more recent years also natural gas pipelines were established in many areas. The closer the bioenergy carriers came to one of these fossil based forms the easier it was to adjust to the existing energy network and market. However, what might be seen as optimal from a traditional energy network perspective was not necessarily optimal seen from a resource optimisation point of view of the potential bioenergy production.
3. Network of biomass regions. During the project, the issue of international networking with other biomass regions attracted considerable discussion: how to share the results of the BIOMOB project with other projects? develop new projects for the BIOMOB partnership? use venture capital funds for sustainability of project results? join a network and create a specific working group of BIOMOB partners? establish a network organisation, but which model to follow? EUBIA confirmed that a 'Biomass regions' network could have significant potential in developing the regional biomass approach further. EUBIA proposed to develop this approach further.
Potential impact:
Impact on business
One of the overall objectives of the BIOMOB project was delivery of results to biomass enterprises in each region, thus linking the project outcomes with enterprises and potential users in the regions. This sought to demonstrate the systematic introduction of biomass business strategies to groups of firms and the customisation of biomass-related business cases to the growth strategies of individual enterprises.
The enterprises which were identified through this process were as follows:
1. In Mid-West Region, Ireland: Hotel and leisure complex currently using a 0.8 MW natural gas heating installation in the process of considering a switch to woodchip; similar hotel and leisure complex currently using a light fuel oil heating installation in the process of considering a switch to woodchip; gasification project seeking to attract a supply of municipal solid waste which was sent to landfill.
2. In Észak-Alföld Region, Hungary a 2 MW district heating scheme project which was considering the use of a woodchip biomass solution and comparing it with a fossil fuel (natural gas) solution; similar district heating scheme but with lower installation costs.
3. In Ruse Region, Bulgaria, a business which was until then disposing of MSW-using landfill was considering the use of two biomass solutions, either combustion or gasification. A similar business but where the gate fees for the disposal of MSW were increased from the very low level which was charged in Bulgaria.
The results of each model run were then considered and compared with the existing or conventional solutions, usually fossil fuel energy sources in the case of the energy supply company (ESCo) model and landfill as a means of disposing of municipal solid waste in the case of the feedstock model).
The financial planning tools developed within BIOMOB clearly assisted the establishment of the business cases for these projects and identified the most sensitive input parameters, thus helping project promoters to focus on the key financial inhibitors and facilitators of their businesses.
The following were identified as key parameters in these business plans:
1. the ESCo model for heat supply was shown to compete with 'own and operate' solutions, particularly if the risk associated with the latter was taken into account
2. the current low price of natural gas weakened the economic argument for the uptake of biomass
3. the default capex for gasification was about 20 % higher than for incineration
4. operating costs were about 10 % higher on the incineration option than for gasification. Project financing costs were similar.
5. the potential to realise cash from other byproducts such as char (gasification) and the cost of ash disposal (incineration) had a strong influence on the business cases
6. as a consequence of the above, legislation on emissions and ash disposal strongly influenced the profitability of projects
7. there was at present substantial country to country variation in the gate fees for municipal solid waste disposal to landfill and to biomass plant. This had a substantial negative impact on business cases for waste to energy projects in Bulgaria and Hungary. It was understood that legislative changes were in progress and these should mitigate this effect.
Exploitation
Regional funding proposals
EU member states submitted their national renewable energy action plans (NREAPs) in 2010 and should in the coming years implement these national strategies to comply with the Renewable Energy Source (RES) directive.
Challenges and opportunities in the four project regions were significant. Examples of funding opportunities of suggested actions that could be taken to overcome these hurdles through research and technological development as well as specific measures were identified.
Measures could, and should, be taken at the EU level, the member state levels and local regional level. The weak parts of the supply chains should be identified and directed incentives should be applied to solve the barriers and create a positive opportunity for investments in the sector. This could create substantial amounts of new green jobs in the regions. Many useful measures and funding opportunities were available directed towards parts of the supply chains, but still also many barriers existed, e.g. administrative procedures and lack of planning that should be solved at the member state level.
Local stakeholder networks were very important for biomass supply chain development and the relations to and support from local authorities was crucial. This factor accounted for the general political support and was often also reflected in the smoothness of administrative procedures, permits etc. The active development and use of local stakeholder networks could make things easier. Several regions emphasised the need to develop and establish public-private partnerships (PPPs). Also the energy supply companies should become part of the solution. Adequate structures and institutions should be developed for efficient and flexible research and technical development, including innovation to make efficient use of international funding for cooperative projects to increase knowledge transfer, as well as national and EU support for specific investments.
It could be concluded that public investments and funding of initiatives had substantial potential in creating new jobs and other societal benefits. This could be achieved through market development, cooperation, PPPs, RTD and innovation. The public sector reflected the political will to reduce dependency of fossil fuels and reduce climate gas emissions. This should lead the way with investments and an implementation framework. When the market was opened and the legislation and support schemes were ready, the private sector would follow and release the full potential and give broad and long term societal return on the investments.
Replication
From the findings of the BIOMOB partner regions it was clear that, compared to some other branches of renewable energy, the potential of biomass was significantly under-developed. This was due in large part to the mismatch between the feedstocks, user demand and technological capability. In some regions, abundant feedstocks were going unused due to lack of industrial involvement, uncoordinated supply chains and a lack of education and understanding of the economic facilitators and inhibitors. In other regions, cutting edge biomass related RTD was finding little or no uptake by local industry which, in an economic crisis, was starved of investment funds and likely to adopt the most conservative established technology (such as combustive biomass). BIOMOB sought to point the way to regional mobilisation of biomass, building on the triple helix model of the regions of knowledge programme and by demonstrating the socioeconomic advantages of a coordinated approach to biomass mobilisation.
Perhaps the foremost lesson learned was that, on the one hand, subsidies and incentives, including public procurement initiatives, were essential for kick-starting the take-up of biomass as an energy source (and the consequent stimulation of RTD activity). But, on the other hand, clear business cases should be established to warrant the necessary investment by both public and private entities. In an attempt to help both private enterprise and those involved in public sector procurement to justify investment, simple 'level playing field' economic calculations should be made to clearly show the benefits of the biomass alternative in comparison to conventional fossil fuel solutions.
Investigation of possible structures
The feasibility of becoming a knowledge and innovation community (KIC) in the European Institute of Technology (EIT) was examined. The partners' aspiration to become a KIC in the EIT was scrutinised and compared with other options for an ongoing collaborative structure. Main other areas examined beside EIT climate KIC were the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), BioCLUS project cooperation, Biomass Excellence Programme, Interreg and Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funds opportunities, venture capital opportunities and other relevant possibilities. The main questions of the investigation were the following: share the results of the BIOMOB project with other projects? develop new projects for the BIOMOB partnership? use venture capital funds for sustainability of project results? join a network and create a specific working group of BIOMOB partners? establish a network organisation, but which model to follow?
Dissemination
Local dissemination
Seminars and workshops were the preferred method of local dissemination and resulted in substantial discussions and local reviews of the BIOMOB implications. Overall, there were 22 workshops involving 409 participants across the four partner areas. Through the mass media there were 24 publications in the partner areas, including press releases, published reports and public presentations. Most significantly, there were two television broadcasts and four radio broadcasts featuring BIOMOB.
Key topics addressed by the local workshops included:
1. Mobilising biomass to energy in a possible biogas project
2. Innovation and solutions in biomass technology
3. Elaboration on a biogas project with the local stakeholders
4. Pre-sowing treatment of rape seeds
5. Presentation of a preliminary mapping of locally available biomass resources to the local stakeholders
6. The development of demand: Convince key stakeholders in the public sector
7. Presentation of a preliminary master plan on the utilisation of biomass
8. Biomass industry has developed but there is weak market demand
9. The possibilities and limitations for plant fed biogas plants
9. Regional user group meeting, to inform the participants about the BIOMOB project, its aims and tasks
10. Inform the regional stakeholders and the members of the user group about the draft of the regional action plan
11. the first energy day for municipalities event
12. session organised under the first energy day for municipalities event, to overview the programme of BIOMOB and to discuss the dissemination.
12. session organised under the ENERGOexpo 2011.
A series of local publications and presentations were also made on these topics.
Mentoring and exchange
Overall, there were four major exchanges, one in each of the partner areas, with 41 presentations on the biomass sector, providing for a very fruitful mentoring and exchange programme.
EU dissemination
Members of the BIOMOB partnership made a poster presentation at the 18th Biomass Conference held in Lyon, 2010.
In November 2010, the visit by the President of Ireland to Samsoe was marked by a presentation on BIOMOB to the President. The event was recorded on Irish national television via RTE news and reported on in newspapers in Ireland and Denmark. The information was disseminated at EU level to the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Research Marie Geoghegan-Quinn and to Irish policy-makers in Brussels via EUBIA.
A joint paper on biomass and regional development was presented to the European Biomass Conference (Berlin, 2011), in collaboration with two other FP7 Regions of Knowledge (RoK) projects, namely BIOCLUS and RESGEN. From the experience of the three projects, three issues emerged as being of special importance to the linkage of biomass with the regions, i.e. strategic research and innovation agendas, decentralised sustainable energy solutions and regional innovation. The paper recommended that future development in the linkage of biomass with regional development concentrated on these three issues.
List of websites:
'http://www.biomob.eu/'.
