Bioenergy Sustaining the Future (BESTF) 3

Project Information

BESTF3

Grant agreement ID: 691637

DOI

10.3030/691637

Project closed

EC signature date 7 December 2015

Start date 1 January 2016

End date 31 December 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 6 477 368,71

EU contribution

€ 2 137 531,67

Coordinated by

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BESTF3 (Bioenergy Sustaining the Future (BESTF) 3)

Reporting period: 2017-01-01 to 2020-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The ERA-NET Cofund BESTF3 built on the results of and the lessons learnt from the two previous BESTF ERA-NET Plus initiatives and used the established network to bring together national and transnational organisations with an interest in promoting the greater use of bioenergy. The overarching aim was to kick-start large scale investment in close-to-market implementation of bioenergy. BESTF3 successfully achieved the goals of the call topic LCE-18-2015 by implementing a joint programme for bioenergy demonstration projects to demonstrate enhanced bioenergy technologies to help Europe progress towards achieving its 2020 targets.

The key objectives of BESTF3 were to:
1. implement a single joint transnational collaborative funding call with EU top up funding (the Main Call) to support projects focused on the next generation of bioenergy.
2. launch follow on collaborative funding calls without EU top up funding (the Additional Call) with wider TRL scope than the Main Call;
3. maintain and enhance coherence and networking between national bioenergy programmes across the EU;
4. further the demonstration of enhanced bioenergy technologies in order to help develop robust project plans for a range of demonstrator and flagship plants, that will help Europe to make progress towards achieving its 2020 energy targets;
5. disseminate knowledge gained from the programme and individual projects across the EU.

The Main Call enabled the funding of two transnational demonstration projects; Phoenix (project cost €2.04M ) and Waste2Bio (project costs €1.27M) both of which successfully completed their objectives in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Both achieved significant cost reduction results thus enhancing the cost effectiveness of the technology and contributed to commercialisation in the sector.
Project Phoenix was part of a larger innovative waste gasification plant in the West Midlands (UK) known as the Sustainable Energy Centre funded by the Energy Technology Institute https://www.eti.co.uk/programmes/bioenergy/waste-gasification-commercial-development-plant. Phoenix developed and demonstrated a direct port injection gas engine that used compressed syngas from the gasification plant. Project Waste2Bio http://www.waste2bio.com/ sought to recover energy from organic waste in order to produce bioethanol and bioenergy. The efficacy of such technologies was demonstrated and verified in an industrial demonstration plant (IMECAL). The project valorized urban waste by obtaining two energy recoverable products and an organic fertilizer, improving the energy balance integration of the whole process.

Separately the Additional Calls, a collaboration between BESTF3/ERANET Bioenergy was highly successful; over the period of the programme the funding agencies launched three additional joint calls which funded eleven projects. By 2020 four of the projects had successfully completed their objectives whilst the remaining seven are working towards their objectives. The total funding provided for these projects was €14.1M with a high degree of industrial involvement.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The main activities of the BESTF3 project were split into two parts:

Part A - activities related to the Main Call (Work Packages 1-5), with a focus on bioenergy demonstration activities. Following stage 1 and 2 evaluation, three projects were selected for funding and two completed their objectives: Phoenix (project cost €2.04M ) in 2019 and Waste2Bio (project costs €1.27M) in 2020.

Part B - Additional activities (Work Packages 6 and 7) which were closely aligned with the on-going ERA-NET Bioenergy scheme and involved joint initiatives. This included the Additional Calls with a wider scope than the Main Call and encourage projects at lower TRLs. Three BESTF/Bioenergy Additional Calls were launched as follows:
First joint call with the topic title “Bioenergy as part of a smart and flexible energy system” – six funded projects;
Second joint call with the topic title “Biomass as an important pillar within energy systems and the circular economy” – two funded projects;
Third joint call with the topic title “Combined biomass valorisation to bioenergy, industrial feedstocks and bio-based products” – three funded projects.
The three additional joint calls enabled a total of eleven projects to be funded; four have completed whilst the remaining projects continue to work towards their objectives.

Dissemination and exploitation highlights included the following: ETIP Bioenergy conference, June 2017, Stockholm; ETIP Bioenergy workshop, May 2018, Copenhagen; and ETIP Bioenergy conference, November 2019, Brussels. BESTF and ERA-NET Bioenergy have published four joint Newsletters; December 2016, October 2017, October 2018 and November 2019. A brochure entitled “Bioenergy from research to Market Deployment” was published in June 2017 to promote the results of the BESTF and BESTF2 projects with links to ERA-NET Bioenergy.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

BESTF3 built on the results of and lessons learnt from the two preceding BESTF ERA-NET Plus. BESTF3 used the established BESTF and fused joint strategic planning and programming between the Member States that subscribed to enable the implementation of bioenergy demonstrations. Its outputs also influenced those Member States that were not directly involved in the project, helping to bring greater alignment between their bioenergy initiatives and those of the Consortium.

BESTF3 enabled the availability of significant funding, by combining both Member States and EC funds, in order to boost the demonstration of large Bioenergy projects and facilitate commercialization. The Main Call funded two successful demonstration projects. Phoenix developed and demonstrated a direct port injection gas engine that used compressed syngas from the gasification plant. The project results achieved showed the engine to be more efficient and highly performing. The results and engine will enable multiple market opportunities. Project Waste2Bio sought to recover energy from organic waste in order to produce bioethanol and bioenergy. The technology was demonstrated with promising results and a business plan was established to exploit the technology.

The BESTF3/ERANET Bioenergy collaboration was highly successful; the resultant cooperation between funding agency partners lead to the consortium members implementing three Additional Calls in the BioEnergy sector which have led to the funding of eleven further projects. These calls funded lower TRL projects and contributed to greater knowledge and learning in the sector. Four of the projects have successfully completed their objectives whilst the remaining seven are working towards their objectives. The total funding provided for these projects was €14.1M with a high degree of industrial involvement.

The experiences from the BESTF and ERA-NET Bioenergy collaborations can potentially be embedded in a new European approach where the different energy co-funds are merged within the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP). Further investigations will reveal the extent to which this will be possible. BESTF3 and ERA-NET Bioenergy have coordinated their efforts and nominated two representatives to contribute to the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda of CETP.

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