Dear EBTP Stakeholder,

The recent European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative call for Expressions of Interest received over 50 submissions, showing strongly that European stakeholders are ready to demonstrate advanced technologies for biofuel production at the industrial scale. To turn this technology into commercial reality requires financial support and a positive regulatory framework that will enable markets for advanced biofuels to develop rapidly and contribute to the 2020 targets. This was a key message of our successful 4th Stakeholders Plenary Meeting, which took place on 14-15 September 2011 in Brussels and attracted over 160 participants on each day.

The EBTP continues to work closely with the European Commission, and has drafted a policy toolkit outlining the measures that are needed to promote the large-scale deployment of advanced sustainable biofuels. The Working Groups of the EBTP will continue to support these initiatives through complementary activities on cost data, sustainability issues, feedstock availability, etc. To provide the wider public with basic information on biofuels technologies and innovative processes being developed, five biofuels fact sheets have been drafted this month. More will follow next year.

2012 is set to be a pivotal (and challenging) year for European biofuels. The EBTP believes firmly that, with the right support, biofuels can make an important contribution to job and wealth creation as well as securing a sustainable source of transport fuel for future generations.

Wishing all stakeholders a successful New Year.

Lars Hansen
Chair, Steering Committee, European Biofuels Technology Platform

The 24th EBTP Steering Committee meeting (SC24) was held at the EU Office of Kalundborg in Brussels on October 11th 2011.

Antitrust guidelines were introduced at SC24 to comply with competition rules. Feedback was provided on the successful 4th Stakeholder Plenary meeting in Brussels, which was attended by 160 participants on each day. SC members were updated on recent biofuels events. Promising trends in development and financing of advanced biofuels in the US and China were discussed. A summary of recent biofuels activities in Member States was presented (major activities are detailed on the relevent pages of the EBPT website). Updates were provided on the EIBI and the Bio-CCS JTF. The FP7 Bioenergy Call, Horizon 2020 and potential production support policies for advanced biofuels were also discussed.

The EBTP welcomes Valentin Ruiz Santa Quiteria, Repsol, and Carmen Millán Chacartegui, Abengoa Bioenergia Nuevas Tecnologias, as new Steering Committee members.

At SC24, EBTP Working Groups reported back to the Steering Committee on proposals for future tasks and activities. It is envisaged that all Working Groups will provide input to the European Commission DG ENER report of article 21.2, materials, biomass, technologies, policy tools for RED.

Working Group 1 “Biomass” aims to intensify cooperation with the Renewable Heating and Cooling Platform to align with cross cutting issues. A combined workshop on biomass feedstock issues is envisaged for Spring 2012. More details will be sent out once the date and programme have been finalised.

Working Group 2 “Conversion” will focus in 2012 on providing suggestions on EBTP priorities for the FP7 upcoming call and the Horizon 2020 programme.

Working Group 3 “End Use” proposes to gather cost information for fuel distribution in 2012. This information is currently lacking for biofuels in condensed format.

Working Group 4 “Sustainability” will present its proposals at the 25th Steering Committee Meeting.

Wortking Group 5 “Marketing & Policy” held a meeting in September 2011. A draft policy toolkit was sent to the EC to share views on what measures are needed, and which tools are not sufficient, to promote advanced biofuels. A paper presenting views on the potential impact of ILUC policy has also been produced (please see WG5 page for further details and links).

The Task Force on Algae will develop a definition of algal fuels regarding CO₂ issues, and will intensify cooperation with EABA (European Algae Biomass Association).

Further development of WG activities will be presented at the 25th Steering Committee Meeting.

The EBTP continues to help shape the European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative in close collaboration with the European Commission and Member States. The EIBI call for Expression of Interest closed on 14th October 2011. In total 52 Expressions of Interest were received; 32 in the thermochemical pathways, and 20 in the biochemical pathways. Expert review of the submissions is ongoing. Please note that the submission of an Expression of Interest is not a pre-selection process of projects, but aims to input to the ERA-NET plus call and other implementation activities.

The 6th EIBI Team meeting took place on September 14th. EIBI Member States representatives are in the process of preparing a proposal for the above mentioned ERA-NET plus call. ERA-NET plus is a funding scheme where Member States pool financial resources for a joint call, which will be topped up by the European Commission. Provided that Member States are able to commit a budget for project funding of 30M € for the ERA-NET plus call closing in February 2012, and the EC will be able to contribute 15M €, a total of 45M € public funding, plus matching private funds, could be available for EIBI activities (demonstration only).

Innovative financing for flagship advanced biofuels projects ("first-of-a-kind commercial scale production facilities") continues to be explored.

Two topics supporting EIBI are included in the most recent FP7 call under FP7-Energy-2012-2 and FP7-ERANET-2012-RTD. The deadlines are 3 April 2012 and 28 February 2012.

1) Call FP7-Energy-2012-2, deadline for submission 3 April 2012

Page 20: Topic ENERGY.2012.3.2.3: Pre-commercial industrial scale demonstration plant on lignocellulosic ethanol (budget: 35 M€) 

Funding: Collaborative project, including predominant demonstration component, up to 2 projects will be funded

The action supports the implementation of the SET-Plan and EIBI. Proposals have to provide data and key performance indicators developed by the EIBI TEAM.

2) Call FP7-ERANET-2012-RTD, deadline for submission 28 February 2012

Page 45: Topic ENERGY.2012.10.1.1: Era-Net Plus - Bioenergy Demonstration of the European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative (EU Budget: 15 M€) 

The 4th annual Stakeholder Plenary Meeting of the EBTP took place in Brussels on September 14th-15th 2011, and attracted around 160 participants on each day. This year, the speakers and discussion programme were focused on the upscaling of advanced biofuels and the sustainability of feedstock production. On day one, sessions covered the current status and predicted future of biofuels production and use, as well as the financing and upscaling of advanced technologies. The second day highlighted feedstock production and availability, as well as important sustainability issues across the different value chains. SPM4 is a forum for all stakeholders to share their views. By extending the conference over two days this year, the EBTP aimed to create more opportunity for stakeholders to discuss important issues surrounding the expansion of the EU biofuels market.

The platform would like to thank all stakeholders and speakers who contributed to a stimulating and productive conference. Links to presentations, photos, CVs and abstracts and the SPM4 press release have now been uploaded to the EBTP website.

In recent weeks the EBTP has drafted biofuels fact sheets that aim to provide the public with understandable information on innovative biofuels technologies and processes currently being developed. The fact sheets provide an overview of R&D on processing streams and indicate which technologies are being developed by companies, EC projects and other groups in Europe. The target group is people who are familiar with biofuels, and have some scientific knowledge, but are not technical experts. The first draft biofuels fact sheets are now available on the EBTP website, covering:

DME (602 Kb)
Ethanol (114 Kb)
FAME (110 Kb)
Methanol (107 Kb)
Synthetic hydrocarbons (112 Kb)

We welcome feedback from stakeholders on the initial fact sheets. Based on this, further fact sheets will follow next year.

Second International Workshop on Biomass and Carbon Capture and Storage

The Second International Workshop on Biomass and Carbon Capture and Storage took place at the University of Cardiff, Wales on 25-26 October 2011. The workshop was organised by Bellona in association with Cardiff University (both of whom are represented on the EBTP Steering Committee). Bellona is also a member of the Zero Emissions Platform and provides the Secretariat for the ZEP-EBTP Joint Task Force on Bio-CCS.

Presentations from the Bio-CCS workshop are available on the website of the Cardiff University Gas Turbine Research Centre (GTRC):

BRISK - Biofuels Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge

BRISK is a €10.84M four-year initiative with €8.98M funded under EC FP7 (Ref: 284498). The initiative runs from 1st October 2011 to September 2015. BRISK is coordinated by Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan (KTH) Stockolm, and includes partners from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK (see list below).

Please note: There is no direct involvment of EBTP in the BRISK project. However, the R&D activities carried out by BRISK partners are integral to the development of advanced biofuels, and the initiative will contribute to research objectives outlined in the Strategic Research Agenda.

BRISK aims to develop a European Research Infrastructure for Thermochemical Biomass Conversion, supporting R&D on innovative processes to convert sustainable feedstocks (agricultural/forestry wastes and energy crops) into liquid, gaseous or solid fuels.

The specific aim of BRISK is to overcome fragmentation in R&D facilities for thermochemical technologies, by enabling researchers to have access to high-level experimental facilities and services across Europe. The BRISK network will encourage and facilitate cooperative research in the specialised laboratories of project partners. The facilities are also open to researchers outside the project.

The BRISK website will provide further information about how to apply for access to the experimental facilities for thermochemical conversion technologies. The web link will be added to the EBTP website shortly.

21 June 2011 – SET-Plan Financing Meeting, Brussels, Belgium
Markku Karlsson (SC), Michael Persson et al represented EBTP with a presentation on “EIBI - financing needs and technologies”

30 June 2011 – 2nd Annual AEBIOM European Bioenergy Conference & Renexpo, Brussels, Belgium
Markku Karlsson (SC) represented EBTP with a presentation on “European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative”

6 July 2011 – 5th EIBI Team Meeting, Brussels, Belgium
Henrik Erämetsä, Anders Lau Tuxen and Markku Karlsson represented EBTP

13 July 2011 – 6th meeting of Future Transport Fuels Expert Group of DG MOVE, Brussels, Belgium
Emmanuel Desplechin (WG5) represented EBTP

13 July 2011 – Horizon 2020, Framework Programme for Research and Innovation - Workshop: "How can we improve access to risk finance in Europe?", Brussels, Belgium
Anders Lau Tuxen represented EBTP

13 July 2011 – CSF Stakeholder Workshop, Brussels, Belgium
Nour Amrani represented EBTP

14 September 2011 – 6th EIBI Team Meeting, Brussels, Belgium
Véronique Hervouet, Henrik Erämetsä, Markku Karlsson (all SC), Anders Lau Tuxen, and Birger Kerckow (Sec.) represented EBTP

14-15 September 2011 – 4th Stakeholder Plenary Meeting of the European Biofuels Technology Platform, Brussels, Belgium
Attended by 160 stakeholders included many SC and WG members.

15 September 2011 – EBTP: Working Group 5 “Marketing & Policy” Workshop, Brussels, Belgium,
Led by Marc Gillmann (WG5 chair)

15 September 2011 – European Commission Workshop "Biofuels in Aviation”, Brussels, Belgium
Véronique Hervouet (SC), Francois Guay, Ingvar Landälv and Birger Kerckow (Sec.) represented EBTP

5 October 2011 – Star Colibri External Reference Group, Brussels, Belgium
Kristin Sternberg represented EBTP

5 October 2011 – Joint Task Force Bio-CCS Meeting, Brussels, Belgium

11 October 2011 – 24th Steering Committee of the European Biofuels Technology Platform, Brussels, Belgium
Attended by Steering Committee members, EC representatives and observers

12-13 October 2011 – 2nd International Conference on lignocellulosic ethanol, Verona, Italy
Lars Hansen (SC Chair) moderated on behalf of EBTP. Markku Karlsson, Pierre Porot (SC) and Mona Brinker (Sec.) represented EBTP

25-26 October 2011 – Second International Workshop on Biomass and CCS, Cardiff, Wales
The event was organised by Phil Bowen (SC), Jonas Helseth (ZEP/EBTP Bio-CCS JTF) and colleagues. Roger Coombs (Sec.) represented the EBTP.

 

Links and details for the following biofuels and bioenergy events are included on the events page of the EBTP website. Please check regularly as new events are added each week.

13 December 2011 - SuperMethanol workshop on innovative uses of glycerol from the biodiesel process
Brussels, Belgium

23-24 January – Fuels of the future, 9th International Conference on Biofuels
Berlin, Germany

25-26 January – 2nd Annual Global Biofuels Summit
Barcelona, Spain

7-9 February – Next Generation Biofuels
London, UK

28 February - 1 March – Advanced biofuels in a biorefinery approach
Copenhagen, Denmark

13-15 March – World Biofuels Markets Congress and Exhibition
Rotterdam, Netherlands

25-26 April – European Algae Biomass
London, UK

29-31 May - European Bioenergy 2012 Conference and Exhibition
Jönköping, Sweden

13-14 June – European Biodiesel Summit
Krakow, Poland

18-22 June - 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition (20th EU BC&E)
Milan, Italy

25-27 June - 3rd AEBIOM European Bioenergy Conference 2012
Brussels, Belgium

23-25 October - 4th Nordic Wood Biorefinery Conference
Helsinki, Finland

Links to a number of new biofuels reports have been added to the EBTP Reports Database in recent weeks. Links to biofuels presentations are also included on relevant pages of the EBTP website. Examples include:

Biomass/feedstocks

WWF Living Forests Reports: Chapter 2 - Forests and Energy
WWF

End use

Report of the European Expert Group on Future Transport Fuels
EC Mobility and Transport

Sustainability

Potential for Biomass and CO₂ Capture and Storage
Ecofys on behalf of IEAGHG

Presentations from GBEP Events in 2011 covering GHG LCA, sustainable bioenergy for sustainable development, sustainability indicators and related topics.

Policy & Markets

From Barracks to the Battlefield - Clean Energy Innovation and America's Armed Forces
The Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate

EurObserv'ER Biofuels Barometer (2011)
EurObserv'ER

GAIN EU27 Biofuels Annual Report
USDA