| |
 |
|
CURRENT STATUS OF ADVANCED BIOFUELS DEMONSTRATIONS IN EUROPE
ETIP Bioenergy Working Group 2 – Conversion processes – has recently released a new report listing current demonstration and first commercial facilities for advanced biofuels in Europe. The report considers operational plants, plants under construction and planned projects, based on publicly available information.
The facilities covered include demonstration and first-of-a-kind commercial projects (TRL 6 to 8), based on the priority value chains (PVC) for advanced biofuels as defined by ETIP Bioenergy, as well as other important facilities based on different technologies.
The analysis shows that all the pathways together currently provide a capacity of 358 828 t of advanced biofuels per year; another 151 900 t/y are currently under construction and plans for another 1 742 760 t/y have been announced.
Most of the operational capacity available today stems from pyrolysis oil plants (74 000 t/y), followed by plants producing alcohols from cellulosic sugars (49 420 t/y).
When looking at the planned capacity, gasification pathways provide the majority (685 760 t/y in total over a variety of pathways and products), followed by alcohols from cellulosic sugars (380 000 t/y), in addition to a large contribution expected from a planned facility for the production of 500 000 t/y of renewable diesel from tall oil.
The most important fuel products are ethanol, followed by pyrolysis oil and methanol. The upgrading of pyrolysis oil in refineries and the integration of advanced biofuel production into pulp mills become increasingly attractive in the European context.
Read the full report
SUPPORTING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SET PLAN ACTION 8
 Last March, the project SET4BIO was launched, with the aim to support the execution of the Implementation Plan of Action 8 (IP8) - Bioenergy and Renewable Fuels for Sustainable Transport, to make a step change in the build-up of a cost-competitive bioenergy and renewable fuels market in the EU and globally. The three-year project, cofunded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme, is carried out by a consortium of six partners, coordinated by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (SE). The main task of SET4BIO is helping to achieve the research and innovation goals of the Energy Union through the implementation of the integrated Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan, endorsed by EU Member States and SET Plan Associated Countries. It will also share inputs and strategic recommendations to a broad public of experts and citizens interested in the decarbonization of the EU transport sector.
Background
The Implementation Plan was approved in June 2018 by the Temporary Working Group 8 (TWG8) of the SET Plan, following the initial Declaration of Intent (DoI) of 2016, which defined the challenges and clear targets for Action 8. In line with the DoI, the plan details the European Research and Innovation activities required by 2030 to reach the strategic targets for this sector. These can be resumed by improving the performance (yield and efficiency) and the GHG saving of bioenergy technologies by 2030, whilst reducing their costs at the same time.
The Implementation Plan is challenging both in terms of reaching the targets and in mobilizing the financial volumes required for this. 13 actions are identified by the Plan to reach this ambitious target and the volume of investments required for this goal is estimated at 107 billion €: 2.29 billion € for development measures and 104.31 billion € for demonstration and scale-up activities. The financing instruments for this target shall be mobilized by activating and coordinating a wide number of actors, including private and public stakeholders, in addition to Member States and the EU, putting together their resources in a concerted effort towards the same goal.
Industry and Member States Involvement
In this framework, SET4BIO will support the realization of the Implementation Plan by engaging with and coordinating the actors and the stakeholders through a participatory approach, promoting best practices for the development, demonstration and the scale-up of bioenergy technologies. SET4BIO will take an active role in supporting the Implementation Working Group for Action 8 (IWG8) both as competence centre and as a link between the IWG8 and final stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs, experts and citizens. It will develop a roadmap for funding and financing of the bioenergy projects and infrastructures included in the plan, innovation challenges to stimulate and encourage new business models, and an array of activities to bridge the gap between R&I results and industry application in SET Plan countries and globally. To accomplish this, SET4BIO will pursue the direct involvement of both industry stakeholders and the Member States representatives, in cooperation with ETIP Bioenergy, which will act as a start and anchoring point of the work.
LATEST UPDATES FROM THE PLATFORM'S STEERING COMMITTEE AND WORKING GROUPS
The latest Steering Committee meeting of ETIP Bioenergy was held on the 17 March as an online conference due to the COVID-19 restrictions. This did not prevent the Committee from having a fruitful discussion and appointing new positions: Patrik Klintbom, RISE, Sweden, and Antti Arasto, VTT, Finland, were reconfirmed respectively as Chair and Vice Chair of the Steering Committee for the next two years. René Venendaal, BTG, The Netherlands, was nominated as a new Vice Chair of the SC. Panagiotis Grammelis, CERTH, Greece, joined the Steering Committee as a new representative for the ETIP RHC Biomass Panel and Dina Bacovsky, BEST, Austria, was appointed as Chair of Working Group 2 “Conversion Processes”. Welcome and congratulations to all, thanks for your efforts to support the platform and good luck with your new initiatives!
Recently ETIP Bioenergy Working Groups have organized a series of webinars with the objective of following up to the breakout sessions held in Brussels during the 9th Stakeholders Plenary Meeting in November 2019. Webinars have proved to be very useful to facilitate fruitful discussions among members as well as for ETIP Bioenergy stakeholders interested in getting the latest updates from the sector. Each Working Group is defining their work plans with and the topics to focus on for this year. These efforts will eventually take the form of publications and position papers, to feed the legislative processes at European and national level.
 Working Group 1 Webinar - Sustainable biomass and low-ILUC-risk options in agriculture
During these times of social distancing due to COVID-19, the whole bioenergy community is working from home. The European Technology and Innovation Platform Bioenergy is making efforts to keep in touch with our all our members,to keep ourselves and you informed about the latest developments and to facilitate social interaction among us.
In this context a webinar of the platform’s Working Group 1 - Biomass Feedstock was held on 15 April 2020. The focus of the agenda was on the latest developments and innovative solutions for the sustainable production of biomass and low-ILUC risk options in agriculture, including:
Growing perennial crops on marginal
land in Europe for bioenergy (Wibke Baumgarten, FNR,
Germany)
Results of innovative cropping schemes
for integrated food-and-biomass crops (Andrea Parenti,
University of Bologna, Italy)
The role of agriculture in soil carbon
storage and how to empower farmers (Calliope Panoutsou,
Imperial College London, UK)
Discussion and short updates on
challenges, policy and research trends
 Find the slides and minutes of the meeting here
Watch our latest video about sustainable options for broadening biomass feedstocks in Europe and read the latest report from WG1.
Working Group 2 - Conversion Processes
During the webinar of 18 February 2020, the members of WG2 discussed about the current situation of “priority value chains” (TRL 5-8) and the criteria for a better assessment of preindustrial projects currently operating. The new Chair of WG2, Dina Bacovsky, presented the preliminary results of a new document called "Current Status of Advanced Biofuels Demonstrations in Europe", which features a list of advanced biofuel demonstration and first-of-a-kind plants available at European level. The list has been put together thanks to the synergies of ETIP Platform with other expert groups such as the Sub-Group on Advanced Biofuels (SGAB) of the Sustainable Transport Forum and the IEA Bioenergy (in particular the Task 39, working to commercialize sustainable transportation biofuels). A list of process licensors has been included as well, so that a feedback on how far the technologies are now commercialized can be collected. The document will support the European Commission to get an updated overview on the operative plants currently available in the European market. A series of thematic webinars will be organized in the upcoming months, open to WG2 members and additional stakeholders.
Working Group 3 – End use and distribution of advanced biofuels
The webinar of WG3, chaired by Philippe Marchand and by the new designated Vice-Chair, Dorothée Lahaussois – Toyota Motor Europe, was organized on 11 March. The WG3 members have started to define an Action Plan, which will include key R&I topics connected to a list of European strategies, such as the European Green Deal, the upcoming Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund. Members agreed to work together on preparing inputs in the form of position papers on the role of advanced biofuels and the e-mobility. The group explored also other topics, such as the case of E10 fuel market in Europe and the need, for biofuel producers, to think about fuel and engine combinations that can enhance its performance. There is interest on how the future biofuels end-use will be shaped, as the EU Member States have different approaches at legislative and market level, resulting in uneven and fragmented approaches. Without a European common regulation on several aspects (such as biofuels blending, etc.), a full market harmonisation at European level could be hampered. To avoid it, there is a need that national frameworks should adhere to both short term (RED II) and long term (Horizon Europe) to improve the situation.
Working Group 4 - Policy and Sustainability
The webinar of WG3, chaired by Philippe Marchand and by the new designated Vice-Chair, Dorothée Lahaussois – Toyota Motor Europe, was organized on 11 March. The WG3 members have started to define an Action Plan, which will include key R&I topics connected to a list of European strategies, such as the European Green Deal, the upcoming Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund. Members agreed to work together on preparing inputs in the form of position papers on the role of advanced biofuels and the e-mobility. The group explored also other topics, such as the case of E10 fuel market in Europe and the need, for biofuel producers, to think about fuel and engine combinations that can enhance its performance. There is interest on how the future biofuels end-use will be shaped, as the EU Member States have different approaches at legislative and market level, resulting in uneven and fragmented approaches. Without a European common regulation on several aspects (such as biofuels blending, etc.), a full market harmonisation at European level could be hampered. To avoid it, there is a need that national frameworks should adhere to both short term (RED II) and long term (Horizon Europe) to improve the situation.
WG4, chaired by Marc Londo from the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development and vice-chaired by Béatrice Perrier from the Groupe PSA, held its first webinar in February and a second one in March 2020. The decarbonisation pathway of the transportsector has implications in several areas and this year the WG4 will focus its work on the following topics:
The transposition of RED II targets into national legislation. At present this is not a homogeneous process at Member States level, so the WG4 will monitor the implementation and will work to identify the main barriers which may temporarily slow down the transposition process, such as the time needed; lack of or low incentives to reach national targets for advanced biofuels, difficulties in estimating the GHG emissions savings, etc. The national cases of France and the Netherlands were analysed, and new ones (e.g. Portugal) will be described in the next WG4 webinars.
The implementation of sustainability criteria. This could be a tricky process when it comes to practicalities, especially in keeping a balance between safeguarding sustainability and minimizing the administrative burden to have adequate certification. The need to implement workable systems for traceability and transparency and the related shaping of effective penalties and premiums is another sensitive aspect, which is being addressed by the WG.
Green and Sustainable Finance Taxonomy. How to support bioenergy investors, companies and project promoters in the transition to a low-carbon economy? One among the tools consists in developing a Green Sustainable Financing Taxonomy, focused on bioenergy only and in line with the criteria set by RED II. The WG4 proposed to elaborate such taxonomy in cooperation with experts of leading networks (e.g. IEA Bioenergy, Bioenergy Europe, ePURE, EBA, etc.) and considering the work already done by the EU Technical Experts Group on Sustainable Finance.
Renewable heating and the role of biomass in this is another field of activity of WG4. A dialogue with ETIP Renewable Heating and Cooling - RHC has been established, to cooperate on as a joint communication on biobased heat during 2020. A new webinar of WG4 is scheduled for 14 May 2020, where, among other topics, the members will have an exchange on the group inputs to the upcoming delegated act on deforestation, LULUCF and trade (under preparation by the European Commission).
INNOVATION FUND UPDATES: INEA CALL FOR EXPERTS
As of mid-2020, INEA is expected to be entrusted with the implementation of the grant component of the Innovation Fund. The Innovation Fund, which is the successor of the NER 300 programme, has the objective of supporting innovative low-carbon technologies across all Member States in taking off and reaching the market.
It will finance projects in energy-intensive industries, innovative renewables, energy storage and carbon capture, use, and storage. The Innovation Fund, which for the period 2020 to 2030 may amount to about 10 billion € depending on the carbon price, will focus on highly innovative technologies and big flagship projects with European added value which can bring on significant emission reductions.
The Innovation Fund will be a key funding instrument for delivering on the EU’s commitments made under the Paris Agreement and achieving the European Commission’s strategic vision of a climate neutral Europe by 2050. Its importance is also recognised in the European Green Deal communication and the European Sustainable Investment Plan.
The European Commission now aims to launch the first call for project proposals in summer 2020, followed by regular calls until 2030. As a result, DG CLIMA and INEA are now launching a call for expert evaluators to register via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal expert database for assignments in connection with the Innovation Fund.
Experts should have a background in one or more of these areas: Renewable energy: wind, solar (PV / CSP), geothermal, bioenergy, ocean etc.; Carbon capture, utilisation and storage; Industries covered under the Emission Trading System. Potential evaluators can now register via the European Commission's expert database.
Further info: https://ec.europa.eu/inea/en/innovation-fund/sign-expert
About ETIP Bioenergy
The European Technology and Innovation Platform Bioenergy (ETIP Bioenergy) is an industry-led stakeholder platform that brings together relevant actors from academia, industry, and civil society, engaged in the development of sustainable bioenergy and competitive biofuel technologies. ETIP Bioenergy aims to contribute to the development of cost-competitive, innovative world-class bioenergy and biofuel value chains, to the creation and strengthening of a healthy European bioenergy industry and to accelerate the sustainable deployment of bioenergy in the EU, through a process of guidance, prioritisation and promotion of research, technology development and demonstration. ETIP Bioenergy has the role to represent the unbiased, united, and consolidated view of the biofuels and bioenergy industry in Europe.
|
|
This project has received funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 825179