EBTP Newsletter 25
September 2016
1. Editorial
EBTP becomes ETIP Bioenergy
This is the 25th and final newsletter of the European Biofuels Technology Platform (EBTP)!
As announced in the newsletter from April, EBTP is in transition to the European Technology and Innovation Platform Bioenergy - in short ETIP Bioenergy. The EC-funded project in support of EBTP activities, EBTP-SABS, ended on 31 August 2016. This has terminated also the involvement of CPL Press which, in the persons of Jim Coombs, Roger Coombs and Katy Hall, has taken excellent care of the EBTP website and dissemination activities over the past 10 years. Also Britta Müller, in charge of EBTP at FNR over the past three years, will look for new challenges after the end of the project. Thank you all for your contributions and commitment!
With the move to ETIP Bioenergy, the focus of our activities will not only broaden to innovative bioenergy in general, in addition:
- Representatives of new stakeholder groups such as the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) and the biomass panel of the Renewable Heating and Cooling ETIP will join the Steering Committee.
- The European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative (EIBI) of the SET-Plan will be integrated into our activities.
- EU Member State experts will become actively involved in the Advisory Board of ETIP Bioenergy.
This should allow more cooperative discussions with the Member States where strategic advice will be delivered by the ETIP Bioenergy. The new Terms of Reference of ETIP Bioenergy describe the scope, objectives and structure in more detail:
Download the Terms of Reference of ETIP Bioenergy »
Feedback Questionnaire - Contribute to the future of ETIP Bioenergy
ETIP Bioenergy will be supported by an EU funded project, ETIP Bioenergy SABS (support to advanced bioenergy stakeholders) which commenced on 1 September 2016. ETIP Bioenergy SABS will strive to keep the strengths of the EBTP support and to improve the weaknesses - your feedback and input will be crucial for the success of new activities!
We welcome your contribution to the future of ETIP Bioenergy:
Click here to complete the Public and Stakeholder Feedback Questionnaire »
2. Internal Issues
Steering Committee and Working Group Chairs and Members
The Chair of the EBTP/ETIP Bioenergy Steering Committee (SC), Tomas Kåberger, stepped down at the end of the last SC meeting on 22 June 2016. Possible SC Chair candidates shall be discussed during the next meeting on 11 October 2016. The SC decided that until then, Ingvar Landälv (acting chair) and Markku Karlsson (vice chair) will represent the EBTP/ETIP board.
The European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) and the Biomass Panel of the ETIP Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC) are invited to nominate one SC member each. Both initiatives were presented in the SC meeting by Berta Matas Güell (EERA) and Jean-Marc Jossart (RHC). Both will nominate a candidate of their organization within the next weeks. The candidate will be formally elected during the next SC meeting.
The chair and vice chair of Working Group 2 “Conversion technologies”, Kai Sipilä, and Pierre Porot, are searching for successors as they have to resign due to job changes and personal reasons. Candidates will be searched among the WG members, but other applications are welcome!
Contact the EBTP/ETIP Secretariat for more information - secretariat@biofuelstp.eu
3. EBTP Activities
Summer 2016 Key Achievements
Three key achievements can be communicated over the last 4 months:
- After consultation the EBTP Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda 2016 (SRIA) was published in June 2016. The aim of this update is to present most significant recent evolutions of relevance to biofuels and to highlight corresponding R&D&D priorities since the publication of the last SRA in 2010. Thank you for all the contributions and comments!
EBTP Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda 2016 (SRIA) (7.5 Mb) - The 7th Stakeholder Plenary Meeting of EBTP (SPM7) was held on 21 June 2016 in Brussels with a focus on the role of biofuels towards 2030 as an essential decarbonisation option. More background and all presentations for download can be found here. A consolidated document is also available:
Consolidated Report from SMP7 (25 Mb) - At the request of the European Commission, EBTP contributed to the discussion in the frame of “Towards an Integrated SET-Plan: Accelerating the European Energy System Transformation”. EBTP responded to an Issue Paper on Action 8: Strengthen market take-up of renewable fuels needed for sustainable transport solutions of the SET-Plan Communication [PDF].
The EBTP input paper version 2 (295 Kb - June 2016)
2016 EBTP Factsheets
New EBTP fact sheets published in 2016 aim to provide the public with understandable information on innovative biofuels technologies and processes. The EBTP-SABS team has added to the the existing factsheets on the various biofuels, with an array of new factsheets.
These cover:
- production facilities
- key EIBI biofuel value chains, indicating which technologies are applied by companies
- country fact sheets providing a short overview of biofuels in 10 countries
The target group are people who are familiar with biofuels and have some scientific knowledge, but are not technical experts.
Click on the links below to download the EBTP Factsheets:
Set of 5 EBTP Biofuels Factsheets (1030 Kb - February 2016)
Set of 3 EBTP Production Facility Factsheets (1058 Kb - April 2016)
Set of 7 EBTP Value Chain Factsheets (1093 Kb - August 2016)
Set of 10 EBTP Country Factsheets (1484 Kb - August 2016)
4. EU Legislation & Activities
A European Strategy for low-emission mobility
On 20 July 2016, the European Commission presented a package of measures to accelerate the transition to low-carbon emissions in all sectors of the economy in Europe. This included a strategy for a low-emission mobility where advanced biofuels will have to play an important role. More background can be found by clicking on the link below:
News (20/07/2016) A European Strategy for low-emission mobility »
EU system for the certification of sustainable biofuels
On 21 July, the European Court of Auditors published a special report “The EU system for the certification of sustainable biofuels” and criticized weaknesses in recognition and supervision of systems on the market:
Special report No 18/2016: The EU system for the certification of sustainable biofuels »
This newsletter is produced on behalf of the EBTP by the EBTP-SABS project team, funded under FP7. The broad aim of EBTP-SABS is to enhance communciations and networking among Advanced Biofuels Stakeholders from research, industry, government, NGOs, feedstocks production, end use and related areas in all European countries.
The contents of this newsletter are copyright © EBTP-SABS 2016
Important Disclaimer
The content of this newsletter cannot be considered as the European Commission’s official position and neither the European Commission, EBTP-SABS, EBTP nor any person acting on
behalf of these organisation is responsible for the use which might be made of it. Although EBTP-SABS
endeavours to deliver a high level of
service, no guarantee can be given on the correctness or completeness of the content of this newsletter and neither the European Commission, EBTP nor EBTP-SABS are responsible or may be held accountable for any loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the content of this newsletter.