European Bio-Energy Projects

ECHAINE Challenges
Objectives
The future development of bioenergy in
Europe depends to a large extent on
the availability of resources and their
possible impacts on the environment.
The fast growing market for wood energy
and other renewables in Europe in recent
years have already raised questions about
their influence on the environment. Some
of these resources are already available
in the physical form of residues from
agriculture and forestry as well as from
their related industries. Most of the bark
could be used internally in the forest
industry for energy purposes. Increasing
quantities of other by-products, mainly
sawdust, are used for the production
of pellets, briquettes and powder for energy
purposes. The marketable quantity
of recycled wood and other waste
materials is increasing for fuel purposes.
One important aspect is that the
assessment of these potentials in the
appraisal of these resources plays a part
in the setting of targets and limits for their
practical utilisation. Another important
aspect is public opinion – how can the
acceptability of renewables be improved?
There are several other factors to take
into account, e.g. noise, visual intrusion,
environmental concerns and even other
non-technical obstacles.
Energy wood production
chains in Europe
The main goal of the project is: to provide data
and deal with the key issues in the identification
and evaluation of economical and environmentally
and socially friendly supply chains for utilisation
of energy wood sources for heat/power
production. The main problems to be solved
are: 1) Optimisation of energy wood utilisation
chains; 2) Reducing production costs of energy;
3) Improving the systems environmental
friendliness; 4) Improving public acceptability
of renewables and sustainable development;
5) Creation of market opportunities; and 6) Use
of new ICTs.
Project structure
To reach the above-mentioned goals, 11 work
packages have been targeted as follows: WP1
will detail administrative and scientific coordination
of the project. WP2 is designed to
cover the public dissemination and commercialisation
of project results. Dissemination also
includes the setting up of an innovative
educational web-based tool (ICT). In WP3, socioeconomic,
environmentally friendly production
chains of energy wood are identified and
evaluated. In WP4, the environmental/ecological
impacts associated with the most promising
energy wood production chains are identified
and the impacts recorded. In WP5, socioeconomic,
environmentally friendly production
technology for heat and power production using
energy wood is identified and evaluated. In WP6,
the environmental/ecological impacts associated
with the most promising technologies for energy
wood utilisation for heat and power production
are identified and the impacts recorded. WP7
deals with identifying, describing, and evaluating
the most important socio-economic barriers that
hamper the acceptance of wood for energy
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production and utilisation. The market structure
and policy issues of the energy wood supply
chains in the participating countries will also be
investigated. WP8 is used for energy and emergy
analysis of the energy wood production and
utilisation. In WP9, available quantities of energy
wood in a medium-time horizon, around ten
years, are determined under different socioeconomic
and ecological considerations. In
WP10, a life-cycle analysis will be carried out for
the energy wood utilisation chains. WP11 deals
with the new information and communication
technologies (ICTs, GIS, web, etc.) and their
relevance for energy wood production chains.
The project will be carried out by an international
team comprising members from nine European
countries (Sweden, Finland, Germany, Portugal,
Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Bulgaria and
Romania), three of which are from the associated
countries (Bulgaria, Romania and Switzerland).
The team members offer a wide range of
knowledge, covering the whole production chain
“from the raw material source to the chimney”.
The ECHAINE project has a multi-disciplinary
approach and covers several disciplines (e.g.
systems analysis, LCA, energy and emergy
analysis, systems ecology, socio-economics,
management, techniques, ecology, economics,
etc.). Data for analyses are collected from
field experiments, research reports, and
interviews with farmers, forest owners, contractor
companies, and citizens and, to some extent,
from experiences and studies of machinery
prototypes. We will also use a Geographical
Information System (GIS) to join the spatial data
generated in different studies in the project.