European Bio-Energy Projects

BIOENERGY
CHAINS
Objectives
The overall objective of this project is to
define and evaluate complete bioenergy
chains from biomass production to
thermochemical conversion for the
production of valuable energy products.
Four energy crops, Arundo donax (giant
reed), Cynara cardunculus (cardoon),
Miscanthus x giganteus (miscanthus) and
Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) will be
cultivated in small and large fields in
Greece, Spain, Italy and France. The crops
have been carefully selected to provide a
year-round availability of raw material.
Each crop will be fully characterised and
subjected to a comprehensive test
programme of combustion, gasification and
fast pyrolysis. The complete chains will be
evaluated in technical, environmental and
economic terms in order to identify the
most promising combinations of biomass
resources and technologies.
Bioenergy chains
from perennial crops
in South Europe
Challenges
In the whole bioenergy chain – biomass
production, processing and conversion
–considerable time and funds have been spent
to date on research solely for biomass production
or energy conversion processes. Little attention
has been paid to measuring and evaluating the
performance of energy crops (perennial or
annual) in an integrated bioenergy chain. The use
of a mixture of crops offers the potential for a
year-round operation without the need to store
large quantities of materials, while feeding
systems developed for energy crops and related
materials would be capable of handling a wide
range of materials with comparable handling
characteristics.
Laboratory tests on the different stages of
handling, pretreating and processing these less
commonly processed materials are an essential
first step towards the development and evaluation
of integrated systems, particularly for comparing
performance on these materials with performance
criteria derived from more orthodox biomass
forms such as wood. Measures of product yield
and product quality are particularly important.
Project structure
Five work packages have been scheduled. WP1
will address the whole biomass production chain
of the four selected perennial crops. WP2 will
address the thermochemical conversion
processes, covering fuel characterisation and
multifuelled tests of combustion, pyrolysis and
gasification of the raw material produced in
WP1. A financial/economic assessment of the
data collected from the previous work packages
will be accomplished in WP3. The overall
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performance from biomass in the field to a
delivered energy product as heat and or power
will be measured by reference to the component
parts in the chain, starting in the field and
progressing through each stage of handling and
processing. An overall performance model will
be derived to provide consistent comparison
between different bioenergy chains. This will be
complemented in WP4 with an environmental
assessment which will be conducted at all stages
of all bioenergy chains. A list of the best options,
in terms of economic and environmental benefits,
of a combination of biofuels and technology,
will be produced for each country. Finally, the
Work Package 5 (WP5) details the coordination
of the project, dealing with the consortium’s
managerial, exploitation and dissemination
activities.
Expected impact and exploitation
The project will provide technical and economic
evidence on the evaluation of entire bioenergy
chains, and identification of the best options in
terms of resource and technology to reach the
cost targets for 1 500 €/kWe and 0.05 €/kWh
investment and electricity production cost, as
set by the EU.
One of the most important bottlenecks to
achieving the cost targets is the raw material
cost. Among the cost components, storage
comes high on the list, ranging from 0.45 to
22.69 €/odt, depending on the feedstock
and storage type. Through the multicropping
cultivation and successive harvesting, an
80-90% reduction of the storage cost will be
feasible.