European Bio-Energy Projects

ECHI-T Challenges
Objectives
The project aims to demonstrate the
feasibility of sweet sorghum cultivation for
the renewable and sustainable production
of transport fuels (bio-ethanol, and even
bio-hydrogen and bio-methanol), energy
(electricity and heat) and other products
(such as animal feed, pulp for paper,
charcoal, activated coal, etc.) in Europe
and abroad. During the project, a detailed
technical, economic and financial study on
an Integrated Bioenergy Complex based on
sweet sorghum was performed, the main
goal being to define the plant configuration
and logistics, from biomass receipt to
product supply: three possible sites were
selected, two in The People’s Republic of
China and one in Italy. Also, a preliminary
environmental impact assessment and an
evaluation of the socio-economic benefits
(i.e. job creation) were carried out. Finally,
the results achieved in the project were
summarised in a comprehensive brochure,
with the aim of disseminating the
information to target groups in China and
the European Union.
Large-scale production
of bio-ethanol from sweet
sorghum
The main issue addressed by the project is to
increase the technical knowledge about ethanol
production from sweet sorghum; the alcohol
production, in fact, is usually obtained (in Brazil
and Europe) from sugar beet, so there is a
general lack of know-how on its production from
sweet sorghum. The cultivation of this dedicated
crop is common in China, thus providing the
necessary skills to carry out the project. The
other main issue in the project concerns
consideration of the fact that the processing of
sweet sorghum can be done using existing
commercial technologies, but the application of
these technologies to this crop is very innovative
and research activity is needed. Furthermore,
the integrated processing of an energy crop
into several products with high added value (e.g.
chemicals) has not been implemented to date.
Project structure
A variety of knowledge in energy and agriculture,
industrial experience and several technologies for
defining the proposed innovative commercial
bioenergy complex is the novelty factor of the
proposed project. The objective of the feasibility
study for the projects in Italy and China is, in fact,
the definition of each single step needed to
implement the bioenergy system: first, the
selection of the sweet sorghum varieties for
bio-ethanol production; secondly, analysis of the
entire chain from the harvesting to the supply of
the feedstock for the production of bioethanol,
combined heat and power and other products;
finally, identification of the best configurations for
the three sites, the related economic analysis,
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the ‘project-financing plan’, and assessment of
the environmental impact and of the main legal
issues. Therefore, the implementation of such
a project requires a large number of partners to
make an all-inclusive feasibility study possible:
13 partners from six countries and three
continents participated in this two-year project:
The project comprises 14 tasks:
1. Identification of sweet sorghum seeds;
evaluation of productivity
2. Preliminary configuration of the three
complexes
3. Preliminary identification of technologies
4. Study of logistics
5. Evaluation of sweet sorghum production
cost and co-products value
6. Techno-economic assessment of the
cogeneration plant
7. Preliminary study of the bio-ethanol plant
8. Techno-economic assessment of the DDG
(Distillers’ Dried Grains) plant
9. General layout of the three complexes
10. Economics of the three complexes
11. Environmental impact analysis of the three
complexes
12. Project financing plan
13. Identification of legal aspects; market analysis
14. Dissemination of results