European Bio-Energy Projects

Lupine field in the south of Iceland.
BESUB
Objectives
• To ascertain the availability of suitable
biomass, its cost, quality and yields;
• To develop methodology and processes
for extracting high-value bio-chemicals
from green biomass such as sparteine
and its derivatives, lactic acid, and
ethyl lactate and to test-run the production
of these;
• To develop a new continuous
fermentation process for lactic acid;
• To develop a new ethyl-lactate production
process; and
• To select optimal economical processes
and products that contribute to the
biosphere and ashes production in rural
communities.
Sustainable utilisation
of herbaceous biomass
Challenges
The explosive growth of industrial societies in the
last century was achieved through scientific
and technological development and easy access
to cheap energy such as fossil fuels. Social
and environmental imbalances resulted and
employment opportunities were concentrated
in urban centres, bringing about disturbing
pollution concentration and global warming.
Sustainable development, which in political and
public terms means primarily careful resource
management and greater focus on renewable
energy, has become the catchphrase at the
start of the 21st century. To meet this challenge,
the project partners, involved in biorefinery
design for biomass feedstock of grains, grasses,
legumes and straw, decided to engage in the
production of high-value industrial bioproducts for
use as biomass fuels for electricity and heat in
industry; and for local as well as private use
in the form of biogas and biomass fuel, biobased
transportation fuels such as ethanol, and
bio-based biorefinery products like biochemicals
and materials.
Biorefinery
In its overall concept, a biorefinery is a processing
plant in which biomass feedstock is converted
into a spectrum of valuable products with near
zero CO2 emission. Biorefineries are based
upon petrochemical refinery technology and
their development represents a potential key
for the integrated production of food, feed
chemicals, materials, goods, and fuels, as
outlined in figure 1.
Project structure
The composition of the project partnership and
the partners’ respective spheres of activity are
depicted in table 1.
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Project approach
The specific focus of the project is the Alaska
Lupine (Iceland), grasses and Lucerne (Ireland,
Germany). An important reason behind this is the
sparse population of Iceland and the large
expanses of barren land ideal for lupine growing
that could thus be reclaimed to counteract land
erosion which has reached quite serious levels.
The approach adopted is to investigate the most
relevant data needed for the commercial
harvesting of these plants for biomass purposes,
such as sustainability of growing, feasibility of
harvesting, suitability, etc. Special focus will
also be directed towards producing spartein,
which the plant is known to contain in significant
amounts. Spartein has important uses as a
non-polluting natural insecticide. It is also planned
to investigate the use of geothermal energy for
the process. Simultaneously, a special biorefinery
process will be developed for these species.
The project approach is depicted in figure 2.
Expected impact and exploitation
EU member states are encouraged to set their
national guidelines so that minimum levels
reached by biofuels and other renewable energy
resources by the year 2005 amount to 2% and
5.75% by the year 2010, measured on the basis
of energy content as it applies for all petrol and
diesel fuels, see table 2.
The biorefineries proposed are expected to
provide high-tech jobs in rural areas, as well
as income to farmers for producing biomass
feedstock. Small amounts of fertilisers are
envisaged; the refineries will produce biodegradable
pesticides and have about zero CO2
emission. In general, they will yield in total over
100% energy gains. The processes developed will
be licensed to qualified parties, and the products
mainly sold via professional vendors.