Coordinated by the Spanish Biomass Association (AVEBIOM) the overall objective of the 3-year "Developing the sustainable market of residential Mediterranean solid biofuels" (Biomasud Plus) project is to develop integrated solutions to promote a sustainable market for Mediterranean solid biomass fuels in the residential heating sector. As the project nears the end of its implementation period, Pablo Rodero, Project Manager at AVEBIOM recounts on some of the project highlights and deliverables.
Co-funded under the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 programme (H2020 grant agreement no. 691763), the approximately EUR 1.97 million) Biomasud Plus project aims to improve the quality and sustainability certification system for Mediterranean biomass sources such as olive stone and vine pruning that are widely available throughout the Mediterranean region. The 3-year project which started in January 2016 has days left before its official completion date at the end of December 2018.
In short, the project is about identifying and quantifying the availability of different biomass sources in the different regions and assessing the residential heating markets. As boiler manufacturers operate on several markets, there is a need for a fuel standard classification of these fuels and together with sustainability certification of the fuel enable producers to serve both local and regional markets. This approach makes the overall potential market size commercially attractive for both boiler manufacturers and biomass fuel producers, explained Pablo Rodero, Coordinator of Biomasud Plus Manager at AVEBIOM, the coordinating entity.
Apart from AVEBIOM, the project consortium includes Center for Energetic, Environmental and Technological Research – CIEMAT (Spain), Italian Agroforenergy Association – AIEL (Italy), Tübitak Marmara Research Center – Tübitak Man (Turkey), Grupo Tercera Fase Software – TFS (Spain), Biomass Centre for Energy – CBE (Portugal), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas – CERTH (Greece), Slovenian Forestry Institute – SFI (Slovenia), Bios Energiessysteme GmbH (Austria), PEFC Spain, and Green Energy Cooperative – ZEZ (Croatia).
Expanding the scope and geographical reach
In essence, the project is a continuation of two completed EU co-funded projects, BIOmasud (Interreg SUDOE), and BIORAISE GIS respectively.
The former project developed a certification system for olive stone. The aim of Biomasasud Plus is to improve the sustainability certification requirements, expand the BIOmasud certification system to incorporate all Mediterranean countries participating in the project – Croatia, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia Spain and Turkey – as well as extend the BIOMASUD quality and sustainability certification system to important and widely used solid biomass fuels in the residential sector.
Several new biomass feedstock sources have been introduced in the certification system. These include olive pruning, vine shoots, walnut shells and pistachio shells that are regionally available in the Mediterranean area, said Pablo Rodero.
The project consortium has already concluded reviewing the sustainability requirements for the system. Depending on the origins of the different Mediterranean biomass feedstock, they must meet certain requirements. In the pilot audits that are being carried out in the companies, these requirements included in the manual have been tested.
According to Rodero, some 347 Mediterranean biomass samples were collected and characterized for standardization and inclusion in the certification system. The reports regarding the quality characterization and classification have been are published and made available.
The latter project developed a geographical information system (GIS) tool for biomass resources assessment in Southern Europe. The platform provides biomass resources information and exploitation costs, together with energy content and stakeholders databases. Biomasud Plus aims to update and extend the BIORAISE GIS tool to the participant countries and France.
The objective is a quantification of resources for residential heating solid biofuels production, from the field productivities to derive potential biomass resources. This includes availability on the basis of environmental constraints and efficiency in the harvesting processes along with transportation of feedstock to upgrading plants considered in the logistics assessment of the biomass supply chain.
The methodology for calculating energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the production of the different biomass fuels was revised during the first half of the project.
Now it is in line with the one in the recently adopted European Commission proposal for biomass sustainability. An online platform has been created where the carbon footprint can be calculated and the traceability of certified companies can be followed, said Pablo Rodero.
With just days left before the December 31, 2018, official finishing date, the project consortium is busy finishing the final tasks including a guide for manufacturers and installers of biomass boiler units that will use these Mediterranean solid biomass fuels to optimize their combustion. These guides will be translated into all project languages.
Also to be completed are the lessons learned from the pilot audits and update the original Biomasud certification manual accordingly to the definitive version. This certification manual will released to the public once the project is finished, ended Pablo Rodero.
