Bioenergy – a critical part of the path to carbon neutrality
The triennial conference (29 November – 9 December 2021) was held in a series of online sessions. The central theme was the role of biomass in the transition to a carbon neutral society. Task 40 was represented with presentations and moderation in 4 sessions, see the recordings and presentations in detail below:
- Ric Hoefnagels and Fabian Schipfer each gave a presentation in the session Setting up regional biohubs to enhance biomass mobilisation,
- Uwe Fritsche contributed to and moderated the session Green Gas perspectives,
- Olle Olsson reported in the session Biomass and renewable heat and
- Christiane Hennig addressed the topic BECCUS and Flexibility in the session Bioenergy’s contribution to low-carbon energy systems.
Workshop Series – Beyond REDII Biomass
This workshop series is organised by the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP – https://sbp-cert.org/), the European Technology and Innovation Platform Bioenergy (ETIP Bioenergy – https://www.etipbioenergy.eu/) and IEA Bioenergy.
The impending implementation of REDII by Member States and the recently launched review of REDII raises the profile of woody biomass in achieving climate goals as well as how sustainability of biomass should be defined and applied in practice. In parallel with the policy discussion and its evolution, biomass producers and forest owners strive to deliver legal and sustainable biomass (‘good biomass’) to EU Member States.
This series of online workshops is aimed at key stakeholders and contributes to the dialogue on how sustainable biomass is defined, what REDII implementation looks like in practice and how to ensure good biomass is supplied and used in a way that contributes to climate goals.
The full workshops series is as follows:
- Online workshop 1: Ongoing developments in EU Member States and the role of REDII 5 October 2020
- Online workshop 2: Biomass supply from in- and outside the EU 19 October 2020
- Online workshop 3: How to ensure that using biomass maintains and protects biodiversity 9 November 2020
- Online workshop 4: Carbon, forests and climate impacts of woody biomass 30 November 2020 from 15.00-18.00 CET.
- Online workshop 5: Social impacts of woody biomass 20 January 2021 from 15.00-18.00 CET.
The recordings of the workshops can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl6P0usL9uGAQiq5CRQEV6w
IEA Bioenergy Task 40 Webinar – “Deployment of Bioenergy combined with Carbon Capture and Storage or Utilisation (BECCS/U)”
16 June 2020 (Poster)
This webinar presents the findings of the report:“Deployment of BECCS/U value chains” –Technological pathways, policy options and business models
This report focuses on the potential and challenges associated with deploying BECCS systems and value chains in the near to medium term. It provides a brief overview of different technological options for capture, transport and storage of CO2, and offers insights into how BECCS business models could be set up. Furthermore the role of public policy in this setting is discussed, and how bioenergy with carbon capture and utilization (BECCU) could play a role in enabling BECCS deployment.
Some conclusions:
- Bioethanol production facilities are a particularly low-hanging fruit because of the high concentrations of CO2 available for capture. Applications in pulp and paper mills also show promise thanks to substantial CO2 concentrations and availability of excess heat that can be used in the capture processes. In addition, there are BECCS pilot and demonstration projects under development in both power stations (using wood pellets) and in waste-to-energy facilities.
- In terms of transportation and storage infrastructure of captured CO2, these will most likely be shared among CCS systems irrespective of whether the source of CO2 is fossil or biogenic.
- Actual deployment of BECCS will require public policy interventions at several levels. There is a need for financing to de-risk and/or co-finance industrial investments in large-scale demonstration facilities. In addition, there needs to be a policy mechanism in place that rewards negative emissions.
- Technological obstacles to near to medium-term deployment of BECCS systems are likely not prohibitive. However, the policy measures required to incentivize the demonstration, deployment and operation of BECCS value chains are currently largely absent.
Click here to view webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/
28/29 November 2019, Leipzig, Germany
The second physical meeting of the task members was held in Leipzig at the DBFZ. It was a successful exchange, an update of the projects and further networking activities with colleagues from the DBFZ and a Japanese delegation. At the end of the meeting a visit of a waste wood biomass power plant was organized.
IEA Task 40 / 43 / 44 / 45 Joined Workshop
25 November 2019 Berlin, Germany
“Roles of bioenergy technologies in energy system pathways towards a WB2/SDG world”
IEA Bioenergy Task 40 Webinar – Future Prospects for Wood Pellet Markets (Poster)
13 November 2019
This webinar presents the findings of the report “Margin potential for a long-term sustainable wood pellet supply chain”.
Wood pellets are well-established in residential heat and large-scale industrial (power) markets, and existing supply can deliver wood pellets at reasonable prices. Yet, given the competition with other renewables (solar, wind), and building efficiency in the longer-term, wood pellet markets are under price pressure, and actually could shrink in the near future, specially for co-firing in powerplants.
The report showed that:
- further technology development can reduce wood pellet costs along (international) supply chains significantly, and
- can broaden the feedstock base to low-cost material (e.g. bagasse, wood wastes), while
- torrefaction can, compared to traditional white pellets, improve energy, GHG and cost performance of long-distance supply, allowing for widespread applications.
In case studies, future options for pellets were explored (high-temperature industrial heat, steelmaking, BECCS/U), and it was shown that potential exists there, allowing to help achieving the Paris Agreements and the SDGs, especially if adequate CO2 prices are introduced in energy markets.
Click here to view webinar – http://cif-ifc.adobeconnect.com/pnajaxe5cjiy/
IEA Bioenergy Webinar – Biomass Pretreatment Options to Diversify the Resource Base
25 April 2019
An increased demand for biomass means that greater mobilisation of biomass resources will be required to meet market needs. The availability of biomass has been addressed in many studies and may be limited by various environmental, economic, logistical, technical or policy factors. The breadth of suitable biomass feedstocks can be expanded by pretreating otherwise marginal-quality materials to improve their energy content, chemical composition or physical properties. This webinar presents the results of an IEA Bioenergy intertask project that focused on opportunities for biomass pretreatment. It shows how currently available pretreatment technologies and technologies under development can help the supply chains for available solid biomass resources for thermochemical conversion. Five carefully selected case studies describe key options for pretreatment of solid biomass resources for energy generation, including their costs, effectiveness and commercial status.
Click here to view webinar including discussion and questions (please note that you will be redirected to the website IEA Bioenergy).
Download presentation FINAL_Intertask fuel pretreatment
Perception and Positions of Stakeholders Towards Bioenergy
5 February 2019
Perceptions and positions of stakeholders towards bioenergy vary widely, depending amongst others on the
type of feedstock used, conversion technology and end-use, regional settings etc. In this webinar, we first
present the viewpoints and positions of international stakeholders based on insights from over 200
questionnaire responses (on topics such as awareness, barriers, challenges, drivers and conditions to gain
support for the bioenergy sector), two roundtables and 11 dedicated interviews with international stakeholders
in the biobased economy such as DSM, RSB, Bioenergy Europe and Greenpeace. We then briefly present the
results from several regional case studies, and provide recommendations on how to engage more successfully
with a broad range of stakeholders so that policies and sustainability governance are perceived as legitimate
and help build-up social capital, trust, and support among all stakeholders. Lastly, we outline how this work will be continued in IEA Bioenergy in the coming years.
Click here to view webinar including discussion and questions (please note that you will be redirected to the website IEA Bioenergy).
Download presentation – IEA Bioenergy Webinar. O3 Intertask sustainability project 5 Feb 2019 Final
Stockholm, Sweden 27 February -1 March 2019
The kick-off meeting, the first meeting in the new triennium, took place in Stockholm, organised by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Since many projects will be worked on in the future as so-called intertask projects in joint working groups consisting of members of different tasks, Tasks 40 and the newly founded Tasks 44 and 45 met together in Stockholm.
The first steps were discussed, time and work plans were established.
Event 2018
International Workshop: Future perspectives of bioenergy development in Asia – September 2018
IEA Bioenergy has organized a workshop in cooperation with NEDO / METI with support from the REI in Japan on potential technical and organizational improvements to biomass supply chains, including pre-treatment technologies, bio-refineries, logistics/trade, final conversion/end-use and overarching topics such as sustainability assurance frameworks and policy support options. This workshop on the one hand provides such technical information to Asian member countries, but also information on the activities of IEA Bioenergy to support the decision making process for membership. The target group for the workshop therefore consists of industrial stakeholders as well as policy makers, academics and local biomass associations.
Workshop programme can be found here
The workshop summary can also find here
The presentations in the workshop can be found at:
https://www.ieabioenergy.com/publications/international-workshop-future-perspectives-of-bioenergy-development-in-asia/
Sustainability and governance of bioenergy supply chains – May 2018
The aims of this side event are two-fold:
- To share project results of the work carried out on governance and stakeholder involvement with an audience from industry, policy, science, and civil society.
- To discuss existing and new approaches for governance – the way forward.
Event 2017
1 December: WEBINAR – The Hotspots of the Global Wood Pellet Industry and Trade 2017
IEA Bioenergy invites you to participate in the international webinar presented by Daniela Thrän, Kay Schaubach, Fabian Schipfer, Martin Junginger, and Michael Wild.
This webinar will be held on Friday, December 1, 2017 at 9:30 am Eastern Time / 3:30 pm Central European Time / 2:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For more information and a description of the webinar, please see the attached poster.
Our e-Lectures are delivered through the Adobe®Connect™ web conferencing software. This means that the presentation file will be broadcast through the webinar platform.
Login instructions are provided below. If required, please consult the attached PDF file which includes additional step by step instructions. Newer version of the webinar platform may prompt for download of a new add-in.
To participate, you will need a computer with stable internet access. If you will not have access to the internet, please consult the PDF Manual for dial-in options and/or contact us so we can provide you with the presentation file to follow along.
Follow the instructions below to participate:
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How to Join
10-15 minutes prior to the session:
Option 1: Web-only login – Connecting through the Internet (Recommended)
>Select “Enter as a GUEST”, type your full name and then click “Enter Room”
- New version of the AdobeConnect may prompt for download of new add-in. Follow the instructions on screen to install.
- When prompted select “Listen Only” on the bottom right corner of the message box
- Ensure that your computer speakers and sound are enabled
- All questions can be directed towards the chat pod during the Q&A session.
Option 2: Phone + Web login (Alternative option for poor internet connection)
- Dial: international toll free number for your country
- Enter access code 3464858#
- Attached is a list with International toll free numbers and toll numbers with your country’s corresponding dial-in information (*Numbers may be subject to change)
- Continue to follow Web-only login steps above
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Enjoy the lecture!
For additional information, please contact:
Canadian Institute of Forestry
E-mail: electures@cif-ifc.org
Phone: +1 705-744-1715 Ext.630
Enterprise – Pragmatic international foll free numbers
18-19 May: The international workshop Sustainability of bioenergy supply chains was organised at Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel, Södra Hamngatan 59, Gothenburg, Sweden. Abtract of presentations could be found here. If you are interested in the workshop presentations, please follow the link below for more details: http://itp-sustainable.ieabioenergy.com/iea-publications/.
14 March: Welcome to join us on an international webinar The European Wood Pellet For Small-Scaling Heating by Fabian Schipfer and Task 40 representatives.
More information please click to the instruction and dial numbers to join us!
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Events 2016
I. 6th Annual USIPA Exporting Conference, November 6-8, 2016, Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, USA
Task 40 breakfast session: Overview of current developments in the wood pellet industry and market
Daniela Thrän presented the Overview of current developments in the wood pellet industry and market which is the most popular topic among Task 40 readers. The US indicates the highest global production of 6.8 Mt in 2014 which is mainly for export whilst Germany is the country with highest production in Europe, 2.2 Mt but one third of its production is for domestic consumption. In general, Europe still demonstrates the highest production region and there are quality standards ENplus for wood pellet. In addition, Thrän introduced another Task 40 study on The European wood pellet market for small-scale heating, the results showed that Italy is the main importing country whilst Austria has the largest uni-directional trade and Germany indicates the strongest bi-directional trade of the small-scale heating sector.
Michael Wild continued the section on The future role of processed pellets and torrefaction technologies. Torrefaction shows a number of advantages such as high volumetric energy densification, limited or no biodegradation of product when stored, significant cost savings in logistics and large variety of applications in power, process heat and heating . He underlined that a large number of torrefaction developers around the world are active producing almost identical product following ISO 17225-8TS and some torrefied products are already available to be used not only in coal power plants but in various sectors such as iron and steel, chemical and pulp and paper. Market of torrefied products has just begun its growing path and volumes will continue to increase.
Issues of sustainability requirements for wood pellets as well as standards for torrefied products have received interests from workshop attendees. The presenters answered that there are defined sustainability criteria for wood pellets in the EU and standards such as water residence of torrefied pellets are being developed and tested. Task 40 leader commented that as volume of torrefied pellets are still small, it should be measured and controlled to avoid risks in logistics. Another Task 40 member mentioned that Asia market is promising, especially Japan for torrefied products. The presentation will be shared with USIPA attendees and Task 40 subscribers.
II. International Wood Biorefining Week, Stockholm, Sweden, 24-26 May 2016
The International Wood Biorefining Week (IWB) is the leading international event for the woodbased biorefining industries. Several parallel conference tracks focus on bioenergy and biobased products and innovations. The conference hosted a large number of interesting speakers speaking on four parallel conference tracks. Among the speakers were specialists from the forest industry as well as other manufacturing industries with an interest in biobased products. During the first day there was a common opening ceremony followed by a session focusing on the biomass markets.
Task 40 members presented in the session Sustainable and Intelligent Bioeconomy. Lena Bruce (Sveaskog, Sweden) gave a presentation on The Forest Resource for the Bioeconomy whilst Patrick Lamers (Idaho National Laboratory, US) discussed about Developing the Global Bioeconomy – Technical, Market and Environmental lessons from Bioenergy. Olle Olsson (Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden), presented his study with Task 40 colleagues on Cascading of Wood Biomass – Principles, Policies and Effects on Market and Trade.
III. Workshop: Technical Requirements for Torrefied Biomass, Rotterdam 25-26 January 2016
These workshops, co-organised by IBTC and Task 40 with the support of AEBIOM, are a unique opportunity for participants to develop a better understanding of fuel requirements and fuel possibilities in terms of sourcing, processing and consumption of biomass – to allow adjustments on both ends, resulting in an increase of biomass traded for energy.
The workshops will be organised as “Open Space” events, a highly effective method to facilitate self-organised group discussions. It strongly encourages interaction and it is an ideal way to set the scene for a complex topic. A lively discussion shall trigger a better understanding of the market needs and help the product to fulfill them. It will also support the establishment of a network of cooperation.
Who should attend? Torrefied biomass fuel producers, boiler manufacturers, gasification companies, heating and cooling equipment suppliers, logistics companies, biomass traders and many more. The workshop on the 25th targets professionals interested in small to medium applications while the workshop on the 26th concerns industrial applications such as co-firing in pulverised coal boilers. For full programmes and more information click here