Summary of the 19th European Biomass Conference & Exhibition

Berlin – The 19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, this year’s premium event for the entire range of bioenergy, has concluded. Right after the German decision to phase-out of nuclear power generation, Renewable Energies become important in all their variety. The Closing Session was led by Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, and one of the Technical Program Coordinators. He stated: “The conference confirmed that biomass energy increases pace in R & D and deployment. The 2020 Renewable energy policy goals will be met by Bio-energy, and we expect even more dynamics by the new German ‘Energiewende’.”

Chairman of the 19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition was Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Faulstich, Chairman of the German Advisory Council on the Environment of the German Government, Head of Institute of Resources and Energy Technology at the Technische Universität München and Managing Director Straubing Center of Science. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Faulstich: “Biomass is a renewable raw material with diverse applications. Biomass as safe and reliable energy source can contribute to solve two of the most important challenges humanity is facing: climate change and energy supply. The decisive advantage is the neutral CO2 balance, if biomass is used in an environmentally sustainable way.”

During the Opening Session of the Conference international experts in the biomass sector took the opportunity to present their point of view concerning the role of biomass: Jean-Paul Malingreau, EC Joint Research Centre, brought the message from the European Commission: “Bioenergy represents a large opportunity for Europe. It will be a critical factor in securing our energy supply.” Paul Bryan, Biomass Program Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy: “The United States and Europe have many common challenges. The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard calls for the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, of which at least 21 billion gallons will be advanced biofuels that reduce GHG emissions by at least 50% relative to petroleum fuels.” Dr. Wolfgang Palz, World Council for Renewable Energy, spoke on the contribution of bioenergy to a 100% renewable energy strategy: “Bioenergy should play a privileged role as – unlike Solar- and Wind energy – it is not intermittent in nature and available on demand anytime.”

The European Biomass Conference ranked on top level of the world's leading events in the biomass sector. 262 plenary lectures and oral presentations and 540 visual poster presentations had been held during the conference week, covering the large scale of biomass. The associated Exhibition had shown the newest products in the biomass sector. The discussions basically focused on current topics like the duplication of bio energy in the States of the European Union, the second generation of biomass fuel, the manufacture of algae and further. The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) is co-funding the 19th European Biomass Conference based on an act of the German Parliament in the framework of the National Climate Initiative.

Rising interest in the potential of algae as energy crops

Three large scale 10 hectare demonstration projects of algae as biofuel feedstock were presented in the opening plenary session on June 8. Funded under the 7th Framework program, All Gas, InteSusAl and Biofat, have a total budget of €31 million with a European Commission grant of €21 million to carry out research and demonstration work during the next four years. A project from the Structural Funds Interreg IVB program, EnAlgae was also presented with a budget of €14.5 million aiming to create a network of six pilot scale algae culture facilities across North West Europe.

Vattenfall plans large increases

Vattenfall has the ambition to reduce its CO2 emissions from the current 90 million tons per year to 65 million tons by 2020. The use of biomass is a corner stone of Vattenfall’s strategy to achieve this target; indeed the company’s growth plan foresees a fivefold increase in the use of biomass by 2015 and a tenfold increase by 2020. Vattenfall and the Senate of Berlin recently signed an agreement for using only sustainably sourced biomass.

EUBIA Industry Award for Vattenfall

The Biomass Industry Leaders Forum was organized by the European Biomass Industry Association (EUBIA) in the framework of the European Biomass Conference and Exhibition. During the event, Vattenfall was honored with the EUBIA Industry Award for its strong effort to introduce biomass on a large scale in their cogeneration plants and also co-firing in coal plants. Vattenfall currently uses more than 3 million tons of biomass every year in more than 40 heat and power plants.

Multiple investment and cooperation opportunities in advanced bioenergy projects promoted by Canadian delegation A trade mission brought ten Canadian executives with a multitude of lucrative bioenergy projects looking for investment partnerships to a special business-to-business session. Projects offered ran from small to large scale including bio refineries from canola seeds, pyrolysis oil and char from wood residues, a technology that produces densified, energy-rich wood pellets and biodiesel under the same roof, and a uniquely efficient torrefaction process.

German Day on Biomass

On Thursday, 9th June 2011, crucial questions on the challenges of biomass in the different fields of biomass end use in Germany had been discussed with more than 100 participants. “We can cover the electrical demand with renewable energies in Germany by 2050”, said Jochen Flasbart, President of the Federal Environment Agency. With the implementation and the advancement of renewable energy in Germany, Biomass is increasingly accepted as a green energy source. In the discussion about sustainability energy, the use of biomass has to be considered under new conditions. The implementation of certification systems for biofuels is a first step to control the production of this green energy source.

Johannes Linneborn Prize

The “Johannes Linneborn Prize” for Achievements in Biomass Development was awarded to Professor Kai Sipilä, Vice President Strategic Energy Research, Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). The prize is awarded him for his leadership in development of biomass conversion technologies and for promoting biomass as a sustainable energy source within Finland, in many aspects a forerunner country in biomass, in the European Union and worldwide for more than 25 years. Trained as a chemical engineer at the Helsinki University of technology in Finland in his career he acquired impressive abilities for process development showing creative and practical solutions like in the combined combustion/pyrolysis process of VTT which drew a lot of attention.

Event Background of the EU BC&E

For over 30 years now, the European Biomass Conference and Exhibition (European BC&E) has combined a very renowned international Scientific Conference with an Industry Exhibition. Since 2007 the Conference and Exhibition takes place every year. The European BC&E is held at different venues throughout Europe and ranks on top of the world's leading events in the Biomass sector.

This event is supported by European and international organizations such as the European Commission, BMU the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Natural Sciences Sector, WCRE - the World Council for Renewable Energy, EUBIA - the European Biomass Industry Association, the German biomass energy use program and other organizations. The Conference is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety based on an act of the German Parliament in the framework of the National Climate Initiative. The 19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition is organized by WIP-Renewable Energies with the international support of ETA-Florence Renewable Energies and the scientific support of the European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre.