Biomass and Bioenergy International Energy Agency

‘This article was produced by the Implementing Agreement UPDATE 41 on Bioenergy, which forms part of a programme of international energy technology collaboration undertaken under the auspices of the International Energy Agency.’

News from the Secretariat Term Report prepared by the Secretary received positive comments. This report is available on the IEA Bioenergy website. The new Strategic Plan The 64th meeting of the Executive Committee for the period 2010-2016 was also favourably was held in Liege, on 30 September - 2 received. The Chairman made a presentation October, with Josef Spitzer as Chairman and John at both committee meetings to achieve this Tustin as Secretary. The meeting was hosted by encouraging outcome. the Centre Wallon de Recherches Agronomique (CRA). The Chairman expressed the appreciation ExCo64 Workshop of the ExCo to Yves Schenkel for the excellent A very successful workshop titled ‘Algae – the meeting and study tour arrangements. Some of the Future for Bioenergy?’ was well attended by ExCo outcomes of the meeting are detailed below. Members, Task Leaders, and Observers from Belgium. The presentations made at the workshop Changes in the Executive Committee (listed below) are available on the IEA Bioenergy A new Alternate Member is Ms Martina Ammer, website. Austria and Mr Mihai Tomescu is no longer an • The Promises and Challenges of Algal-derived Alternate Member for the EC. Biofuels - Al Darzins, NREL, USA • Algae for Biofuel Production: Process Election of Chairman and Vice Chairman Description, Lifecycle Assessment and Some Dr Josef Spitzer, the Member for Austria was Information on Costs – Pierpaolo Cazzola, IEA re-elected Chairman and Mr Birger Kerckow, Secretariat, France the Member for Germany was re-elected Vice • Fuel from the Sea? - Michele Stanley, The Scottish Chairman for 2010. Association for Marine Science, Scotland • BIOTREMA - a Collaboration on Biogas - Sten Contracting Parties Björk, Trelleborg Municipality, Sweden Both Korea and Turkey have received formal • Algae Biofuels: Challenges in Scale-up, invitations to join the Implementing Agreement. Productivity and Harvesting - John Benemann, They attended the meeting as Observers. Korea Benemann Associates, USA plans to join Task 39 in 2010 and Task 32 in 2011. • Algae Growing Systems - Peter van den Dorpel, Turkey plans to join Tasks 32, 33, 37 and 42 Algaelink, The Netherlands in 2010. • Microalgae for Production of Biofuels and Bulk Chemicals - René Wijffels, Wageningen Extension of the Implementing Agreement University, The Netherlands The extension of the Implementing Agreement • Algae Production Systems: Open or Closed – to 31 December 2014 in now approved following Lessons Learned from the Last Three Years - a review by the REWP and CERT. The End-of- Marc Van Aken, SBAE Industries NV, Belgium Biomass and Bioenergy International Energy Agency

At the beginning of the workshop the Chairman prospects (early 2010), and then be available as posed some questions that the workshop should a focus for coordination of international efforts try and answer. The results were as follows: ExCo65 Workshop • When is the technology likely to be ready The theme for the next workshop will be for commercial exploitation? There is an ‘Bioenergy Trade and Associated Sustainability extensive and well-documented history of Issues’. The planning committee is Adam Brown research on algae with a recent resurgence of (Convenor), Tat Smith, Kieran Power, Kees interest in national programmes. Commercial Kwant, Paul Grabowski and Koji Kobayashi. exploitation will depend on the extent of R&D and demonstration activity, but some niche Progress with Current Initiatives applications with co-product production could be • New Strategic Plan. The new Strategic Plan was available within 5-10 years, and bulk production printed and distributed in November. in the longer term. • Bioenergy Technology Review. The Executive • What are the critical stages still required – R&D, Summary has been produced as a stand alone trials, demonstrations? Given the wide range publication. The main report will be published of unresolved issues, a balanced programme in January 2010. of R&D coupled with larger scale trials and • Handbook of Pellet Production and Utilisation. demonstrations is necessary. The use of algae Production is on schedule, with printing of the to produce a range of products via a ‘biorefi nery’ handbook planned for February 2010. approach is likely to be an attractive option. • Report on Bioenergy and Land Use Change. • What are the likely costs of producing energy Göran Berndes is leading the project which is from algae? Current estimates of productivity co-fi nanced with the Swedish Energy Agency. vary widely. Similarly, cost estimates also vary One report for policy makers and another for widely and current costs are often unattractive, the scientifi c community will be produced. Final but there is considerable scope for reduction and approval is expected at ExCo65. optimisation, depending on co-product values. • LCA strategic paper. Production has been Best estimates of costs are promising at this stage delayed so that signifi cant new material can be of technology development. incorporated. A new version is expected to be

• What are the likely CO2 savings? There is available in December 2009.

signifi cant potential for CO2 absorption but • Collaboration with RETD. The joint project on matching seasonal absorption potential with ‘Better Use of Biomass for Energy’ is completed. sources may be challenging. A fi nal version was presented at the RETD side • What are the main barriers to be overcome event at COP15. – technical and non-technical including • Collaboration with AMF. The proposal from fi nancial? Currently there are a wide range of AMF for co-sponsorship of a joint project ‘Fuel technical, institutional, and fi nancial barriers, and Technology Alternatives for Buses’ has been but there is plenty of room for improvements and accepted. Finland, Germany, and the European breakthroughs. There are many different options Commission will participate through Task 41, available for consideration and these are likely Project 3. to continue as different systems will fi t various climatic conditions and ranges of products. Collaboration with FAO • What role can IEA Bioenergy best play? In Mr Miguel Trossero, Senior Forestry Offi cer with the short-term IEA Bioenergy will provide an FAO, was an Observer at ExCo64. He has been authoritative review of international activity and the long standing contact for the Agreement and Biomass and Bioenergy International Energy Agency

very experienced and dedicated Task Leaders have ‘passed the baton’ to new leaders for the upcoming triennium.

At ExCo64 Chairman Josef Spitzer paid tribute to the long and expert service from the outgoing Task Leaders: Jim Richardson, Task 31; Sjaak van Loo, Task 32; Suresh Babu, Task 33; Tony Bridgwater, Task 34; Niranjan Patel, Task 36 and Arthur Wellinger, Task 37. He expressed the appreciation of the Executive Committee for their expertise and commitment over the last decade and made a presentation to those in attendance.

ExCo64 Study Tour Mr Miguel Trossero, FAO, Rome In conjunction with ExCo64, a total of 35 attendees took the opportunity to review progress with the participated in the study tour, which was designed MoU signed in 2000. He indicated good progress to showcase biofuels and biopower on the banks of with joint meetings, workshops, and seminars; in the river . The fi rst visit was to BioWanze SA, exchange of publications and newsletter material; at Wanze (). BioWanze is a unique industrial and in joint studies. He said overall there has been plant producing bioethanol from cereals and pleasing progress, however there was scope for sugar-beet and equipped with a full cogeneration more active collaboration especially in the areas of plant burning their own biowaste. An excellent political awareness, sustainability, and bioenergy presentation on the Südzucker Group introduced market opportunities in developing countries. the visit. Südzucker is a worldwide company with 18,000 employees. The group is organised into The Chairman noted that this was Miguel’s last four business segments - sugar, special products, meeting as he would retire from FAO at the end cropenergies (bioethanol) and fruit (eg. fruit juice of the year. He expressed the appreciation of the concentrates). The group has fi ve bioethanol plants ExCo for the success of the MoU so far and said including the one at Wanze, which is Europe’s the ExCo would look forward to working with most innovative plant. It runs on wheat and sugar whoever succeeded him. He also wished Miguel a feedstocks and has an annual production capacity long and happy retirement. of 300,000 m3 of bioethanol. Innovative by-product concepts include gluten and Protiwanze® (animal Changing of the Guard feed). Raw material costs are very important to the At ExCo60 it was decided that Task Leaders fi nancial results and the excellent logistics at Wanze should only serve for two triennia, or in exceptional are also a key success factor. The investment at circumstances three triennia. The idea was to BioWanze was approximately €250 million. The create a change of leadership on a regular basis company claims to avoid 70% of the potential CO2 and at the same time provide more opportunity emissions by using biomass to generate its power. for wider Member Country involvement in Task The EU Directive on biofuels is a key driver for leadership. It was hoped that such rotation would facilities such as BioWanze, eg. the 2020 decision result in new ideas and stimulation of the Task on mandatory blending of 10% of renewable work programmes. As a result of this decision some energies in the transport sector. Following this Biomass and Bioenergy International Energy Agency

’State-of-the-art’ pellet unloading facility at the Electrabel Power Plant, Les Awirs, Belgium visit, the group transferred to a boat at the river Bioenergy in Belgium port of Huy and enjoyed a tour and lunch on the river Meuse. Guest article by Yves Schenkel, ExCo Member for Belgium The second stop was at the Electrabel Power Plant, Les Awirs. This is an old coal-fi red power plant Belgium is a federal country composed of three which was converted in 2005 to a wood powder- regions: Flanders, and Brussels Capital fi red power plant (Awirs 4). The visit comprised an Region. Since 1991, energy policy has been a interesting presentation followed by a tour of the regional issue, except for the tax exemption system. plant. Wood pellets of 4-10 mm in diameter and As a result, biofuel for transport is a federal issue, with less than 17% moisture content are imported and bioenergy for heating and cooling or for from Canada and South Africa. The pellets are electricity is a regional matter. Belgium’s total delivered by barge through the excellent freight hub primary energy supply has grown from 1,800 PJ of Antwerp/Rotterdam/Amsterdam via the river in the early 1970s and has stabilised at around Meuse. Delivery is on a ‘just-in-time’ basis at 1200 2,400-2,500 PJ in recent years. The share of tons per day. Awirs 4 now runs 100% on biomass renewable energy is traditionally rather low, with with power output of 80 MWe and production in only 3.1% (80 PJ) in 2007. Bioenergy represents 2008 of 622 GWh. The vigorous safety measures in 80% of renewable energy, with 29 PJ in Flanders place for fi re and dust explosion were an interesting and 34 PJ in Wallonia. About half of that amount feature of the visit. Biomass and Bioenergy International Energy Agency is used for heat. The use of biomass for electricity allocated quota reaches the market, Belgium can is growing, specifi cally through the use of imported attain at most 4.3% biofuels on energy basis in 2010. wood pellets. Belgium will thus also miss the target of 5.75%.

There are three bioethanol and fi ve biodiesel As a result of regional competencies, there are producers in Belgium. The deployment of transport different energy support systems in the three biofuels in Belgium is based on a tax reduction Belgian regions. The differences are particularly system connected to a quota allocation. The Belgian evident in terms of support for renewable heating government accepted the European biofuel targets and cooling. All three regions use a green certifi cates of 2% in 2005 and 5.75% in 2010 (on a total grants system for the support of ‘green electricity’. transport fuel consumption basis). A delay in the In Flanders this is based on the net renewable quota allocation (fi nalised late 2006) has resulted in electricity production (energy for pre-treatment the later start-up of production plants, so the initial and transport subtracted), and in Wallonia and 2005 target has not been achieved. Moreover there Brussels it is based on net greenhouse gas savings. was little motivation among fuel distributors to blend For the import of wood pellets, the power company biofuels, and in 2007 and 2008 only a 1% biofuel Electrabel developed its own sustainability share was achieved. From July 2009, the Federal certifi cation system, which has been in use from 2006. Belgian government has adopted new legislation on transport biofuels which prescribes that transport In Wallonia, the 2010 target for heat from solid fuels include 4% biofuels by volume. Even if the biofuels is 14.76 PJ (4,100 GWh), which will

The Electrabel Power Plant at Les Awirs. Courtesy Yves Schenkel Biomass and Bioenergy International Energy Agency be reached as the bio-heat production already Looking to the future, the Belgian target is to amounted to 14 PJ in 2007. However, the produce 13% of gross energy consumption from specifi c 2010 target for heat from biogas will renewable energy sources. The share in 2007 was not be achieved: the production came to 0.125 3.1%, mostly bioenergy. Biomass is identifi ed as PJ in 2007, far from the objective of 0.36 PJ one of the major renewable sources. However, (100 GWh) in 2010. There are 70 wood boilers Belgium is a small and densely populated country, in use in the industry sector and 30 in progress. and biomass inland production potential is lower In the public sector, about 20 boilers are in use. than biomass demand, energy and non-energy uses The wood pellets sector for domestic use has included. The role of biomass imports (pellets, dramatically increased in recent years. The private energy crops, refi ned biofuels) will thus increase pellet consumption amounted to 39,000 tons in considerably in the future. 2008. Six pellet producers are now operating in Wallonia, producing 215,000 tons of pellets in For more information contact Yves Schenkel at 2008 (the installed capacity is 420,000 t). The [email protected] majority of the pellets produced in Wallonia is sold to the power station of Les Awirs (80 MWe Dr Schenkel acknowledges Luc Pelkmans and Nora installed capacity, burning 400,000 tons of pellets Pieret, whose work forms the basis of this article. per year). Regarding bioelectricity, the 2010 goal is 370 GWh, which was already outstripped in IEA Bioenergy Conference 2007 when the electricity produced from wood and vegetable by-products came to more than Task 39 organised a very successful multi-Task 900 GWh, thanks to the Les Awirs power station. conference ‘Biofuels and Bioenergy: A Changing Again, the target of 225 GWh for electricity from Climate’ in Vancouver in August 2009. The goals biogas will not be reached in 2010 as the current were to profi le IEA Bioenergy through targeting production in 2007 amounted to 125 GWh. There senior people and showcasing the expertise and are only 12 biogas plants in use in Wallonia today. activities within the various Tasks. A capacity total of 300 delegates attended, with over 140 In Flanders an inventory of 2007 indicates the use high-profi le speakers. A feature of the conference of 9.4 PJ heat from biomass, of which 6.3 PJ is was the strong participation by the Tasks and from dedicated installations (only heat) and 3.1 PJ Task Leaders and the involvement of many of the from CHP installations. Flanders does not have a ExCo Members before and during the conference specifi c target for renewable heat yet, but a green was also invaluable. Discussions at the conference heat action plan is in preparation towards 2020. focused on latest advances in bioenergy and Recent scenario calculations showed a potential the feasibility of biofuels in the commercial proactive renewable heat target of 35 PJ/year by marketplace with the aim to advance bioenergy 2020 - more than 90% would come from biomass development and reduce fossil fuel dependency. boilers and bio-CHPs. The total green electricity The conference publication can be downloaded at: production in Flanders amounted to 1,640 GWh www.task39.org in 2007 which represents 2.7% of the total gross inland electricity consumption in Flanders (2010 In conjunction with the conference, a two-day target is 6%). 83% of the green electricity is from forest management and supply chain fi eld trip biomass origin, most is through co-combustion was organised for selected conference delegates of biomass in coal power plants. Import of wood to witness the impacts of the mountain pine beetle pellets to Flanders in 2008 for this purpose is devastation in British Columbia’s forests. This estimated at around 400,000 tons. fi eld trip included visits to log harvesting sites, Biomass and Bioenergy International Energy Agency to sawmills, pulp mills and wood pellet production 12 presentations and the ‘Summary and operations utilising the trees killed by beetles, and Conclusions’ publication can be downloaded at: to cogeneration facilities. www.ieabioenergy.com/Library.aspx

IEA Bioenergy Publications Biorefi neries: adding value to the sustainable utilisation of biomass Bioenergy - a Sustainable and This feature article, prepared by the Task Leaders, Reliable Energy Source. A review provides an overview of the work of Task 42. of Status and Prospects. It illustrates the developments in sustainable The Main Report and the Executive production for commercial, and close to Summary are companion publications commercialisation, energy carriers and co-products jointly prepared for IEA Bioenergy developed from biomass using biorefi neries. by the Energy Research Centre of Download a copy at: www.ieabioenergy.com/ The Netherlands, E4tech, Chalmers Library.aspx University of Technology and the Copernicus Institute of the University of Utrecht. Contribution Recognised They provide an overview of the potential for bioenergy and the challenges associated with its Tony Bridgwater, former Leader of Task 34 and increased deployment. Opportunities and risks in Professor of Chemical Engineering at Aston relation to resources, technologies, practices, markets University’s School of Engineering and Applied and policy are all discussed. The aim is to provide Science, has been awarded the Don Klass Award insights into the opportunities and required actions for Excellence in Thermochemical Conversion for the development of a sustainable bioenergy Science. The award was presented on 16 industry. Both publications can be downloaded at: September at the international ‘tcbiomass 2009’ www.ieabioenergy.com/Library.aspx conference in Chicago, USA, in recognition of his extensive contributions to the fi eld of bioenergy, IEA Bioenergy Strategic Plan (2010-2016) as well as his past efforts as organiser of World This is the fourth version of the Strategic Plan. Biomass Conferences. The drivers of this new plan include:increased emphasis on security of energy supply;increased emphasis on greenhouse gas mitigation through the use of bioenergy technologies;the need to develop sustainable, non-food biomass resources that are environmentally sound; the need for large-scale development and deployment of new or improved technologies; and the need to increase the strategic role of IEA Bioenergy and to enhance the support of IEA bodies in promoting their global energy strategy. Download a copy of the plan at: www.ieabioenergy.com/Library.aspx

Bioenergy - the impact of indirect land use change This workshop was held in conjunction with ExCo63 in Rotterdam in May 2009. The Tony Bridgwater with his Don Klass Award. Courtesy GTI