Sustainable biomass Sustain-production and use Lessons learned from the Netherlands Programme Sustainable Biomass (NPSB) able2009-2013 Bio- mass Content Page 2 Content Highlights of the report 5 Introduction 18 Introducing the NPSB programme 20 Objective of this report 21 Approach 21 Reader group 21 Part 1 22 Creating availability of biomass for local use and for export 1.1 How much biomass is needed: drivers for demand increase 24 1.2 Biomass availabilities on regional level 25 1.3 Suitability and availability of biomass resource categories 30 1.4 Opportunities and conditions for unlocking biomass resources 42 1.5 Impact of exclusion criteria and opportunities to overcome some 44 of the bottlenecks: upscaling supply 1.6 Recommendations and lessons learned in creating biomass 46 for import and local use Part 2 49 Technologies, applicability of feedstock and innovations in conversion 2.1 Applicability of technologies for alternative feedstocks 50 2.2 Further developing innovative technologies 52 2.3 Introducing established technologies in new countries 53 2.4 Recommendations and lessons learned in innovative conversion technologies 54 Part 3 56 Enhancing the sustainable production of biomass for energy purposes 3.1 Sustainable development of natural resources 59 3.2 Poverty reduction: contribution towards social well-being 63 3.3 Poverty reduction: contribution towards prosperity 65 3.4 Sustainable use of natural resources: competition and indirect impacts 73 3.5 Recommendations and lessons learned in sustainable production 77 of biomass for local use and import Content Page 3 Part 4 80 Guaranteeing sustainability: operationalization and use of the sustainability criteria 4.1 Experiences on policy level 82 4.2 Experiences in impact, criteria and indicator development 88 4.3 Project preparations for meeting compliance: self-assessments and tools 95 4.4 Experiences with certification in the market 101 4.5 Participatory approaches 118 4.6 Recommendations and lessons learned in operationalization 123 and use of sustainability criteria Part 5 127 Creating a feasible business case 5.1 Presence of an enabling policy and legislative environment 130 5.2 Presence of sustainable supply 135 5.3 Efficiency of logistics and distribution 137 5.4 Conversion (technologies) 141 5.5 Presence of market and demand 142 5.6 Presence of strong (project) partnerships and management 146 5.7 Investment opportunities and ensuring up-front capital 148 5.8 Feasible business cases in the NPSB projects: sizeability, 154 upscaling and spin-off opportunities 5.9 Recommendations and lessons learned in creating business case 161 for biomass production for local use and export Next steps towards generating supply 164 from sustainable biomass chains References and annexes 169 References 170 Annex 1: Overview of biomass projects 172 Annex 2: Examples of developments in bioenergy policies countries 174 Content Page 4 Colophon The Netherlands Programmes for Sustainable Biomass (NPSB) bundle and disseminate knowledge from the biomass project portfolio of Netherlands Enterprise Agency and complete knowledge gaps with supplementary research. The NPSB project portfolio consists of the Global Sustainable Biomass Fund and the Sustainable Biomass Import Fund. These programmes are funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs. Written by Jinke van Dam Jinke van Dam Consultancy Consultancy on sustainable value chains and land use for biomass end-uses E: [email protected] M: +31 - 6 3978 3382 Contact Netherlands Enterprise Agency Ella Lammers Croeselaan 15, 3521 BJ Utrecht P.O. Box 8242, 3503 RE Utrecht The Netherlands E: [email protected] T: +31 - 88 602 2569 www.rvo.nl/biomass Although this report has been put together with the greatest possible care, Netherland Enterpise Agency does not accept liability for possible errors. Content Page 5 HighlightsHighlights of the report Highlights Page 6 Highlights of the report The Netherlands Programme Sustainable Biomass (NPSB) was developed to gain experience in the production and certification of sustainable, based on practical experiences. The NPSB programme has run from 2008 to the end of 2013. During its run, the programme has clustered knowledge from the biomass project portfolio and filled the knowledge gaps with supplementary research. The project portfolio1 consisted of projects from the Global Sustainable Biomass tenders (DBM projects), from the Sustainable Biomass Import tenders (the DBI projects) and of several relevant projects from the Daey Ouwens Fund. Objective of this report The objective is to give a compilation of the overall lessons learned from the NPSB programme to promote the sustainable production of biomass for export and local use. Key findings and results of the 40 projects (see annex 1) and 30 assignments for additional research are presented. Map Geographical presentation of the different NPSB biomass projects in the world, (RVO, 2014) Ukraine Project: certified sustainable biomass import from Ukraine First results: • Workshops and local implementation of NTA8080 certification scheme United States Spain Vietnam Project: Aquatic Biofuels Initial results: Brazil • valuable insights into the Project: Develop a guaranteed sustainability of aquatic sustainable supply chain of biomass as well as its sugarcane ethanol to improve economic feasibility. Mexico social and environmental conduct in Brazilian sugarcane business Zambia Guatemala First results: • Seing up courses in Honduras collaboration with branch Tanzania organisations to educate farmers Nicaragua • Best practices formulated to support farmers Panama • T raining courses on sustainability Colombia Mozambique Sierra Leone Mali South Africa Project: Building Communities Initial results: • Rural development in the Eastern Indonesia Cape province: Pilot sites in the Project: Develop a sustainable candlenut Eastern Cape province (Elliot & and castor supply chain for bio-energy. Engcobo) : 500 ha soybean and 500 First results: ha maize for bio-energy.” • 5 ha seed production Argentina Project: Greenhouse gas emissions measurements of soy biofuels 1 A summarized project description of the DBM and DBI projects is provided in annex 1 of the main report. Also available online: www.rvo.nl/biomass. Information of the DBM and DBI projects can also be found on: www.rvo.nl/biomass/projects Highlights Page 7 The report provides recommendations to different stakeholder groups (e.g. on certification, making a business case) at the end of each of the in total six chapters. Each chapter discusses a specific topic (see the figure below). Those interested in a specific topic (e.g. Jatropha, financing or ILUC), are recommended to read the relevant chapter in the report for more details and specific lessons learned. This summary presents the highlights. Figure Description of main parts of the report with lessons learned 1 2 3 4 5 6 Availability Technologies Enhancing Operation- Creating Overall of biomass and sustainable alization a business lessons resources innovations production and use of case learned in of biomass the conversion for energy sustainability purposes criteria Part 1 Availability of biomass resources There is a growing demand for biomass production with local markets and export markets, both coming from biomass importing and producing countries. This highlights the importance of creating affordable, sustainable biomass resources over time. Main observations Resource assessments indicate untapped biomass potentials from residues and waste in countries such as Indonesia or Vietnam. The use of industrial processing residues such as rice husk in Indonesia (DBM02053) or bagasse in Colombia (DBM0205) has been promising and it provides perspectives for replication. Also, other waste streams have been successfully identified such as POME (DBM01015), coffee wastewater (DBM02032) and discarded transport pallets (DBI02006). This valorisation and more efficient use of waste and residues is still underutilized but seems to offer opportunities for meeting the demand in bioenergy. Future estimates, as for the Ukraine and Mozambique, show a considerable biomass potential. Assessments of available land in Mozambique for 2030 for bioenergy production range between 6.4 and 16.5 million ha in 2030. In developing countries especially there is still a considerable yield gap because of inefficiencies in agriculture. The bioenergy sector can possibly contribute to bridging this gap, especially when a transition is made to upscaling. Reaching the full technical potential in agriculture and forestry requires considerable efforts and investments to enhance productivities. These efforts should be integrated in a region’s rural development and land use to optimize benefits. Projects as Inbio (DBI01006) and the bamboo project in Colombia (DBI02006) successfully used resource assessment as a screening tool to identify biomass opportunities in a country. Theoretical resource assessments do generally not consider discounting factors as applicability, sustainability, land rights, etc. This results in a gap between the amount of biomass that is theoretically available and the biomass that is practically available on the ground, as was experienced by the Mozambique project (DBM02045). Commodity-based biomass resources have been developed and are traded internationally in large volumes. The soy project in Argentina (DBM02037) and the sugarcane project in Brazil (DBM01011) teach us that Highlights Page 8 utilizing these resources can start