Demonstration of solid biofuel supply and conversion to high efficiency CHP from fully sustainable regional value chains

Expected outcome

Fully sustainable regional bioenergy value chains and efficient conversion can play an important role in renewable efficient power and heating generation and for reaching the EU climate and energy targets and contribute to European competitiveness and energy security.

Project results are expected to contribute to at all of the following expected outcomes:

• The demonstration of regional value chains for the use of locally to regionally sourced sustainable and cheap solid biofuel from upgraded biogenic residues and wastes in line with the provisions of the Renewable Energy Directive in high efficiency CHP plant creates opportunities for SMs, regional value generation and European knowledge advancement and international competitiveness in the sector.
• Provide flexible renewable power and heat to local industries for their processes and allow for high penetration of renewables in the energy system by ensuring sustainable bioenergy base load capacity.
• Provide replicable solutions, where bioeconomy stakeholders can benefit from the knowledge generated for the development of their strategies aligned with energy and environmental policy objectives and which can contribute to the objective of decreasing the EU’s and Ukraine`s dependence on fossil fuels and increasing energy security.
• Regulatory and permitting authorities as well as investors and important actors of the value chain are in a better position to assess socio-economic and environmental aspects of the value chain, in particular on circularity, industrial resilience biodiversity and soil carbon.

Scope

Demonstration of a viable regional value chain for the use of locally to regionally sourced sustainable and cheap solid biofuel from upgraded biogenic residues and wastes in line with the provisions of the Renewable Energy Directive in high efficiency CHP plants (between 10 MWe and 30 MWe) for continuous, cost-effective and low emission operation.

Proposals are expected to cover long-term scenarios for base load operation within the energy system network ensuring socio-economic and environmental sustainability and in particular the exclusion of negative impacts on other regional bio-based value chains and biomass uses in line with the provisions of the Renewable Energy Directive (also on cascading use), biodiversity, water balance, air quality and soil carbon stocks and other bioeconomy sectors which should be assessed by a comprehensive life cycle analysis. For this purpose, the extraction of residues should respect locally defined retention thresholds for deadwood extraction and exclude negative impacts on soil quality and soil carbon

To minimise possible local ecosystem interferences, biomass fuels from residues and wastes are expected to be the primary feedstock of the high-efficiency CHP plant. The biomass fuels are expected to be produced with the use of innovative preprocessing and upgrading technologies and through the adoption of advanced supply chains from a mixture of residues and wastes and exclude negative impacts not only overall, but in each individual harvest location, which results in specific operational, economic and logistical and supply chain challenges to be addressed. Proposals should foresee at least one regional value chain demonstration including use of the solid biofuel with verified quality and occurring GHG and air-pollutant reduction in an operational high efficiency CHP plant. Proposals should ensure adequate involvement of feedstock providers (e.g. farmers, foresters, municipalities) to strengthen their position in the value chains relevant for this topic.

Proposals are expected to demonstrate ways for future efficient, cost-effective, robust, resilient and low pollution CHP plants (including retrofitting and excluding co-firing with fossil fuels) in a local industrial context.

Plans for the exploitation and dissemination of results for proposals submitted under this topic are expected to include a strong business case and sound exploitation strategy. In this respect, collaboration with suitable networks like e.g. bioenergy clusters should be envisaged to avoid the development of overly site-specific solutions and to enhance replicability. The exploitation plans are expected to include preliminary plans for scalability, commercialisation, and deployment (feasibility study, business plan) indicating the possible funding sources to be potentially used (in particular the Innovation Fund). Special attention should be paid to estimating the GHG and air pollutant emissions reduction potential; projects will be encouraged to use the methodology in the Innovation Fund. Projects are expected to include at least one relevant local economic business case, outlining local value and supply chains and the expected number of local jobs including the overall industrial ecosystem at the place of deployment. Projects are encouraged to support the reconstruction of Ukraine by covering regional value chains in Ukraine and/or Ukrainian beneficiaries.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, SSH research should look specifically at how synergies can be enhanced to achieve the topic’s objective in respect of socioeconomic sustainability. A gender-sensitive and intersectional approach can inform the development of inclusive solutions in solid biofuel supply and CHP, by identifying specific needs, developing solutions that address these needs, and monitoring their impacts on diverse groups.