Plenary Sessions

This special plenary session will cover the transition to circular biomass value chains for hard to abate transport sectors and regional development and to assess investor perspectives in the drive to increase industrial production capacity.

The first presentation will cover the European Commission’s study “Development of Outlook for the Necessary Means to Build Industrial Capacity for Drop in Advanced Biofuels” which aims to investigate and analyse factors contributing to the development of advanced and sustainable biofuels production within the relevant European policy and regulatory framework, to facilitate the timely market entry of advanced biofuels for achieving the 2030 and 2050 targets. This study considers the evolving EU policy context for sustainable alternative fuels, which is undergoing significant revision and forms a core component of both the “Fit for 55 package” and the REPowerEU Plan.

The second presentation looks at an investor’s view on investing in production facilities and it is given from an industrial perspective from a bioindustry private equity operator. The main focus will be on industrial size factory investments in the broad field that the bioindustry spans. Private equity investors focus on scalable technologies that have already a proven track record and meaningful impact on decarbonizing manufacturing industry. This presentation gives views on how private equity sees the field of investing in CAPEX heavy assets like production factories.

There will be three oral presentations in this plenary session which focuses on sustainability and includes updating GHG emissions in the Renewables Directive II, environmental impact assessment in the move towards a green economy and sustainability with the inclusion of bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS).

The latest version of the Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001 (REDII) sets the scene for a legal framework stretching to 2030 for the development of renewable energy across the whole breadth of the EU economy. Two annexes in the Directive provide typical and default greenhouse gas (GHG) emission values for liquid biofuels (Annex V) and for solid and gaseous biomass for power and heat production (Annex VI).

These emissions values are to be used across the bioenergy sector to calculate their GHG emissions savings. Along with the latest policy developments, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has provided proposals for the update of the GHG emissions for a broad range of relevant biofuels and bioenergy pathways. All updates and changes have been made for both the Annexes V and VI of the RED.

The speaker will present the main changes introduced regarding the input values, the new assumptions and the new pathways; ii) highlight the most relevant pathways from the market perspective; and iii) present a comparative analysis of the GHG emissions for most relevant pathways.

The second presentation will summarise achievements from the MIDAS project, “Marginal lands and industrial crops for the European bioeconomy: combining bio-based products, climate resilience and biodiversity through innovative agricultural value chains”. The MIDAS project aims to develop, evaluate and optimize sustainable low-ILUC feedstock by developing selected industrial crops and cropping systems on European marginal agricultural land in a climate-resilient and biodiversity-friendly manner. These feedstocks will support feasible bio-based value chains. In this framework, miscanthus, hemp, crambe and castor bean were the selected crops for the project, due to their to tolerance to marginal soils and potential for bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts production. The key objective of this work was to determine the local and site-specific environmental impacts associated with the cultivation of these crops in marginal soils.

The final presentation in this session focusses on the strategically important role played by biomass and biogenic CO2 in carbon dioxide removal (CDR). (Bio-based) CDR options are a current political issue with numerous contrary assumptions being assumed. The speaker will use own research results to provide concept and region-specific potentials of bio-based CDR options and then systematically identify trade-offs and synergies between different bio-based CDR options. For example, it can be shown that bio-based CDRs are urgently needed, but that there are also many local problems. Furthermore, novel modelling results can be used to support the implementation of bio-based CDR options, considering not only techno-economic aspects but also considering different barriers and obstacles which need to be removed for a regional energy landscape with bio-based CDR. The work described makes a crucial and comprehensive contribution to research as it allows analysis of a wide range of options for CO2removal through biomass and to support sustainable implementation of bio-based CDR options within biomass strategies and policies.

Gasification is a key process for the conversion of a range of feedstocks to useful intermediate products that can subsequently be used to build a variety of products.

The first presentation will provide an overview of current activities in the field on biomass and waste gasification, with the aim of producing either biomethane or biofuels.

Attention will be given to the large-scale projects already in use or planned and in each case a project description will be provided. From the current status of large-scale gasification an overview will be given of the evolving gasification market as a whole. Recommendations and learned experiences from the various projects will be shared for future developments in the field.

The second presentation will feature the outcomes of a report by “Guidehouse” which assesses the biomethane potential in 2040 for Europe (EU27 + Norway, Switzerland and UK).

This report also builds on and updates the 2030 and 2050 biomethane production estimates originally provided in the 2022 “Gas for Climate” study.

This will enable the establishment of a timeline for biomethane production potentials to 2030, 2040, and 2050. The report was due to be finalised and released mid-April 2024.

This special plenary session addresses the potential of biomass-based negative emissions technologies and including an overview of the first EU-wide voluntary framework to reliably certify high-quality carbon removals (CRCF) and the importance of creating a supportive and predictable policy framework that investors and consumers can trust.

The session will present possible pathways to achieve a carbon market that is consistent, standardised, and transparent, ensuring that all available solutions receive equal support to become successful market actors.

Specifically, the potential of three different CDR methodologies will be explored: Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), Biochar Carbon Removal (BCR) and biogenic CO2 capture in demolished concrete aggregate.

The session will showcase these carbon removal projects from a technological perspective, while addressing public perception and possible knowledge gaps. In addition, this plenary session will explore whether the EU should consider carbon removal credits in the long run for the next phase of the EU ETS (Emission Trading System), but most importantly it will investigate economic models and financial mechanisms to drive investment in CDR projects.

This plenary session will compare and review various production technologies for advanced biofuels, with the main focus on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).

The keynote presentation covers jet fuel molecules from furanics and looks in particular at the challenges and the opportunities. The aviation sector is in urgent need of SAF alternatives to reduce its high contribution to carbon emissions. Increasing SAF availability especially in the context of available and evolving second generation biomass biorefineries is of essence to support these ambitious targets. The H2020 HIGFLY project aims to develop a new generation of technologies for the production of sustainable aviation fuels from abundant and sustainable biomass feedstocks. For this, HIGFLY relies on the use of biobased oxygenates derived from hemicellulose carbohydrates to develop a synergetic platform for biomass valorisation to fuels and chemicals. In this presentation validation activities performed in the framework of the project will be highlighted, including the key performance parameters which contribute the most to the process footprint and what will be the key process developments for future scale up and implementation.

The second presentation will address sustainable aviation and marine fuel from fast pyrolysis bio-oil.  The fast pyrolysis process has developed steadily over the last decade or so and has found numerous applications for its bio-oil product. This plenary will look at the production of drop-in biofuels obtained by the catalytic hydrotreatment of Fast Pyrolysis Bio Oil (FPBO). The results reported will be based on experimental work in bench- and pilot-scale, continuous flow hydrotreaters belonging a long chain of successful fast pyrolysis technology development.

The final presentation comprises an assessment of the technical and economic performances of biofuels, E-fuels and E-biofuels processes.

In a context of energy transition, where the necessary electrification of applications will not be able to replace the entire demand for carbonaceous molecules, it is crucial that their production is decoupled from fossil carbon extraction.

If it makes sense to use electricity for road mobility, especially for short distances, liquid or gaseous fuels should be more appropriate for longer distances, especially for aviation and shipping.

Similarly, the replacement of liquid fuels in aviation by other fuels (gas, electricity) seems highly unlikely. For this reason, society needs a focus and a clear overview of the performance of processes for synthetic biofuels production, synthetic e-biofuels or synthetic e-fuels. The study described in this plenary presentation aims to provide a clear view of the different existing conversion routes, their characteristics and performance. It was necessary to capitalise on the work done in the past.

This study has provided new technical and economic assessment results for a wide range of thermochemical conversion processes for renewable carbon (more than 130 case studies).