Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BIOPLAT-EU (Promoting sustainable use of underutilized lands for bioenergy production through a web-based Platform for Europe)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-05-01 al 2021-10-31
In order to reach the EU climate targets and SDG goals, bioenergy will play an integral role, but only if it is produced sustainably. Marginal, Underutilised, and Contaminated lands (MUC) cannot be used for food production or for recreational and conservation purposes, but in some cases, they still retain the potential to produce biomass for non-food purposes. The BIOPLAT-EU project will promote and support the uptake of sustainable bioenergy projects on these lands. Moreover, such use of these lands is not known to stakeholders, therefore the project will promote and inform about such opportunities through a web-based platform which will include a public user-friendly tool using global information system that will assess the environmental, social and techno-economic sustainability aspects of defined value chains for bioenergy production on MUC lands and through stakeholder engagement activities. In order to remove legal barriers for the uptake of such projects, communication activities with the responsible authorities will be organised. As for the technical and financial barriers, the project will support stakeholders and give guidance on how such projects can be implemented. Moreover, it will link biomass producers and processors with investors and will guide them on how to make their projects bankable. The overall objective of the project is to promote the market uptake of sustainable bioenergy in Europe using MUC lands for non-food biomass production through the provision of a web-based platform that serves as decision support tool.
The first tasks focused on mapping MUC lands in EU and Ukraine. This was done through the compilation of a geospatial database of MUC lands offering potential for bioenergy feedstock production, needed for the webGIS tool and its functionalities. Two types of maps were produced: first, a European-wide map of MUC lands (TIER-1 map) and secondly, regional maps for twelve case study areas (TIER-2 maps) in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Spain and Ukraine.
In parallel to the mapping, a review and harmonisation of methodologies and tools employed for bioenergy sustainability analyses in the EU has been done. This task set the foundations for the conceptual design of the webGIS platform and its Sustainability Assessment Tool (STEN) and it allowed to develop its structure.
The webGIS tool was formed by integrating and combining the GIS maps and the STEN tool. Its development was carried out in three phases. In the first phase, the conceptual design was defined. This included the identification of user requirements, user profiles, and the use cases. The main variables and the algorithms to compute the set of sustainability indicators were identified. During the second phase, the prototype was developed. It was based on the user requirements analysis, the construction of a mockup to ease interaction with users, the collection of information and elaboration of basic layers for the data model, and the development of the STEN tool. In the third phase, the webGIS prototype integrated all the GIS layers and the data required for its full operation. An instruction manual was developed.
The tool was tested internally on 12 selected case study areas with defined value chains in the 6 case study countries and then externally with other stakeholders and was consequently optimised.
A series of events was performed in the case study regions with the aim to mobilise stakeholders, inform them about the opportunities to produce biomass on MUC lands and support them to implement such projects. Furthermore, the webGIS tool was tested live and the stakeholders in return gave their feedback for the fine-tuning. Communication with legal authorities on the legal barriers facing the deployment of bioenergy was also done.
Financial structuring support was a main task during the second project period. 12 feasibility studies and business models were performed on the selected value chains in the case study regions. The results showed that in some cases the projects are feasible, in some they require initial grants to be feasible and in others they were not feasible. These results depend a lot on the local conditions.
The project offered technical support to interested stakeholders through the helpdesk function. One of the very interesting exploitation results of the project was that a consulting firm conducted a study to explore the feasibility of recovering Europe’s contaminated and underutilised land for sustainable biofuel production. They used the webGIS tool where they spotted the most interesting locations of lands in Europe that could be used for bioenergy production. They succeeded to identify 5 countries with high potential and where bioenergy projects would be financially attractive and induce savings in GHG emissions. Based on this, they moved to stage 2 where they started to plan the implementation phase and where they will continue using the webGIS tool.
Thanks to the tool, Neste successfully conducted a pan European assessment to explore MUC lands suitable for oil crop production in Europe. The results showed that the tool is technically applicable and easy to use for the mapping of the potential value chains. Potential MUC areas for oil crop production can be found with the webGIS tool for market actors to further evaluate in detail and to start to develop more detailed bioenergy value chains. When combining the tool's information on MUC lands and the crops suitability, there is a lot of potential throughout Europe, main potential existing in the Eastern and Southern parts of Europe. The evaluation found the rapeseed and sunflower oil to have the most potential.
The project results were disseminated using different material and dissemination channels. Due to the pandemic, the most efficient way for disseminating the results and especially the webGIS tool was social media. The post on LinkedIn for the announcement of the tool had 1,523 views. Three peer-reviewed articles were published by the consortium and a fourth is on its way with the status accepted.
In parallel to the mapping, a review and harmonisation of methodologies and tools employed for bioenergy sustainability analyses in the EU has been done. This task set the foundations for the conceptual design of the webGIS platform and its Sustainability Assessment Tool (STEN) and it allowed to develop its structure.
The webGIS tool was formed by integrating and combining the GIS maps and the STEN tool. Its development was carried out in three phases. In the first phase, the conceptual design was defined. This included the identification of user requirements, user profiles, and the use cases. The main variables and the algorithms to compute the set of sustainability indicators were identified. During the second phase, the prototype was developed. It was based on the user requirements analysis, the construction of a mockup to ease interaction with users, the collection of information and elaboration of basic layers for the data model, and the development of the STEN tool. In the third phase, the webGIS prototype integrated all the GIS layers and the data required for its full operation. An instruction manual was developed.
The tool was tested internally on 12 selected case study areas with defined value chains in the 6 case study countries and then externally with other stakeholders and was consequently optimised.
A series of events was performed in the case study regions with the aim to mobilise stakeholders, inform them about the opportunities to produce biomass on MUC lands and support them to implement such projects. Furthermore, the webGIS tool was tested live and the stakeholders in return gave their feedback for the fine-tuning. Communication with legal authorities on the legal barriers facing the deployment of bioenergy was also done.
Financial structuring support was a main task during the second project period. 12 feasibility studies and business models were performed on the selected value chains in the case study regions. The results showed that in some cases the projects are feasible, in some they require initial grants to be feasible and in others they were not feasible. These results depend a lot on the local conditions.
The project offered technical support to interested stakeholders through the helpdesk function. One of the very interesting exploitation results of the project was that a consulting firm conducted a study to explore the feasibility of recovering Europe’s contaminated and underutilised land for sustainable biofuel production. They used the webGIS tool where they spotted the most interesting locations of lands in Europe that could be used for bioenergy production. They succeeded to identify 5 countries with high potential and where bioenergy projects would be financially attractive and induce savings in GHG emissions. Based on this, they moved to stage 2 where they started to plan the implementation phase and where they will continue using the webGIS tool.
Thanks to the tool, Neste successfully conducted a pan European assessment to explore MUC lands suitable for oil crop production in Europe. The results showed that the tool is technically applicable and easy to use for the mapping of the potential value chains. Potential MUC areas for oil crop production can be found with the webGIS tool for market actors to further evaluate in detail and to start to develop more detailed bioenergy value chains. When combining the tool's information on MUC lands and the crops suitability, there is a lot of potential throughout Europe, main potential existing in the Eastern and Southern parts of Europe. The evaluation found the rapeseed and sunflower oil to have the most potential.
The project results were disseminated using different material and dissemination channels. Due to the pandemic, the most efficient way for disseminating the results and especially the webGIS tool was social media. The post on LinkedIn for the announcement of the tool had 1,523 views. Three peer-reviewed articles were published by the consortium and a fourth is on its way with the status accepted.
The project with its webGIS tool has proven to be an excellent assistant and the first stepping stone in evaluating the potential for bioenergy value chain development. The tool offers an unprecedented outlook on the MUC land potential for bioenergy crop production in Europe. This is believed to help on the deployment of bioenergy on MUC lands, increase the share of renewable energy in the final enegry consumption and contribute to EU policies and SDG goals.
The BIOPLAT-EU platform has proven to be a valid pre-feasibility assessment tool, which can therefore drive interested investors towards the most promising value chain to be attentively assessed. The indicators included in the webGIS platform are suitable for a technical analysis (one of the three components of a feasibility assessment). Since in investment projects usually feasibility assessments can have a value of 1 – 3% of the volume of the investment itself, the BIOPLAT-EU could be considered as to conservatively diminish investment costs by up to 1%. At the same time the tool assesses some sustainability indicators i.e. environmental such as CO2 emissions and social ones automatically without the need to endure additional costs.
The BIOPLAT-EU platform has proven to be a valid pre-feasibility assessment tool, which can therefore drive interested investors towards the most promising value chain to be attentively assessed. The indicators included in the webGIS platform are suitable for a technical analysis (one of the three components of a feasibility assessment). Since in investment projects usually feasibility assessments can have a value of 1 – 3% of the volume of the investment itself, the BIOPLAT-EU could be considered as to conservatively diminish investment costs by up to 1%. At the same time the tool assesses some sustainability indicators i.e. environmental such as CO2 emissions and social ones automatically without the need to endure additional costs.