Project description
Utilising woody biomass for energy
Biogas production from biowaste is growing in Europe to achieve EU-wide targets for renewable energy. Such is the case with lignocellulosic waste – large quantities are collected in the form of animal manure, sewage sludge and municipal solid waste. The EU-funded BioFuel Fab project is developing a self-sustainable and versatile energy solution to ensure this process is economically profitable and environmentally sustainable. Specifically, it is applying a digestion (high-temperature and high-pressure pre-treatment) process that makes woody biomass (derived from trees) suitable for anaerobic digestion. Overall, this innovative solution is expected to put the profitability of biogas production from lignocellulosic waste material on par with existing biogas plants that use energy crops as feedstock.
Objective
THE PROBLEM.
In June 2018 the EU institutions agreed on a new Renewable Energy Directive for the next decade, including a legally-binding EU-wide target of 32% for renewable energy by 2030 and indicating a biogas production of 50 billion m3 per year as a crucial milestone in achieving this goal. But, yearly biogas production growth rate is on a steady decline, due to the stringent regulations imposed by EU that fix thresholds in the use of energy crops and food-derived biomasses as feedstock for biogas generation plants (mainly Anaerobic Digestion - AD). On the other side, lignocellulosic materials are still not properly exploited since woody wastes are largely unaffected by digestion, as most anaerobic microorganisms are unable to break down lignin. As a consequence, biogas operators cannot use the most available no-food derived raw material in their plants.
THE TECHNOLOGY.
Finrenes has developed BioFuel Fab, an energy self-sustainable and versatile solution able to make biogas production from lignocellulosic wastes economically profitable and environmentally sustainable. This is achieved thanks to a proprietary high-temperature and high-pressure pretreatment process that makes woody waste suitable for anaerobic digestion. Performances are disruptive: the digestion process speed is increased up to 75%, empowering the AD plant capacity by 3 times. The innovation allows to reach a profitability of biogas production from lignocellulosic waste material to be comparable with energy crops and makes convenient to convert the existing biogas plants using energy crops as feedstock to a BioFuel Fab fed by woody wastes, with a payback for the investment of 2.5 years.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybioremediationbioreactors
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterialsbiofuels
- agricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
33100 Tampere
Finland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.