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Report2019

Biomass and innovation potential of residues, byproducts and other sustainable feedstock for biobasedproducts in four South Baltic Area regions

Prade, Thomas; Booker Nielsen, Mark; Kjær, Tyge; Mittenzwei, Max; Cuypers, Beate; Schiller, Daniel; Westkämpe, Moritz; Mikielewicz, Dariusz; Andrzejczyk, Rafał; Dąbrowski, Paweł; Wajs, Jan; Lund, Johanna; Ekman Nilsson, Anna

Abstract

The global economy is currently in a transition from a fossil-based to a biomass-based economy, not least in the European Union. This growing bioeconomy is in need of sufficient, adequate and sustainable biomass resources as production feedstock. For this feedstock, two kinds of biomass sources are possible. By-products from processing of primary biomass and purpose-grown biomass. Utilising the by-products from processing of primary biomass holds the promise of high resource efficiency and low environmental impact. However, even supply of by-products can imply a (high) cost and purpose-grown sustainable feedstocks such as crops not competing with food and feed production should also be considered when discussing a sustainable feedstock base for the bioeconomy.

The aim of this report is to assess the potential amounts of biomass feedstock that could be made available to a growing bioeconomy in Europe. This assessment was carried out for four major values chain in the primary production sectors for each of four investigated South Baltic Area (SBA) regions in Denmark, Germany, Poland and Sweden. Furthermore, opportunities and bottlenecks for implementation of the utilisation of the different feedstocks were assessed as a synopsis to each feedstock.

For processes and product value chains where bulk feedstocks are required, straw and woody residues are already available, both in terms of volume and technology. Still, large-scale use of residues might not yet be feasible and in terms of priorisation of residues and feedstocks, valorisation should aim at replacing fossil-based products and services and not only concentrate on feedstocks that occur in large quantities. There are a number of by-products, expecially in the food industry sector, that contain valuable compounds or are suitable for fermentative use. Energy recovery is an option for all residues, but it should always be considered if material and compound recovery is possible prior to a final energy and plant nutrient recovery step.

Additional sustainably produced feedstocks from agriculture may be available in large quantities as well and have the advantage that quality can be controlled and adjusted to the process needs. The feedstocks presented in this report are considered sustainable in the sense that competition with food and feed production is minimised. For evaluating the overall sustainability of products based on these feedstocks, case-specific assessment should be carried out, e.g. in the form of LCA studies.

Finally, there is a strong need to reduce uncertainty and encourage investment by increasing transparency, first, by providing precise information on the availability of of feedstocks and, secondly, by ensuring a low environmental impact of of innovative biomaterials and bioenergy.

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Publisher: BioBIGG