ENK6-2001-00524 Bio-Energy Chains From Perennial Crops In South Europe

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Crops for Solid Biofuels : EESD (Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development) : Electricity : Thermochemical Conversion

Proposal No:	ENK6-2001-00524
Date Prepared:	February 2004
Source:	European Bio-Energy Projects (EUR 20808)

Introduction

In the whole bioenergy chain - biomass production, processing and conversion considerable time and funds have been spent to date on research solely for biomass production or energy conversion processes. Little attention has been paid to measuring and evaluating the performance of energy crops (perennial or annual) in an integrated bioenergy chain. The use of a mixture of crops offers the potential for a year-round operation without the need to store large quantities of materials, while feeding systems developed for energy crops and related materials would be capable of handling a wide range of materials with comparable handling characteristics.

Laboratory tests on the different stages of handling, pretreating and processing these less commonly processed materials are an essential first step towards the development and evaluation of integrated systems, particularly for comparing performance on these materials with performance criteria derived from more orthodox biomass forms such as wood. Measures of product yield and product quality are particularly important.

Project structure Five work packages have been set up to cover the various aspects of the project as follows:

• WPI will address the whole biomass production chain of the four selected perennial crops.
• WP2 will address the thermochemical conversion processes, covering fuel characterisation and multifuelled tests of combustion, pyrolysis and gasification of the raw material produced in WPI.
• WP3 will encompass a financial/economic assessment of the data collected from the previous work packages. The overall performance from biomass in the field to a delivered energy product as heat and or power will be measured by reference to the component parts in the chain, starting in the field and progressing through each stage of handling and processing. An overall performance model will be derived to provide consistent comparison between different bioenergy chains-
• WP4 will cover an environmental assessment which will be conducted at all stages of all bioenergy chains. A list of the best options, In terms of economic and environmental benefits, of a combination of biofuels and technology, will be produced for each country.
• WP5 covers the coordination of the project, dealing with the consortium's managerial, exploitation and dissemination activities.

Expected impact and exploitation

The project will provide technical and economic evidence on the evaluation of entire bioenergy chains, and identification of the best options in terms of resource and technology to reach the cost targets for 1500 Euro/KW_e and 0.05 Euro/KWh investment and electricity production cost, as set by the EU.

One of the most important bottlenecks to achieving the cost targets is the raw material cost. Among the cost components, storage comes high on the list, ranging from 0.45 to 22.69 #/odt. depending on the feedstock and storage type. Through the multicropping cultivation and successive harvesting, an 80-90% reduction of the storage cost will be feasible. Furthermore, muft-fuelled tests of combustion pyrolysis and gasification processes for the four selected crops will contribute to the security of feedstock supply to the energy plant.

Fuel availability and associated costs play an important role in finding economic incentives for the introduction of biotuels-based energy production. A fuel-flexible system would increase plant availabHity and, at the same time, probably reduce the operating costs through limited feedstock storage costs.

The results and information obtained will be of significant use for policy-makers in south European countries and/or regions, as well as in the EU. Scientists working in this field, biomass producers, manufacturers and users of biofuels will be able to use the results to optimise processes and production chains in technical, economic and environmental terms.

Progress to date

The four selected crops have been established in large and small-scale fields. The establishment of giant reed, cardoon and switchgrass in all fields has been carried out successfully, while miscanthus seems to be more sensitive to the soil and climatic conditions

Fuel characterisation tests on feedstock samples from each crop are ongoing, depending on the harvesting time of each crop. Preliminary tests of combustion and gasification have also been performed. In most cases, as the chemical composition of the perennial crops is closer to the chemical characteristics of straw rather than to woody biomass fuels, the technological solutions developed for the combustion of straw should be considered for the evaluation of these crops,

A cost analysis and economic model is being prepared.

The environmental characteristics of the biomass production relative to those of conventional agricultural production have been investigated. Based on the data collected, an input grid for all activities accomplished during plant establishment has been generated and life-cycle inventories have been compiled. The environmental impacts for accomplished life-cycle steps were calculated on a country-specific and crop-specific basis.

A conclusive interpretation of the results so far is not yet possible as most of the crops have not even completed their first growing cycle.