ETIP Bioenergy Workshop Emerging Technologies

4 June 2018, Brussels, Belgium

On 4 June 2018, Ingo Ball from WIP Renewable Energies, Germany, participated as speaker in the ETIP workshop Emerging Technologies that was held in the framework of the EU Sustainable Energy Week 2018. He presented the BABET-REAL5 project to other experts of the sector and representatives of EU policy makers. The presentation included the technological approach of the development of a reactor, in which pretreatment and enzymatic impregnation / pre-hydrolysis of the biomass take place in a one-stage reactor using a twin-screw extruder. Ingo Ball gave a short overview about the principle of extrusion which is a key aspect of the BABET-REAL5 project concept. After shortly showing the suited feedstocks and the economic approach that lies behind the concept, the biomass supply results of five different regions were presented. The business approach is based on small-size industrial plants that are economically viable from 30,000 tdm/year (to produce 10,000 m3 bioethanol) which can be collected within a 50-km radius catchment area. It could be shown that this threshold was surpassed in many cases:
In Southern France (area around the Mediterranean Sea), corn stover (34,500 tdm/year), sunflower stover (96,300 tdm/year) and vineyard pruning (34,900 tdm/year) are sustainably available in the 50-km radius.
In South-Western France (region from Pyrenees to the Atlantic coast), in 50-km radius areas even 300,000 tdm/year of corn stover available could be identified. Furthermore, sunflower stover (34,000 tdm/year) and sweet corn cob (30,000 tdm/year) are available in higher amounts than needed for the plant concept.
In Bavaria, Germany, the biggest biomass supply potential was identified in the region Lower Bavaria. There, in a 50-km radius, 121,000 tdm/year of wheat straw and 173,000 tdm/year of corn stover are sustainably available.
In Argentina, the regions Cordoba and Tucuman were investigated. In the Tucuman region, in a 50-km radius, 480,000 tdm/year of sugarcane crop residues were identified. In the Cordoba region, in 12 departments, the threshold of 30,000 tdm/year was surpassed for corn stover.
In North-Eastern Uruguay, the sustainable biomass supply of eucalyptus residues was investigated. If tips, branches and leaves are left for soil organic amendment, then 82,000 tdm/year would be available for the production of 2g bioethanol.
Concluding, Ingo Ball mentioned that within the project, for the process steps pretreatment and saccharification and fermentation an upscale to pilot scale is planned and the Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 5 shall be achieved.

Ingo Ball from WIP Renewable Energies (second from left), during the panel discussion about emerging technologies (Foto: © BIOENERGY 2020+ GmbH)

In the panel discussion after the presentation block, especially the small-scale concept that is elaborated within the BABET-REAL5 project was discussed and considered to be an interesting alternative to enhance the production of 2G bioethanol for more sustainable biofuel.

Link to ETIP homepage: http://www.etipbioenergy.eu/ws-emerging-technologies