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Biomass Helping To Make Communities Greener
5 September 2013 FARMERS are being encouraged to take advantage of new opportunities to diversify created by community green energy co-operatives. The first project of its kind in the UK is seeing a community joining forces to buy shares in a £1million green energy co-operative which will cut bills at John Cleveland College, Hinkley, Leicestershire, and raise money for good causes. The biomass boilers provided by Leicestershire-based Rural Energy, a Myriad CEG company, will cut carbon emissions by 400 tons a year, reduce energy bills by £45,000 a year and act as a blueprint for similar projects across the UK. The co-operative will also create a Local Community Fund to support initiatives to benefit the school and local community, which it is estimated will generate £227,876 over the project’s 20-year lifespan. Farmers and woodland owners in the area are now being encouraged to diversify into planting woods for coppicing over the 20-year lifespan of the project. The contract for wood-chip will be in excess of £60,000 annually (600 tons a year) and the project will act as a blueprint for similar projects across the UK. The Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative is already recruiting investors – ranging from the local GPs to manual workers and pupils’ parents and grandparents – to buy community shares with a projected return on investment of up to 13 per cent. This innovative renewable energy project, which is a collaboration between three not-for-profit organisations Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative, Transition Leicester and Sharenergy, aims to use sustainably harvested wood from local woodlands to fuel wood-chip boilers that will heat the college. Richard Halsey, a founding member and Director of Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative, said: “Investors in the Co-operative become its members and they will be contributing to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from the College by an estimated 400 tonnes annually. Furthermore the project will seek to source the woodchip locally, which will in turn sustain local jobs”. Scott Morris, head of estates at John Cleveland College added: “Currently the college uses oil and the heating bills are in excess of £150,000 a year. By switching to wood-chip, we will be saving an estimated £45,000 per year – which is significant to any school.” Continue reading
The Sustainable Approach – Powering Africa Through Biomass Energy
Countries within the great African continent are blessed with enough resources to see them benefiting from biomass energy. Biomass is an important source of energy and the most important fuel worldwide after coal, oil, and natural gas. Bio-energy, which is derived from biomass, is expected to be a pivotal resource, which will contribute to global sustainable development. Dr Segun Adaju, the Project Manager of the Bank of Industry/United Nations Development Project (UNDP), Access to Renewable Energy (AtRE) Project, notes thus: “Biomass is a clean renewable energy resource derived from the waste of various human and natural activities. It excludes organic material, which has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.” The energy of biomass is extracted from three distinct sources, the largest energy source of biomass being wood (contributors include the timber industry, agricultural crops and raw materials from the forest); the second largest source is waste energy (main contributors are municipal solid waste and manufacturing waste); and the third largest source is alcohol fuels ‑ derived mainly from corn. Accordingly, in the developed world, biomass should become more important for dual applications such as heat and power generation. This is so since most countries within and across the African continent have a lot of resources for biomass energy; the continent is blessed with an environment and geography that supports the growth of anything. Importantly, biomass energy is especially relevant for Sub-Saharan Africa where over 80 percent of the population relies upon wood, crop and animal residues for meeting their household needs (mainly cooking). Notwithstanding extensive plans for electrification and provision of fossil fuels, a vast majority of households in Sub-Saharan Africa will still depend on biomass resources for their energy needs for at least the next two decades. It is also critical to note that African countries have adequate biomass resources for biomass energy because there is waste like sawdust and/or wood chips, which should not waste away. These countries can convert them into energy by simply putting the waste into small devices called bio-digesters, so that they can digest those waste through bacteria and the rest, scientists know more about that. Since African countries have so many resources (biomass energy resources), developing biomass industries in the continent will have more impact and it will ease some problems affecting the development of the continent. For instance, developing biomass industries in African countries will create more jobs; it will create adequate energy and it will solve the problem of how do we deal with waste. To effectively use resources for biomass energy, policy makers in African governments need to know the technologies that are available and how to apply them. There are also many technologies that can be imported and used to develop local (African) technologies. More so, to tap into these resources, the first thing is for African governments to create awareness so that people know that the waste they are even generating in their houses is actually money and it is a material to generate energy. Crafting of policies is a crucial step if the continent is to effectively utilise its resources for biomass energy. Adaju concurs: “We need government’s support in terms of policy so that we can be able to use our resources to generate our needs. It is not all the time we have to import what we want to consume or use so we need government’s policy to encourage production, and to support entrepreneurs.” The World Bank’s Director for Sustainable Development in the Africa Region, Jamal Saghir, said partners now need to foster mainstreaming of biomass into national economic policies. “The development of biomass energy is closely linked with forestry, agriculture, indoor air pollution and health, environment and climate change, rural electrification, and gender development,” he said. “And all these linkages have to be explicitly recognised and harmonised to have a unified sustainable approach.” This means Africa must embrace biomass energy and utilise it as a developmental tool. One of the major reasons why unemployment is high in the continent and why manufacturing companies are shutting down is because of energy is insufficient. If African countries have adequate energy, there will obviously be more employed people. Without doubt, biomass is an important source of energy and the most important fuel worldwide after coal, oil, and natural gas. Continue reading
€3.8B Plan To Boost Europe’s Bio-Based Industries
Patrick Madden Forty eight companies sign up for joint technology initiative to research and bring products made from renewable natural resources to market. This will provide new markets for farmers and reduce dependency on fossil fuels The European Commission unveiled a €3.8 billion Public Private Partnership (PPP) on bio-based industries, bringing together 48 large and small companies from across different sectors to develop and commercialise food, animal feed, chemicals and fuel products made from sustainable biomass and waste. The PPP, to be called BRIDGE – Biobased and Renewable Industries for Development and Growth in Europe – will be managed by the 48 corporate partners through the Biobased Industries Consortium (BIC), with the aim of enabling European companies to bridge the innovation gap between technology development and commercialisation of high-value bio-based products. These companies are making a significant commitment to BRIDGE, putting in €2.8 billion cash and in kind resources, with €1 billion coming from the Commission as part of the €70 billion Horizon 2020 R&D programme, which is due to get underway in January 2014. It is planned that €1.8 billion will be pumped into investments and infrastructure, whilst the rest will fund activities, deployment and research across the innovation chain. CEOs of companies taking part in BRIDGE said the €2.8 billion investment from industry highlights both the strong commitment to the PPP and the confidence it can achieve its objectives. Coming together to make this investment under the umbrella of BIC also reflects the collaboration which is at the core of BRIDGE, with the ambition of laying down the foundations of a post-petroleum society by combining strengths and resources, and building bridges between different sectors. The sectors that are involved include agriculture, biotech, forestry, pulp and paper, chemicals and energy. This requirement to work across sectors was stressed by Guy Talbourdet, CEO of Roquette Freres, a company specialising in making products based on starch extracted from plants. In order to develop new technologies, collaboration and joint development and support is absolutely vital, he told a briefing held to discuss the BRIDGE project. New biomass resources Berry Wiersum, CEO of paper merchants Sappi, echoed this view and pointed towards the potential for job creation, saying that for every job which would be created directly another three jobs would be created locally. In the face of evidence that European Union policies promoting biofuels have led food crops to be diverted to biorefineries, BRIDGE will continue research to replace petrol-based products with ones based on biomass. One aim is to develop a biorefinery able to handle different types of biomass that cannot be used as food, for example, non-food crop grasses and agricultural and forestry waste, and which can produce multiple products including biopolymers and biofuels. Beyond the potential of the bio-based industries project to create jobs in a broad range of sectors in Europe, in particular in rural areas, the Commission says it will also help the EU meet climate change targets. It will also aim to bridge the ‘valley of death’ that prevents research from Europe’s universities being translated through to commercial bio-based products. The BRIDGE project is a major milestone on the journey towards a smarter, more sustainable, more innovative EU economy, said Stephan Tanda, Director of Royal DSM and Chair of EuropaBio’s Industrial Biotechnology Council. “It underscores the commitment of both the Commission and of industry to work together with a broad community of European stakeholders, from farmers to foresters, to scientists to citizens in the development of a world leading EU bio-based economy,” Tanda said. Continue reading
