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 (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology environmental biotechnology bioremediation bioreactors
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology biomaterials biofuels
- agricultural sciences agricultural biotechnology biomass
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
33100 Tampere
Finland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.