November 28/30, 2017: SEEMLA National Workshop, Project Meeting & Field trip
In November 2017, a three-day joint event of SEEMLA partner project took place in Thessaloniki and near Komotini, Greece. The event started on Tuesday, November 28rd, 2017, at Thessaloniki, to Mediterranean Palace Hotel, with the National Workshop: “Exploiting the potentialities of biomass production on MagLs in the Mediterranean region”. The workshop emphasized topics such as energy, bioenergy, production & use of biomass, nature conservation and environment protection and it was directed to experts and prospective customers, who act in such areas of interest.
The National workshop was opened by Dr. Fragiskakis Nikitas, General Director of Forests and Rural Affairs, D.A.M.T, Professor Spyros Galatsidas, representative of the Democritus University of Thrace and Dr.Peri Kourakli representative of Minister of Environment and Energy of Greece. Introductory lectures on the SEEMLA project were presented by Greek Seemla project partners Fotis Kiourtsis, Dimitris Keramitzis & Despina Vlachaki.
In the morning part, two lectures of practitioners from the Greek energy market were given: Despina S. Chatzigavriel and Dr Aristoklis D. Anastasiadis, from HORIZON S.A. presented a review of Research and design of energy utilization process of biomass from domestic energy plant crops, forestry and agricultural residues; Dimitrios Tertipis from Geothermal Energy & Biomass Department-Public Power Company Renewables S.A. presented the “Biomass utilization for energy production of large scale – The case of PPCR S.A. plant of 25MWe”.
The second part started with Dr. Ermioni Maliarou (on behalf of Professor Phil Aravanopoulos) from Faculty of Agriculture, Forest Science & Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who presented the topic about the Short rotation intensive culture bioenergy plantations of fast growing forest trees in Greece as an unexploited potential. Then Ioannis Eleftheriadis, from Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving of Greece (CRES) presented the Horizon 2020 project MaGIC that related to “MArginal lands for Growing Industrial Crops: Turning a burden into an opportunity”. The last presenter was Dr. Charalampos Lykidis, Researcher from Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter” Institute of Mediterranean & Forest Ecosystems-Laboratory of Wood Anatomy and Technology who presented the “Assessment of forest raw materials for the production of solid biofuels”.
To the end of the workshop an open discussion was open about the Current status & potentialities of biomass production on MagLs for bioenergy purposes in Greece. In the conclusion of the workshop, the participants declared their support for the biomass production on MagLs for bioenergy purposes in Greece and to support the results of SEEMLA project.
The main messages of the participatory consultations were the following:
- For implementing potentialities of biomass production on MagLs for bioenergy purposes in Greece, training and good two-way communication between researchers and professionals are essential, also in terms of giving feedback/results to professionals in order for them to see the results of their work.
- For costs of the biomass production on MagLs for bioenergy purposes, the finally selected L.C.A indicators should be chosen with care to truly give useful information.
- To present potentialities of biomass production on MagLs for bioenergy purposes in Greece to policymakers, a clear message must be given on the usefulness of biomass production on MagLs and a demonstration/pilot case presented for illustration.
On November 29th, the 5rd Project Meeting of SEEMLA project at Thessaloniki took place, to Mediterranean Palace Hotel, were all partners representatives were present.
On November 30th, the hosts presented the Greek Seemla monitoring plots (Drosia & Pelagia) on the peninsula of Rodopi on the eastern side of the Greece. Dimitris Keramitzis presented all important information about the project plots and all present team members had the change to have a clear view on monitoring process and current status of the plots.
The three-day events, concluded with a discussion in a working lunch where Greek organizers emphasized that biomass production on MagLs must be communicated to the specific audience in the context of a “clear” environmental solution improved by LCA analysis for bioenergy production. The results of the project will have to be adapted to the needs of practitioners as a tailor made solution for each climatic zone and each type of marginal land.
