Seemla final conference: highlights and project’s achievements
SEEMLA & ADVANCEFUEL projects held a shared event the 20th– 21st of November 2018 in Brussels, Belgium. These projects are coordinated by the FNR, and funded by the EU H2020 programs.
The first part of the event consisted of the SEEMLA final conference, which implemented a sustainable land-use strategy for a sustainable production of plant-based energy on marginal lands. The so-called, “SEEMLA approach” was developed as an integrated set of environmental, ecological, social, economic, and biophysical criteria, in order to re-convert degraded and marginal lands in the name of the production of bioenergy. The results of the ending SEEMLA project were shared with a broad group of stakeholders (scientists, farmers, foresters, policy decision makers, etc.)
The SEEMLA’s final conference began with a presentation from Maria Georgiadou, (DG Research and Innovation, and European Commission), who gave an overview about current and future R&D policy support regarding advanced biofuels and bioenergy. She positively acknowledged the cooperative effort of all the participating projects, and encouraged the project representatives to continue this form of collaboration, which helps in harmonising results as well as developing obvious synergies.
Afterwards, SEEMLA’s coordinator and chair of the event, Diego Piedra-Garcia (FNR), introduced the project. The SEEMLA project team presented their main results by showing the project pilot cases in Germany, Greece and Ukraine, by describing their specific approaches regarding the use of marginal lands for biomass production. They highlighted opportunities and potentials, as well as the challenges involved in the use of marginal lands – particularly with a view to ecological and socio-economic impacts. Additionally, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the SEEMLA GIS tool were presented, initiating a productive discussion between stakeholders.
Mr. Diego Mattioli, representing Legambiente onlus, underlined the importance of the exploitation of biomass in a sustainable way. Sustainability has to be considered as a key word for the energy transition process: indeed, the exploitation of biomass has to valorise and not interfere with the ecosistemic function and services, particularly in relation to mitigation and adaptation to climate change and it has to guarantee the preservation of the biodiversity and existing habitats in the marginal lands concerned.
These presentations were a smooth transition to the following SEEMLA & ADVANCEFUEL joint workshop, which began in the afternoon of the 20th and continued into the following day, bringing together a number of other relevant topics related to European projects and relevant stakeholders, to discuss innovative cropping systems and the supply chains for lignocellulosic biomass. MAGIC, GRACE, FORBIO, BECOOL, uP-running, and LIBBIO, are all EU funded projects that presented their results and specific case studies at the conference.
The workshop was led by the ADVANCEFUEL partners Philipp Grundmann, Sonja Germer, and Katharina Sailer from Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB).
ADVANCEFUEL’s coordinator, Kristin Sternberg (FNR), welcomed the participants to the workshop and gave a short introduction to the project. She highlighted the fact that this particular section of the workshop included eight European project partners working together in order to achieve results on shared issues.
The representatives from the contributing other projects (MAGIC, GRACE, FORBIO, BECOOL, uP-running, and LIBBIO) each briefly presented their projects and specific case studies. After the presentations, three interactive sessions were carried out on the following topics:
- Cost reduction versus impact on the environment
- Success stories and failures regarding lignocellulosic biomass value chains
- Feedstock for advanced biofuels: market opportunities and constraints
The topics were discussed in smaller groups involving specific analyses (in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)) of the selected scenarios. The results were subsequently presented to and then discussed with the entire group. The ADVANCEFUEL team will use the workshop’s outcomes to better determine the barriers involved in biomass production, as well as for describing promising strategies for successful feedstock provisioning in producing advanced biofuels. The workshop results will be an important contribution to the related ADVANCEFUEL reports, tools, and models.
This unique workshop was a collaborative effort of eight relevant topic-related European projects with numerous external stakeholders. The participants gave positive feedback and were very satisfied with this mutual exchange of experiences.
Seemla Final Conference
20th November 2018
– Maria Georgiadou, Senior Policy Officer, European Commission – DG Research & Innovation
EC research and innovation policies for advanced biofuels and bioenergy
– Diego Piedra-Garcia (FNR, Germany)
Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands and its contribution to mitigate the risk of competition between bio resources and food security
– Vadym Ivanina (Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet, Ukraine)
Understanding Marginal Land – challenges and expectation
– Fotis Kiourtsis, DAMT, Greece; Werner Gerwin BTU CS, Germany, Iryna Gnap , IBC&SB, Salix Energy, Ukraine
Bioenergy production on MagL in pilot cases: reports from the Ukrainian, Greek and German case study sites
– Nils Rettenmaier (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, IFEU, Germany)
How environmentally and socio-economically sustainable is biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands?
– Spyridon Galatsidas, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
SEEMLA approach development: the GIS application for MagL types availability
– Diego Piedra-Garcia (FNR, Germany)
Policy recommendations for biomass production on Marginal Lands (MagL): the SEEMLA approach
Advancefuel – Seemla joint Workshop
20th – 21st November 2018
– Philipp Grundmann, (ATB, Germany)
Welcome & Introduction
– Kristin Sternberg (FNR, Germany)
Introduction to the ADVANCEFUEL project
– Cosette Khawaja (WIP, Germany)
FORBIO – Fostering sustainable feedstock production for advanced biofuels on underutilised land in Europe
– Efi Alexopoulou, Center for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES, Greece)
MAGIC – Highlights from case studies on marginal lands
– Walter Zegada-Lizarazu (University of Bologna, Italy)
BECOOL – Brazil-EU Cooperation for Development of Advanced Lignocellulosic Biofuels
– Rob van Haren (Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands)
LIBBIO – Lupinus mutabilis for increased biomass from marginal lands and value for BIOrefineries
– Andreina ROMANO (DARE, Italy)
UP-RUNNING – Success cases for mobilization of wood from agricultural prunings
– Moritz Wagner (University Hohenheim, Germany)
GRACE – GRowing Advanced industrial Crops on marginal lands for bioRefineries
– Philipp Grundmann & Katharina Sailer (ATB, Germany)
Interactive session introduction
