Nov 23, 2018: ADVANCEFUEL's second stakeholder workshop was successfully held on 20-21 November in Brussels, Belgium. It was organized in co-operation with the final conference of the SEEMLA project and brought together eight European projects and relevant stakeholders to discuss innovative cropping systems and supply chains for lignocellulosic biomass.

The workshop brought together researchers and relevant stakeholders from eight European projects to discuss innovative cropping systems and supply chains for lignocellulosic biomass: ADVANCEFUEL, SEEMLA, MAGIC, GRACE, FORBIO, BECOOL, uP-running, LIBBIO.

Maria Georgiadou, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission, started the joint meeting by giving an overview of current and future policy support for advanced biofuels and bioenergy. She positively acknowledged the co-operation effort of all the participating projects and encouraged the representatives to continue this form of collaboration, helping to harmonise results and use obvious synergies.

For the project SEEMLA selected case studies in Germany, Greece and Ukraine were presented which described specific approaches regarding the use of marginal lands for biomass production. They highlighted opportunities and potentials but also the challenges involved in the use of marginal lands – particularly related to ecological and socio-economic impacts.

In her welcome address to the subsequent ADVANCEFUEL workshop project, co-ordinator Kristin Sternberg (FNR) highlighted the particular set-up of the workshop having eight European projects working together to discuss an overlapping topic. Presentations on work and specific study cases of all contributing projects were followed by three interactive sessions on the topics:

1. Cost reduction versus impact on the environment
2. Success stories and failures regarding lignocellulosic biomass value chains
3. Feedstock for advanced biofuels: market opportunities and constraints.

The workshop was led by ATB and its project representitives Philipp Grundmann, Sonja Germer and Katharina Sailer.

The ADVANCEFUEL team will use the workshop’s outcomes for better determining the barriers involved in the biomass supply and for describing promising strategies for successful feedstock provisioning for producing advanced biofuels. Workshop results will be processed and evaluated and eventually be an important contribution to the related ADVANCEFUEL reports, tools and models. 

Contact ATB: Philipp Grundmann, Sonja Germer and Katharina Sailer