The research focus on sustainable biomass production is placed on making best use of biomass resources for conversion plants while assuring safety and flexibility of supply, quality of the biomass, ecological sustainability, and decrease of the costs of biomass feedstock.
This research is expected to significantly contribute to increase in conversion efficiency, along with a synchronised reduction in production costs for advanced bio-products by 2030, compared to the present situation.
There are four kinds of biomass: forest biomass, agricultural biomass, algae biomass, and biogenic waste biomass, that need practical advance in public acceptance and in the security of a long-term sustainable supply to biomass conversion plants.
The biomass research priorities concern the following.
- Increasing forest resilience towards climatic accidents.
- Optimising business concepts for forest harvesting operations.
- Development of new management practices with low environmental impacts in line with the development of multicriteria assessment tools and methods for forest biomass.
- Development of models to be used as decision support tools to organise the forest biomass market.
The sustainable use of agricultural resources demands efforts to increase the economic competitiveness of producing biomass while reducing the environmental impact. In this context, knowledge about the various types of biomass is required, and the research activities must be focused on:
- Increasing the knowledge of agricultural biomass utilisation by defining appropriate agricultural management solutions to reduce the environmental impact.
- Intensifying agricultural production through design and optimisation of innovative systems for agroforestry.
- Optimisation of feedstock supply systems and logistics chains through yield improvements, environmental impact reduction, and exploration of new biomass resources.
- Evaluation of the impacts of biomass agricultural production systems on the environment and the certification schemes and public policy frameworks through Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of whole value chains.
Algal biomass possesses important potential advantages but also some constraints (more 3.2.2).
The research priorities for improving the energy efficiency, the environmental sustainability, and the economic competitiveness of algal biomass to produce bio-products are focused in the following directions:
selection and genetic manipulations of algal species/strains for improvement of physiological and technological characteristics to achieve enhanced overall efficiency of the production process, biomass yield and its harvesting, extraction and productivity of target final products, and restriction of contaminationation. All these characteristics can have a positive impact on the production process.
technical/technological innovations in microalgae cultivation and harvesting processes for diminishing energy demands and costs for lightening and harvesting and optimising of the lightening systems operation in the photobioreactors. Regarding macroalgae, the research trends encompass development of automated systems for harvesting and effective techniques for fast stabilisation and long-term storage prior to use.
Creation of predictive models for optimal cultivation and harvesting of macroalgae, respecting the indicators seaweed quality and most appropriate harvesting time.
Coupling of biofuel production with the extraction and marketing of valuable products, such as proteins, antioxidants, pigments, etc.
Biogenic waste includes urban, agro-industrial, and green waste; livestock waste, and other sources of organic material. It can be transformed through thermo- and bio-chemical, conversion or via anaerobic degradation depending on the water content of the raw material (low, for the former or high for the latter types of bio-waste). The conversions result in obtaining advanced biofuels and bio-products - soluble materials rich in organic matter, which have diverse practical applications: from heating to electricity production, to bio-hydrogen and bio-methane.
The biogenic waste management and application require strategies grounded on research along the entire waste value chain. The stages considered are: mobilisation of the waste feedstock, processes of its transformation and the recovery, and application of the obtained end products.
The research studies need to be organised in a way that achieves two mayor objectives:
- implementation of safety measures while manipulating the waste to prevent exposure to health risks;
- minding the procedures of the conversion technologies to increase the transformation yield.
Research priorities regarding the waste value chain stages cover:
There is a gap in choosing the best methods to collect and store waste feedstock in order to guarantee its regular and secure supply. In this context, research efforts must be focussed on development of technologies for eliminating contaminated pathogenic microorganisms, for efficient pre-treatment procedures, and for removal of the unusable fractions in the waste feedstock.
- Integration of the conversion process;
- Extended uses of waste feedstock for production of bio-based products;
- Expoiting digital predictive models for development of efficient anaerobic digestion technologies using criteria such as the waste quality, the environmental impact, especially the effect of the waste-derived biofertilisers on soil;
- Public acceptance of waste technologies in terms of social and economic risk analyses.