description
- Cost-efficient, environmental-friendly and socially sustainable biomass supply chains are urgently needed to achieve the 2020 targets of the Strategic Energy Technologies-Plan of the European Union, which are likely to be impeded by the potential scarcity of lignocellulosic biomass from agriculture. Innovative techniques for crop management, biomass harvesting and pre-treatment, storage and transport offer a prime avenue to increase biomass supply while keeping costs down and minimizing adverse environmental impacts. The LogistEC project aims at developing new or improved technologies for all steps of the logistics chains, and at assessing their sustainability at supply-area level for small to large-scale bio-based projects. It encompasses all types of lignocellulosic crops: annual and multi-annual crops, perennial grasses, and short-rotation coppice. Through specific meta-analyses, laboratory tests, field trials, ecosystem modelling and mechanical engineering, the project will deliver recommendations for optimal technologies as well as new equipments and systems. A framework will be developed to integrate chain components and assess their sustainability in terms of environmental, economic and social impacts. It will enable a multi-criteria optimization of the supply chains, making the most of the progresses achieved in the new logistics technologies. The optimization system will be developed and tested in a set of bio-energy and bio-materials case-studies across Europe. Improved logistics will be demonstrated at pilot and industrial scales in 2 regions (Eastern France and Southern Spain) for existing bio-energy and bio-materials value chains. All technology developments will be carried out with industrial partners, to speed up their transfer to market. Project results will be disseminated to the relevant stakeholder groups via scientific and technical conferences, targeted events in connection with the demonstration sites, the project web site and newsletters.