Véronique Hervouet
Chair, Steering Committee, European Biofuels Technology Platform

The Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) proposed by the European Commission and endorsed by the Energy Council in February 2008 is calling for a sharp acceleration in deployment of innovative energy technologies, delivering progress beyond “business as usual” R&D&D implementation to bring a strong contribution to the ambitious EU 2020 Climate & Energy objectives. Within the SET-Plan, the European Industrial Initiative on Bio-Energy (EII-B) provides a timely opportunity to look at the challenges of demonstrating the most promising technologies in the large and complex area of bioenergies.

Demonstration was identified by the EBTP Strategic Research Agenda and Strategy Deployment Document (SRA/SDD) as a critical step in achieving the EU's ambitious goals for biofuels as part of its Energy and Climate Policy.

During 2008, EBTP has developed a pragmatic approach to identify and analyse the innovative biofuels and bioenergy value chains that could bring a significant contribution to the ambitious EU objectives for renewables and sustainable biofuels, in addition to existing bioenergy and biofuels pathways.

The 13th Steering Committee (SC) meeting of the EBTP was held in Brussels on 24 September 2008.

Several new SC members were welcomed, and made presentations on their current biofuels R&D&D activities.

The EBTP recently participated in the public consultation on sustainable biomass issued by the EC. The contribution from the EBTP was finalised.

The Priority working group presented a draft document that identifies value chains most likely to make a contribution to the ambitious EU 2020 objectives for innovative bioenergy and biofuel within the IEE-B.

Updates were presented on the recently created Database of European Biofuels R&D&D projects and on a preliminary database on biofuels pilot plants.

SC Members discussed the programme of the Second Stakeholder Plenary Meeting, which will focus on demonstration projects, illustrated by presentations on case studies of moving from pilot to demonstration stage.

It was confirmed that EBTP will participate with 8 further KBBE related TPs, in the KBBE project “BEcoTePs" - The Bio-Economy Technology Platforms join forces to address synergies and gaps between their Strategic Research Agendas.

In recent weeks, a number of changes have taken place in the membership of the EBTP Steering Commitee and Work Group.

Ricardo Arjona has resigned as co-chair of WG2 and Alexandre Rojey, current chair of WG2 has announced his retirement from IFP at the end of November 2008. Martin Mittelbach has also resigned as an SC member.

The EBTP offers sincere thanks to Ricardo, Alexandre and Martin for their expertise and the many important contributions they made to the development of the SRA/SDD in 2007 and its ongoing implementation this year.

To maintain the balance within the Steering Commitee, 5 New members have been proposed and elected including active industry players, representatives from academia, and other TPs with strong interfaces with the EBTP.

Martha Heitzmann (Air Liquide, FR)
Steen Skjold-Jørgensen (Novozymes, DK/USA)
Professor Gianpietro Venturi (Bologna University & Chair of Biofuels Italia) Philip J. Bowen (Cardiff University, UK)
Dirk Carrez (SusChem TP, BE)

In addition, Ingvar Landälv (Chemrec AB, SE) has been elected to be the new Co-Chair of Working Group 2 on Conversion. Harri Turpeinen has become the Chair of WG3 on End Use, and Henrik Landälv (Volvo) is the new Co-Chair.

We welcome all the new members, who will provide valuable contributions to the prioritisation and demonstration of innovative value chains for the production of biofuels and bioenergy.

View full details of Steering Committee Members

The EBTP Secretariat has a new co-ordinator, Magnus Henke, STEM, who takes over from Peter Ahlvik. The EBTP thanks Peter for his contribution to the Secretariat and wishes him every success for the future.

The 2nd Stakeholder Plenary Meeting of the EBTP will be held at the Diamant Centre, Brussels on 22 January 2009. The focus will be on demonstration of innovative biofuels and bioenergy value chains that could bring a significant contribution to the ambitious EU objectives for renewables and sustainable biofuels, within the framework of the EII-B.

Case studies on a range of demonstration projects will be presented. A full programme and regsitration details will be circulated in November.

In May 2008, the EBTP launched an online database for mapping of key biofuels R&D&D projects relevant to the SRA/SDD. Several stakeholders have submitted details of new projects, including national projects in Spain and Germany.

To achieve a more detailed overview on the state of R&D&D on biofuels within Europe and the Member States, the EBTP welcomes further submissions on national biofuels projects.

How to register as a stakeholder and submit new projects >>

The priority working group has developed a methodology to identify those value chains most likely to bring relevant contribution to the ambitious EU 2020 objectives for bioenergy and biofuel, beyond existing biofuels and bioenergy value chains.

From an initial list of 22 bioenergy value chains suggested by EBTP Steering Committee members, a short list of 6 “generic” bioenergy value chains displaying very different characteristics in terms of feedstocks, type of processing, level of technical maturity and end products has been established:

• Ligno-cellulosic alcohols
• Ligno-cellulosic synfuels
• Micro-organism based lipid production of biofuels
• Sugar & starch chemically converted into HCs (using L-C as a feedstock with biochemical conversion into sugar & starch)
• Pyrolysis based biofuels pathway
• Gasification to SNG (biomethane)

Further analysis on these value chains, the technical challenges involved and the needed demonstration and budget at stake is ongoing. The priority WG is also working on a contribution paper from the EBTP regarding the European Industry Initiative on Bioenergy.

The EBTP will participate with 8 further KBBE related TPs, in the KBBE project “BEcoTePs - The Bio-Economy Technology Platforms join forces to address synergies and gaps between their Strategic Research Agendas” under the KBBE call “Coordinating the activities of KBBE relevant European Technology Platforms” (KBBE-2008-1-4-11) closed on 26 Feb 2008.

The proposal will contribute to closing gaps between the individual strategic objectives and research agendas. Key activities are workshops and targeted events towards European and Member State institutions. The EBTP is involved for non food activities; the FNR as part of the secretariat will be the focal point between the TP and BECOTEP. The proposal was evaluated positively; the contract is under negotiation and expected to start in March 2009.

Members of the Biofuels TP Steering Committee, Working Groups and Secretariat have been involved in (or will be speaking at) various biofuels events across Europe. A selection of these is listed below.

30 September 2008
ETP Leaders Seminar (Brussels, Belgium)
Véronique Hervouet, Chair of Steering Committee participated in the seminar on behalf of the TP and Birger Kerckow, FNR, participated on behalf of the Secretariat of the EBTP

15/16 October 2008
3rd BTL Congress 2008 (Berlin, Germany)
Véronique Hervouet, Chair of the Steering Committee gave a presentation on day one with the title “Overcoming the challenges of developing sustainable biofuels: which R&D priorities for European stakeholders?
View event website

15/16 October 2008
EU Bioenergy contractors meeting (Brussels, Belgium)
Gustav Krantz, STEM, represented the Secretariat of the EBTP, and gave a presentation on day one

28th October 2008
ERA NET Bioenergy Conference (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Birger Kerckow, FNR, Secretariat, gave a presentation on the EBTP
View event programme

30-31 October 2008
Biomass and biofuels production from algae oil
Alicante, Spain

3-6 November 2008
REA Bioenergy 2008
Birmingham, UK

3-6 November 2008
World Ethanol 2008
Paris, France

Technological Learning in the German Biodiesel Industry
Masters thesis of Niels Berghout, University of Utrecht, Netherlands
This report appears on the website of IEA Bioenergy Task39 - commercializing 1st and 2nd Generation liquid biofuels from biomass. The page includes links to a number of other recent reports, including:

• Status and outlook for biofuels, other alternative fuels and vehicles
• Analysis and identification of gaps in the research for the production of second generation liquid biofuels
• Biofuels in the European Union: An overview on the EU biofuels policy
• Ethanol from lignocellulosics: Comparing biofuel technology options
• Second generation biofuels: A review from a market barrier perspective

Visit download page

Biofuels Projects and Activities in the EU
Version 2
The above reports was developed as part of the European Commission funded project, Biofuel Cities
920 kb download

Who-is-Who-and-Where in the biofuel field
Version 2
The above reports was developed as part of the European Commission funded project, Biofuel Cities
1.0 Mb download