Biomass Mobilisation, Innovation and Strategy Course

Wetter ways of farming

The notion of win-win situations returned in this second masterclass, in which we analysed and discussed the potential of mobilising wet biofeedstocks.

Seaweed

The first identified potential wet biofeedstock is seaweed, which has the main advantage over conventional feedstocks that they are grown in water and do not compete with food and feed crops over land. A preliminary study showed a total bioenergy potential of 350 PJ per year, when 5,000 km² could be made available for seaweed cultivation.

Peatlands and Paludiculture

The second part of the masterclass focussed on peatlands, which are currently a large carbon source due to the drainage management needed to make them suitable for agriculture. Globally, peatlands emit 2 Gtonnes of CO₂eq per year. Degraded peatlands could potentially be rewetted again, and so-called paludicrops which are tolerant for high water levels can be grown on it to create an alternative business model on these lands.

An interesting business case can be constructed for bioenergy production on these rewetted lands, along with the carbon savings that would results from rewetting. Studio gear Up calculated the bioenergy potential of the currently drained agricultural peatlands in Europe. Their results show that if a total area of 7.7 million ha in Europe would be used for paludiculture, a total bioenergy potential between 130 and 1,680 PJ could be achieved. This depends on the selection of so-called paludicrops which are suitable to grow on wet conditions. Hans Schutten from Wetlands International gave some good practices of rewetting in combination with benefits for local communities, creating win-win situations for all stakeholders. For example, he mentioned the case of Russia, where a large area of peatlands are rewetted again to reduce the risk of drained peatlands fires.

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Identifying and mapping unused residues and waste

With the past two masterclasses in our mind, the question rose which other bio feedstock streams are not fully developed yet/unused/waste. We identified that there are (big) streams of waste and residues which are currently not utilised, or simply thrown away. The highest hidden potential is within the agricultural sector, where large waste streams occur in cultivation, and large residue streams occur when (too much) residues are left on the field.

This was confirmed by Wolter Elbersen, who showed a previous study of the EU S2Biom project in which is stated that of the baseline potential, about half of biomass potential is currently used. There should be more attention for maintaining functionality when using residues and waste, and he highlighted the database that the WUR is currently working on, in which current applications and information of biomass residues are collected so that high functionality can be aimed for.

BioHub concept and the potential of data science in identification waste and residues

The presentation of Susan van der Veen highlighted the idea of the BioHub, which was first conceptualised by participants during the 2018 BioMob organised by the Platform Duurzame Biobrandstoffen. This concept allows to align the ecological and economic needs of local stakeholders with the economic and sustainable interests of other actors within the value chain.

Lastly, a light was shed on the importance of data science when identifying maps and residues. With the use of “web-scraping”, sparse time can be saved and more information can become available on potential uses of wastes and residues.

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