The international project Bioenergy4Business (B4B), funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union, supports and promotes the partial substitution of fossil fuels used for heating with available bioenergy sources, such as by products of the wood-based industry, forest biomass, pellets, straw and other agricultural biomass products. This ambitious European project is currently targeting 10 EU countries and Ukraine. Presently, European businesses are dependent on coal, oil and natural gas, which are often imported from politically unstable regions: B4B aims at moving on and at helping businesses exploit the sustainable and considerable economic potential of European bioenergy heat. B4B not only wants to convince stakeholders of the opportunities that are created by local value chains for bioenergy heat, but also targets policy makers, encouraging and – in some cases – speeding up the development of policy frameworks for sustainable, profitable and high-quality bioenergy heat. The project contributes to the achievement of the 2020 RES targets in the EU member states and paves the way for the use of bioenergy heat beyond 2020.
Reports guidelines and tools for bioheating
Several publications are already available on the project’s website:
• Country reports on the most promising bioheat markets identified in 11 target countries;
• Bioenergy framework conditions for 11 target countries;
• Comparative Analysis of Barriers, Opportunities and Needs of Promising Market Segments;
• Bioenergy business models & financing conditions;
• Guidelines for high quality planning of bioenergy systems;
• Best practice examples of biomass utilization for heat purposes;
• Model contract for biomass delivery;
• Calculation tool of Solid Biofuel Parameters for the conversion from prices per volume or weight unit to energy;
• Biomass plant dimensioning tool for estimating the size of biomass boilers based on fuel consumption, size of the building size and insulation level.
• Biomass in-house boilers for potential operators/investors: a review of different boiler types used for in-house heating applications;
• Supply of solid biofuels for mid-scale heat plants: a report on market requirements, biomass resources, biofuel production and recommendations for biofuel suppliers with respect to mid-scale heat plants.
Bioheat training activities and seminars coming up
B4B is also meant to show investors and operators how biomass can be used in an energy-efficient and cost-effective way. Sound business and financing models are already in place in several of the targeted countries, but more efforts are needed to build an enabling, fertile environment that can allow bioenergy to face the fossil fuel challenge – and to substitute the use of fossil fuels for heating whenever and wherever possible, both in district heating and in-house applications. To achieve this, it is key to deliver sound, reliable know-how on both the supply and use of biomass – and to advise businesses in preparing business strategies and models. To do so, B4B plans to train developers, consultants, heat operators and energy services companies to assess and
develop projects in communities with district heating and in sectors where heat is autoproduced.
The training activities are related to three to four national heat markets that were identified as the ones that are most promising and prone to switch to biomass – an effort that spreads over of the 11 target countries. The first national training seminars will take place in April and May. They will be focused on one of the identified in-house bioheat target markets. Two further national training seminars will follow in the 2nd semester of 2016.
