Sustainable raw material supply www.fnr.de Sustainable raw material supply for the Production of Biomethane WP4: “Sustainable raw material supply for the production of biomethane.” the general situation in Germany regarding biogas/ biomethan production, respective market conditions, and used feedstocks (including classic as well as “new” crops/ renewable resources). As Christoph has already mentioned in his previous email, we further  intend to  present and discuss the WP 4 approach highlighting critical feedstock sustainability aspects and, hopefully as a team effort, elaborating topics that need to be addressed in this WP and the associated next working steps. The structure could be as follows: a. Why is raw material availability for renewable energy production a problem from a sustainability point of view? The idea is to present the German biogas/biomethane experience under the new Renewable Energy Act (EEG) and highlight problems and critical issues such as “Vermaisung” (monoculture cultivation of maize is a topic that dominated political discussion and led to severe cuts under the EEG). b. What do we do in the BIOSURF project? Overview of the WP4 approach with the presentation of our major “research” questions, issues, problems, criticalities, etc. to stimulate discussion with participants. Here we might want to think also of a more structured interactive action with the audience, such as, asking stakeholders to assess via a SWOT analysis approach their current “business environment” from a raw material supply perspective. However, this depends, among others, on the composition of the invited and attending stakeholder group and your opinion on such an exercise. c. Q/A session with the audience. 4. Thank you for inputs on your session. I agree that being the first one, we should be somehow broader in the scope, and collecting inputs and eventually suggestions on how to orient the future work. As for a possible SWOT analysis, I fear this could be a little bit too in depth and honestly I don't know what about the stakeholders attending: probably Franz could provide us some feedback on that. the presentation from EBA, FNR and DBFZ should be only 5-10 minutes each, exactly to introduce the discussion within the group, even if having only 10 person per each. The splitting should help to discuss the three topics separately and in depth. For feedstock streams: We should not address to much energy crops – this topic is already over in Austria and would only cause enmity. Thirdly at the moment I don´t see a country in which the biogas potential from sustainable feedstock is already treated – for example in Austria we still could quadruple our existing plants with feedstock from organic waste, farm fertilizer and other farm residues like catch crops and straw. The topic of energy crops seems to be over in some countries, however we have promised to address this in our WP4 Lodi 19/06/2015 Kristin Sternberg

Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR) Introduction: Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR)

FNR Facts and Tasks Founded: 1993 Main office: Gülzow (Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania) Support: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) Employees: >80 Legal status: Registered association Tasks: Support of research, development and demonstration projects in the field of material and energetic use of renewable resources Information and advice, public relations activities International and EU activities Target Group: Commercial enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises , private and public research institutions, universities, authorities, consumers Die Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe wurde 1993 gegründet und beschäftigt derzeit über 80 Mitarbeiter. Hauptaufgabe der FNR ist es v.a. Einzelprojekte im Bereich nachwachsende Rohstoffe für stoffliche und energetische Nutzung zu fördern. Sie tut dies in ihrer Eigenschaft als Projektträger über das Förderprogramm “Nachwachsende Rohstoffe” des Bundesministeriums für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL). Darüber hinaus nimmt die FNR auch Aufgaben im Bereich EU/Internationales war. Zu diesen zählt die Beteiligung an verschiedenen EU-Projekten, wie derzeit an 4 laufenden Projekten unter Horizont 2020, und die Teilnahme an diversen Gremien, wie z.B. der Experten Gruppe der Europäischen Kommission zu biobasierten Produkten.

English Website: international.fnr.de

Sustainable Raw Material Supply for the Production of Biomethane BIOSURF What do we do in the BIOSURF project? Overview of the WP4 approach with the presentation of our major “research” questions, issues, problems, criticalities, etc. to stimulate discussion with participants. Here we might want to think also of a more structured interactive action with the audience, such as, asking stakeholders to assess via a SWOT analysis approach their current “business environment” from a raw material supply perspective. However, this depends, among others, on the composition of the invited and attending stakeholder group and your opinion on such an exercise.

Sustainable Raw Material Supply for the Production of Biomethane Sustainability Sustainability is the endurance of systems and processes. It includes four interconnected domains: ecology (i.e. ensuring that biological systems remain diverse and productive), economics, politics and culture BIOSURF assesses and evaluates: Availability and potential of sustainable feedstocks National sustainability criteria & indicators, incl. a benchmark and gap analysis And produces „Guidelines for biomethane value chain evaluation“

Selected sustainable raw material categories Animal waste Manure and slurry Other waste materials E.g. municipal bio-waste from households and catering, and food and feed industry residues Residues from Agriculture & Landscape Maintenance E.g. by-products from agriculture like straw, grass from landscape maintenance, catch crops

Use of substrates for Biogas-Plants Comparison France - Germany Bonus vor slurry use in France As off 2015, use of energy crops will be forbidden for certain plants The main problem is: currently we don‘t know, if our glas with sustainable biomass potential is half full or half empty. This circumstance gains importance behind the background of the forecasted population growth to 9 bn. People by the year 2020 and the planned paradigm shift in Europe, and elsewhere, to switch from a fossil-based to bio-based bioeconomy. This means we have to deal with an allocation problem, where we have to assure that a scarce resource is efficiently used by the 4 Fs: Food, Feed, Fibre and Fuel. Optimists and pessimists: both are wrong, but as an optimist you feel better!

Task 4.2 – Data collection, processing and estimation of current/ future technical & sustainable raw material supply Next Steps DBFZ has developed a nice figure showing the different kinds of potentials. It is important to differentiate biomethane feedstock potentials accordingly and to do this as accurately as possible. Otherwise the identified potentials might be a bit misleading, which eventually will effect the whole value chain. Theoretical: total amount of considered waste materials and land area for biomass cultivation Technical: takes into account: - competition of use (Food, Feed, Fertiliser, etc.) - ecological restrictions (humus balance, nature conservation sites, biodiversity) - technical restrictions (losses during the process chain) Economical: varies and strongly depends on - political framework - prices of energy carrier - development of conversion technology Sustainable: takes into account - nature conservation - resource conservation - agricultural restrictions (e.g. safeguarding soil fertility) - other sustainability criteria (GHG savings, ILUC…) Source: DBFZ 10

Availability/ Potentials of sustainable raw materials Potential & use of biogas substrates in Germany in 2013 The main problem is: currently we don‘t know, if our glas with sustainable biomass potential is half full or half empty. This circumstance gains importance behind the background of the forecasted population growth to 9 bn. People by the year 2020 and the planned paradigm shift in Europe, and elsewhere, to switch from a fossil-based to bio-based bioeconomy. This means we have to deal with an allocation problem, where we have to assure that a scarce resource is efficiently used by the 4 Fs: Food, Feed, Fibre and Fuel. Optimists and pessimists: both are wrong, but as an optimist you feel better!

Change of substrate mix – a way towards more sustainability Obvious change of the avarage substrate mix for biogas plants over the passed years in Germany

Workshop - Sustainable Raw Material Supply for the Production of Biomethane Q&A Discussion Der WS soll ja auch dazu genutzt werden, dass wir ein paar Informationen aus der Praxis bekommen, um unsere Aufgaben im Projekt besser bearbeiten zu können.

Guiding questions Use of feedstocks How is the general substrate mix for biogas plants in Italy? (field reports) Is the focus rather on local availabilty (related to climate and soil quality) or on external drivers (e.g. feed in tariffs that promote use of plants with highest biogas production) Availability & Potentials of feedstocks How is the availability of the discussed sustainable feedstocks? Where can information on this topic be obtained (Italian studies on biogas feedstock potentials?) Discussion about optimisation of sustainable feedstock use/ supply Challenges related to use of wastes and residues in biogas plants What role does sustainability play in daily operations of biogas plants/ national politics Need for action regarding sustainable feedstock supply/ potical framework Which outcomes do you expect from this project DBFZ – animal waste Letztlich gibt es in Italien relativ große Tierhaltungsbetriebe. Auch das sollten wir in die Fragestellung miteinbeziehen. für den Workshop fände ich einerseits Fragen, zu Datengrundlagen und andererseits zur genauen Erwartungshaltung an den Detailgrad und bestimmte Themenfokusse interessant. Gibt es Informationen zur Lage, und Kapazität von Viehbetrieben (von Serbien z.B. gibt es solche Daten ab bestimmten Betriebsgrößen von Veterinärämtern; gesammelt vom Ministerium für Landwirtschaft). Gibt es bereits Daten zur aktuellen Nutzung von tierischen Exkrementen in Biogasanlagen oder von den anderen Rohstoffkategorien in den jeweiligen Ländern? Bis zu welchem geografischen Detailgrad ist eine Rohstoffverortung von Interesse? ARGE – other waste materials Möglicher Diskussionspunkt wäre wie sich der Einsatz von Gärprodukten hinsichtlich Feldkapazität u Bodenfruchtbarkeit auswirkt bzw. auswirken könnte. Zur Vermeidung von Erosion, Erhöhung der Feldkapazität u Bodenfruchtbarkeit muss man glaube ich den Einsatz von Gärprodukten miteinbeziehen. Auch europ. Ebene arbeiten wir z.b.: daran das Gärprodukte nicht der 175 kg N Begrenzung von Wirtschaftsdüngern unterliegen. FNR – Sustainable biomass Für meinen Themenblock werde ich zum Beispiel den Anbau von Zwischenfrüchten ansprechen. Eine kurze Übersicht über die deutschen Verhältnisse soll dann (hoffentlich) die italienischen Akteure im WS anregen über die diesbezügliche Situation in Italien zu sprechen. ich glaube bei Italien müssen wir die besonderen klimatischen Bedingungen berücksichtigen und sollten dies auch speziell erfragen. In der Poebene, mit besten Wachstumsbedingungen sind Zwischenfrüchte sicherlich gut möglich – besser sogar als bei uns. Ob dies aber auch in Mittelitalien nur annähernd so ist wäre interessant. Möglicher Diskussionspunkt wäre wie sich die Zwischenfruchtproduktion hinsichtlich Feldkapazität u Bodenfruchtbarkeit auswirkt bzw. auswirken könnte. Weiters gibt es sehr unterschiedliche Aussagen zur Verfügbarkeit von Stroh. Auch das wäre eine Frage wert.

Thank you for your attention! Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V. (FNR) Hofplatz 1 18276 Gülzow-Prüzen info@fnr.de www.fnr.de www.international.fnr.de k.sternberg@fnr.de

Availability Is there enough information concerning the availability of all raw material categories? How do you obtain information about biomass availability? At what level of detail are data sets available? At what geographical level are data of interest for you and what for (e.g. planning, political consultancy)? Is there information available about the location and capacity of animal husbandries? For example in Serbia the Ministry of Agriculture collects such data from a certain farm size on. How does the “EU-Waste Framework Directive” influence the future amount and availability of biowaste? Are there any efforts visible regarding the development of a circular economy? How are catch crops integrated in the Italian farming system? How do climate conditions affect their availability? Is there any information about straw availability or usable material from landscape maintenance?

Uses How is the general substrate mix for biogas plants in Italy? (field reports) Is the focus rather on local availability (related to climate and soil quality) or on external drivers (e.g. feed in tariffs that promote use of plants with highest biogas production) What are the competing uses for biomethane production? Do urgent Disposal problems exist? Does a monitoring of biomass potentials, current plants and the used feedstock exist or is it planned? Do you expect a change from current landfilling, incineration and composting of biowaste to digesting? Topics which could be additional drivers for that? Are catch crops used in biomethane production at a significant rate? If yes or no, why and which ones? Is straw used in biomethane production at a significant rate? If yes or no, why?

Discussion What are challenges related to the use of the raw material categories for biogas/biomethane production? Does any raw material category has a high potential of conflict because of competing uses? Separate collection of biowaste? How can we avoid impurities in biowaste streams How could the use of digestates have an impact on yields and soil fertility? What are measures to avoid soil erosion, increase yields and soil fertility? Do you consider a limit of 175 kg N for digestate useful as it is European law for farm fertiliser? Is the use of straw for biomethane production a problem for yields and soil fertility? Is the use of catch crops for biomethane production a problem for yields and soil fertility? Need for actions: what needs to be done to overcome the challenges related to the sustainable use of feedstocks for biomethane production?