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| Work Plan: | |
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| To achieve the objectives, the project activities have been divided in five interactive work packages: |
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| WP1 addresses the whole biomass production chain of the selected perennial crops undern South European conditions. The selected biomass crops - Cynara cardunculus (cardoon), Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), Miscanthus x giganteus (miscanthus) and Arundo donax (giant reed) - were cultivated in large fields in representative agricultural regions in Greece, Italy and Spain and field measurements were used for the technical, economic and environmental analyses in the following work packages. The establishment, cultivation (Task 1.1), harvesting and pre-treatment (Task 1.2) of the crops were carried out with conventional agricultural equipment and techniques according to the crop specific requirements. The crops have been selected for their ability to be successively harvested so as to provide year-round availability. | |
| WP2 dealt with the thermochemical conversion processes, covering fuels characterization (Task 2.1) and multifueled tests of combustion (Task 2.2), pyrolysis (Task 2.3) and gasification (Task 2.4) of the raw material produced in WP1. A financial and economic assessment of the data collected form all previously mentioned work packages were accomplished in WP3. The process performance measures derived in WP2 were used to estimate overall process capital and product costs. A consistent basis was used to ensure comparability and enable economic and technical comparisons to be made. A methodology for providing overall assessment of the alternative processes was used that properly considers technical performance, economic performance, technical and financial risk, environmental factors and development requirements in order to derive recommendations for implementation. The aforementioned financial and economic assessment were complemented in WP4 with an environmental assessment using environmental impact assessment (EIA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques were conducted in all stages of all bioenergy chains. This first step (Task 4.1) included i) an assessment to evaluate the local environmental impacts due to the production of the energy crops by using EIA and ii) an assessment of the environmental implications of the biofuels under concern compared to their fossil counterparts using LCA according to the ISO 14040/43 standards. Herewith the complete life cycles of all fuels were taken into account. Second step (Task 4.2) was e a detailed assessment of all dependencies and sensitivities using results from the other work packages. Multi-functional dependencies were used to describe all differences under concern: different farming methods, country specific conditions, different technologies, different use of by-products and others. In the last Task (Task 4.3) of this Work Package, the best options for the production and use of a set of different biofuels in the future were identified using a multi-functional assessment tool. This was done for each country and region where applicable. The best options must ensure a year round availability by having lowest costs and the best environmental benefits possible. |
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Finally, a WP5 detailed the coordination of the project, dealing with managerial, exploitation and dissemination activities of the consortium. A best practice manual was drawn compiling the best options of bioenergy resources and technologies in Southern European countries, in monetary, economic and environmental terms. |
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