The ETI’s modelling suggests that any future UK energy system capable of delivering on its climate change targets, but without using bioenergy, would cost more than £50 billion per year by 2050. However, the ETI’s own analysis, alongside work conducted by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and other work funded by the UK Research Councils, reveals that the country could potentially utilise volumes of domestically grown biomass to help fuel the UK’s energy future.
In order to achieve this, and for bio-dedicated conversion technologies to be confidently designed and deployed, there is a need for greater knowledge of the variability in feedstock characteristics, and understanding of how these affect, on a system level, the overall costs and performance of biomass value chains. A significant part of this work is the need to assess the system level of biomass pre-processing activities.
The Characterisation of Feedstocks project aims to provide an understanding of UK produced biomass properties, how they vary and identifying what causes this variability. It will sample several types of UK biomass under varying planting, growing, harvesting and storage conditions. The results will be analysed to understand what impacts different production and storage methods have on biomass properties. The outputs from the project will feed into a parallel project, to be launched soon, which will be a techno-economic assessment of biomass pre-processing activities.
“Our modelling work to date has shown the value of Bioenergy in the delivery of a low carbon transition and the meeting of UK climate change targets” said Dr Geraint Evans, Programme Manager, Bioenergy at the ETI, who is leading the selection process for the project. “To make this a reality we need to increase our understanding of what is the best use of any sustainable feedstock produced in the UK at a system level. This project and our upcoming techno-economic assessment of biomass pre-processing project aims to help us do that. For this first project we are seeking to team up with partners who can bring their expertise in the area of biomass properties and biomass production in order to help us further develop an evidence base for the use of Bioenergy in a future UK low carbon energy system.”
The deadline to submit proposals is the 15th August 2014. The ETI is a public-private partnership between global energy and engineering companies and the UK Government. Its role is to act as a conduit between academia, industry and the government to accelerate the development of low carbon technologies, bringing together engineering projects that develop affordable, secure and sustainable technologies to help the UK address its long term emissions reductions targets as well as delivering nearer term benefits.
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