Third partner meeting at Werlte, Germany
On the 13th and 14th December 2018, BIOCAS project partners from across the North Sea Region (NSR) met for the 3rd partnership meeting in Werlte, Germany. The meeting was hosted by 3N Kompetenzzentrum and Landkreis Heidekreis at the Klimacenter Werlte. The aim was to give updates on the project progress, share success stories, and learn from one another regarding biocascading principles.
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We were welcomed by Dr. Marie-Luise Rottmann-Meyer, the managing director of 3N Kompetenzzentrum.
During the first day, all partners presented their results so far. Very different subjects where highlighted. From developing (regional) innovative solutions in the transport- and industry sector till Polyphenols (flavonoids) from berry, apple and onion for nutraceutics and cosmetics. We were shown the festival cups made of PHBV and their testing on festival Welcome to the Village this summer. The testing gave interesting information for further development of the cups. Further, the work on the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the cups started. Also, we were shown the pictures of the first tonnes of red clover that were processed for the extraction of protein concentrate.
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After lunch we were given a tour around the Klimacenter. The Klimacenter offers information around the themes energy efficiency, building and isolation materials from renewable raw materials and new materials based on natural raw materials. In the Klimacenter there is, amongst other information, an exhibition of different types of pellet stoves and isolation materials.
Later in the afternoon we visited Audi’s “power to gas plant” where we learned about new fuel development. By means of electrolysis, hydrogen is produced. In the future it is expected that cars can drive on this, but there is no suitable infrastructure for this yet. In the plant, they therefor make a reaction between the hydrogen and CO2 after which a synthetic methane is produced, called Audi e-gas. This is almost exactly similar to natural gas, and can be spread via the nationwide infrastructure of gas stations.
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The second day we started with the steering group, where we spoke about the progression of the project. Good agreements were made about a.o. communications and we looked forward to the future. In the next half year, some interesting conferences will be held, where several BIOCAS pilots might be presented.
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After the steering group we split up in two groups. One group worked on the next phase of BIOCAS: we talked about the best ways to interest organisations outside the project to the developments that we are working on. There were a lot of tips like making the outcome visible (eg. what the bio cup BCA is doing), making a nice presentation with pictures or films. After that we developed a mind map that makes clear what the collaboration between the different BCA’s is and spoke about activities in the next half year.
The second group discussed LCA’s. During this session Jerke de Vries from VHL first gave an introduction to two different models for environmental assessments. These two models are the Attributional and the Consequential model. In short: using the first model you take into account very little side effects when you assess the alternative use of biomass. Using the second model you take into account much more side effects (e.g. Indirect Land Use Change). The group decided that performing environmental assessment on the different BCA's within BIOCAS we should use at least the consequential model as basis. Depending on the BCA it has to be seen how broad or narrow the incorporation of the side effects should be. This is very much depending on what kind of data is available in different databases.
After lunch a small group visited a biochar company, which was very interesting.
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Our next partner meeting will be in June 2019 in Leuven, Belgium!