Draft
Summary
Meeting RRM-Group 13 October 2015
in the premises of COPA/COGECA, Brussels
The introductory remarks of the chairman described the priority activities of the RRMGroup which will be offered to the Commission, Member States via their National
Agencies, and Bio- Based Industry Workprogramme 2016.
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Generation and continuous updating of statistical data on biomass flows following
the whole sustainable value chains from biomass supply via intermediates/platform
chemicals to market data for bio-based products to DG JRC: Agenda item 1 and 2.
Cooperation with feedstock suppliers as partners including support to sustainable
biomass for bio-based industry in the frame of CAP and HORIZON 2020: Agenda
item 3.
Cooperation with EU branch organisations (e.g. Cefic, European Starch
Organisation, Fediol) and EU-member companies contributing to the definition and
identification of the sustainability of bio-based products work performed by CEN in
its respective standardization activities, Ecolabelling activities and exchange of
information related to procurement: Agenda item 7.
Cooperation with EU regional bioeconomy clusters: Agenda item 6.
Information on other actual and important issues: e.g., Circular Economy in relation
to the Bioeconomy: Agenda item 4.
1. Actualized RRM Group Template on Renewable Raw Materials
flow to platform chemicals and markets for bio-based products: October 2015
The actualized data since the last RRM meeting on 5 February 2015 were depicted
together with information on the uses of the different raw materials sources for
food/feed – material use – energy use. Their importance for the future energy and raw
material uses was highlighted as being crucial. The lack of statistical data on bioethanol
for these different uses was pointed out and the RRM-Group recommended getting in
contact with the respective associations including e-Pure, European Bioethanol Fuel
Association (eBIO), etc.. Hence, an update of the data in this respect is planned to be
presented at the next RRM-Group meeting. The federations present at this RRM-Group
meeting informed that they do not have access to these data, since the producers of
ethanol supply ethanol directly to different end-users.
The Nova-Institute analysis on bio-based economy, September 2015, “Global
bioeconomy in the conflict between biomass supply and demand” was presented and
addressed the following two questions: How much biomass can be sustainably
produced globally in 2050? How much of the demand for food, feed, materials,
bioenergy and biofuels can be met by this supply? This analysis analyzed different
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scenarios including the situation in 2011 in comparison to a scenario for 2050based on
Low biomass supply, business as usual, medium expectations and high expectations of
growth in this area. The results of the EU-BioTIC-Project study on the “Material use of
starch and sugar in Europe in 2013” and the “Material use of plant oil in Europe 2013”,
also prepared by the Nova-Institute, was presented in detail taking into account the
different data sources including, e.g., Fediol, EU-Starch Federation, Cefic and ERRMA.
Further contribution on data of biomass supply and demand and its use for energy,
fuels and organic chemicals in Europe was presented by the EU-S2Biom-Project. The
data and the methodological approaches for biomass policies were described for EUand National level.
2. EU-Bioeconomy Observatory: JRC Study of the Bio-based Industries;
preliminary results
The objectives of this survey were:
- Analysis of the business activity in the EU bio-based industries, including product
types, production trends, sales, investment, economics, R&D, employment as well
as biomass feedstock use and its origin.
- Identify the main drivers and barriers and benchmark EU bio-based industry against
the bio-based industries in key competitor regions.
Scope:
- Consultation to experts to fine-tune a list of relevant products (> 50)
- Definition and identification of the target population (EU companies).
- Structured questionnaire and Pilot survey
3. CAP and HORIZON 2020 Support to Sustainable Biomass for the
EU-Bio-Based Economy (follow-up ACHEMA Workshop)
The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) “Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability”
(APS) boosting research and innovation in agriculture and the bioeconomy was
highlighted.
Key issues are EU support under rural development:
- The new legislative framework has been set. Currently negotiation and adoption of
rural development programmes are worked upon.
A new aspect of these rural development activities includes innovation as cross-cutting
priority: EIP-APS aims at and provides an innovation tool to achieve Union priorities
for rural development.
Under “Rural Development Priorities” priority 5 “Resource efficiency and shift
towards a low carbon and climate resilient economy” is of utmost importance for the
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RRM-Group related to its activities on “Renewable sources of energy, by- products,
wastes and non-food raw material for the bio-economy”.
The EU wide EIP-network
This network located under the EIP-ASP working groups and welcomes activities that
focus on specific issues of bioeconomy.
4. EU-Circular Economy: Results of Public Consultation
The consultation was structured in different activities:
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Production phase;
Consumption phase;
Markets for secondary raw materials;
Regulatory obstacles of secondary raw materials;
Enabling factors;
Sectorial perspective differences.
The consultation of Member States resulted in the following main barriers:
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Lack of confidence in the quality of secondary raw materials, lack of standards;
Low price-competitiveness of secondary raw materials;
Regulatory incoherence (e.g. waste / chemicals).
Therefore, the following main possible future activities were highlighted:
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Standards of secondary raw materials, packaging;
Harmonization of waste management rules, calculation method;
Divert bio-waste from landfills;
Stimulate demand for secondary raw materials;
Improved monitoring (some Member States advocated for resource efficiency
targets).
The following discussion concluded that the coherence between the EU bioeconomy
and circular economy should be clearly emphasized. Bioeconomy issues were seen as
a part of the circular economy concept.
5. Carbon Capture and Utilization:
Smart Energy and Resources Symbiosis in the Delta Region is an industry initiative of
11 energy and resource intensive industries in South – West Netherland / North
Flanders including world scale actors as participants. On energy intensity these
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participants represent about 25 % of the NL-gas consumption, highly efficient in
industrial processes and cross sectorial minded activities. These latter activities are
offered by the food, energy, chemistry and steel industries allowing for industrial
symbiosis based on complementary opportunities including optimal logistical
infrastructure and availabilities of different value chains.
Industrial symbiosis examples in the delta regions include:
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Heat Symbiosis;
Steam Symbiosis;
Syngas Symbioses;
Hydrogen Symbioses.
6. European Chemicals Regions Network
This network consists of regional public authorities and is acknowledged as a European
chemical stakeholder platform. This is also a platform for collaboration and a promotor
of regional interests.
The regional political activities include:
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Creation of chemical parks;
Creation of chemical clusters;
Regional clusters, cross-border clusters, world-class clusters;
Setting up regional thematic networks, e.g., circular economy, sustainability, etc.
Forming trans-disciplinary networks; and
Awards for best practices.
These cluster organizations have a strong regional base. Here, each region develops
its own cluster policy based on measurable targets.
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Example: Flanders Innovation Hub for sustainable chemistry: Flanders Public
Private Partnership on chemistry (FISH).
Example Cross border clusters with bio-economy activities: Region North RhineWestphalia, Limburg/Brabant and Flanders. The so called BIG-C that is a cross
border cluster 4 value chains feedstock-to-product.
Example: BioEconomy Cluster in Sachsen-Anhalt: Leading Edge Cluster of the
German Federal Ministry of Research and Education. Actors in this BioEconomy
Cluster originate from different areas:
o Forest-based industry;
o The chemical industry;
o The plastics industry;
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o Planning technique;
o Training and Education.
This cluster allows also for a cross-border cooperation (3BI) with the IAR Cluster in
France by bringing a mix of different resources from the regional agriculture together.
BioVale UK cluster works especially on bio-waste and the Biobased Delta NL uses
biological resources, for example, in the chemical industry. These clusters participate
also in the international exchange of knowledge about regional policies and
benchmarking.
Finally, ECRN informed about its organization of the "13. Congress on the 8/9 October
2015 in Novara and Milan on Sustainable chemistry for life, the role of chemistry in the
European Bioeconomy". This big event was judged as an important step to concretize
and realize bioeconomy from the bottom and the regions.
7. Standardisation and Relation to Procurement
European standards for bio-based products: CEN/TC 411
This TC consists of 5 working groups:
WG 1 Terminology;
WG 2 Bio-solvents;
WG 3 Bio-based content;
WG 4 Sustainable criteria, life cycle analysis and related issues;
WG 5 Certification and declaration tools.
Beyond these working groups the following workshops were announced:
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Public Procurement of Bio-based Products – Chances and Challenges
Organized by the Commission Expert Group for Bio-based Products on the
27 October 2015 (morning);
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Biomass certification: Demonstrating sustainability of the biomass in bio-based
products”, 27 October 2015 (afternoon).
The Commission, Directorate General on Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship
and SMEs emphasized the direct link between standardization and Procurement. In
comparison to the US bio-based products Preferred Programme, the procurement law
in the EU is not allowing for such a programme.