Circular biomass bioeconomy includes significant industrial sectors converting biomass to pulp, paper, packaging, tissue paper, boards, furniture, carpentry and construction materials, textile fibres, biofuels, bio-energy, and special chemicals, among others. The forest-based wood products in Europe consist of 200 000 companies, employing 1.9 million people and providing around 75 billion Euros in added value to the EU economy. It contributes to some 8% of the EU’s total manufacturing added value and sustainably manages forests covering 35% of the EU’s landmass. In addition, there are about 16 million forest owners and 3-4 million industrial jobs in industry, to a large extent in rural areas and in SMEs. However, the EU forest industry is facing major structural changes. On one hand, important downsizing in pulping production capacities due to the expansion of eucalyptus pulps in South America concomitant with very fast reduction of printing paper consumption has been observed in the last years. On the other hand, the demand for new products especially in bioenergy/biofuels, special fibre products and chemicals sectors have also considerably increased, even if very few real examples of true biorefinery units exist today. In this presentation, the biomass materials-related issues related to these new sectors, which will compose the essential core of the circular biomass bioeconomy in a near future, will be approached. Firstly, the difficulties in inventorying forestry and agricultural biomasses availability and the factors explaining the large differences between existing and exploitable biomasses resources will be described on the basis of our own experiences in on-going R&D and demonstration projects.  Then, the quality assessment and the variability of biomasses and its suitability for different applications (pulp and paper, boards, biofuels, bioenergy, chemicals) will be addressed. In particular, a focus will be given on the current analytical techniques and the needs of adapting them for large broad of biomasses: forestry, including wood, bark, residues, stumps, twigs/leaves, etc, and agriculture, including harvesting residues, food residues industry or energetic crops) and the pre-treated biomasses. Finally, the impact of different raw materials on the performance of new biorefinery concepts coupled with availability and costs analysis will be addressed as part of the strategy for future industrial implementations in different countries in Europe.

Biomass raw materials-related issues on bioeconomy strategies, research and development, and industrial implementation

249th National Meeting (2015)

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