Fostering sustainable feedstock production for advanced biofuels on underutilised land in Europe

Rita Mergner, Rainer Janssen, Dominik Rutz, Peter Gyuris, Ömer Ceylan, Marco Colangeli, Lorenzo Traverso, Mariella Mule, Guido Bonati, Giuseppe Pulighe, Valeriia Kovach, Olha Haidai, Georgiy Geletukha, Nicoleta Ion, Cristian Tantareanu, Raul Köhler, Dirk Knoche, Magdalena Rogulska, Anna Grzybek, Jurgen TackMarie Alice Budniok, J. J. Leahy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In a context of growing competition between land uses, bioenergy development is often seen as one of the possible contributors to such competition. However, there are areas which are not used or cannot be used for the production of food and feed. This is the case of contaminated land, land unsuitable for the production of food or feed, set-aside lands and fallow lands etc. Several EU and Associated countries have relevant surfaces of land that are currently largely under-utilized for a number of reasons. Bioenergy crops have the potential to be grown profitably on these lands and can therefore offer a source of income to local actors while contributing to achieving the targets of the Renewable Energy Directive (EC/2009). This is the case of contaminated sites in Italy and Germany, where industrial and mining activities have affected the quality of the soils in specific areas and have impacted the possibility to carry out traditional agriculture. As a consequence, local farmers are often left without a source of income and the environmental quality of the contaminated areas degrades. Not only soils, but often also water resources are impacted by the presence of contaminants which in turn may be reflected on the health of local populations. In addition, in Ukraine large extents of land are left uncultivated and vast areas of the country are unexploited because of low demand for agricultural products. Bioenergy offers an alternative productive use on underutilized lands, where the biomass is not used for food or feed production, but for energy purposes. The objective of the FORBIO project, funded by the EU’s Horizon2020 programme, is to support the implementation of sustainable feedstock production for biofuels on underutilised land in Europe.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)125-130
Number of pages6
JournalEuropean Biomass Conference and Exhibition Proceedings
Volume2017
Issue number25thEUBCE
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2017

Keywords

  • Biofuels
  • Biomass
  • Marginal land
  • Sustainability
  • Underutilised land

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