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Life-cycle analysis is essential to assessing the greenhouse gas impacts and decarbonization potential of transportation fuels and vehicle powertrains.

The EU has a comprehensive legislation to facilitate the energy transition towards a low carbon energy system and achieve the EU’s Paris Agreement commitments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The European Green Deal is an integral part of the EU strategy for a sustainable and climate neutral economy by 2050. The decarbonisation of the power generation is essential to achieve the goal of decarbonising the energy and transport sectors. This paper presents a study conducted to quantify the carbon emissions associated to the production of electricity produced and used in European countries, based on a comprehensive methodology developed for this purpose. A spreadsheet model has been developed that considers the various sources for electricity generation, the type of plants, conversion efficiencies, upstream emissions and emissions from power plant construction, as well as the electricity trade. The results show the greenhouse gas emissions from the production and use of electricity in all European countries, revealing significant variations between countries. The carbon intensity of electricity shows a clear reduction trend since 1990, for most of the European countries. In the European Union, carbon intensity of electricity used at low voltage degreased from 641 gCO2eq/kWh in 1990 to 334 gCO2eq/kWh in 2019, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming years.

Biogas is efficient renewable energy source concerning greenhouse gases emission (GHG) reduction and waste disposal. The most abundant biogas substrates are originating from agriculture, i.e., energy plants and wastes such as manure, and respective production and utilization can be used to support rural development. Defining sustainable potentials, i.e., realistic value under defined conditions, of biogas production in some geographical region is important, as a background for policy development on a national, regional, and even local level. The objective of the study was defying method for its assessment. The characteristics of the proposed method are as follows: (1) biogas potential is expressed in electric power of cogeneration units that can operate with biogas produced from available feedstock. Available thermal energy, or biomethane production, can be calculated based on biogas potential; (2) the determined sustainable potential is based on environmental, technological, and socio-economic criteria; (3) the assessment is related to the actual substrates’ availability, whereby expected technological advancements are considered. Developed method has been tested in the form of a case study for Serbia and obtained outcomes compared with studies previously done by other authors. The potential is lower than previously assessed. The forecasted technology advancements and reduction of specific investment costs in the future can contribute to the increase of potential, higher share of wastes and by-products in substrates. New, smaller biogas plants would be constructed in undeveloped regions, what could contribute to rural development.

This paper provides estimates of available agricultural residues at the European level. It complements previous studies by expanding the geographical study area to 36 European countries, and improving the methodology by incorporating temporal variability of the theoretical potential resources and taking into consideration technical and environmental constraints. The amount of residues potentially obtainable from the main crops cultivated in Europe, namely wheat, rye, barley, oats, maize, rice, rapeseed and sunflower was assessed. Detailed spatial distribution maps of different crop residue potentials (theoretical, technical, environmental and sustainable) are provided at 1 km spatial resolution. The average theoretical potential was estimated at 291 and 367 Mt DM in the EU and Europe, respectively. Significant yearly variability of crop residue production has been noticed, between 209 and 365 million tonnes dry yr−1 (3673–6389 PJ) in the EU and between 253 and 483 million tonnes dry yr−1 (4434–8453 PJ) across Europe. The average technical potential of crop residue was estimated at 168 million tonnes dry yr−1 (2941 PJ) in the EU and at 212 million tonnes dry yr−1 (3715 PJ) in Europe. The average sustainable potential considering both technical and environmental constraints in each location was estimated at about 124 million tonnes dry yr−1 (2162 PJ) in the EU and at 14 Mt DM (2601 PJ) in Europe.

The extensive use of plastics and the environmental burden associated with their disposal have attracted the attention of scientists, politicians and citizens in Europe. In this frame, the EU has adopted a European Strategy for Plastics aiming, on the one hand, at reducing the use of plastic and, on the other hand, promoting their reuse in the context of a circular economy directly linked with the recently adopted Bioeconomy Strategy. Bioplastics could be an alternative to the conventional plastics, but they still have a limited share in the market. In this paper, Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs), a soft computing technique for analysing complex decision-making problems, is applied to identify the factors acting as drivers or barriers towards a bio-based plastics industry, their relative importance and the interactions between them. Experts with diverse backgrounds (technical experts, policy makers, industry executives) were interviewed in order to capture their perceptions and create a collective FCM capturing the strong and the weak points of the system. The collective FCM has a total number of 38 factors, which reflect the different approaches and knowledge of the experts. Overall, the “bio-based plastics” system is influenced mainly by the following factors: “EU Legislation”, “Monomers purity”, “Properties of the product”, “Recycling potential”, “Research & Development”, “National Legislation” and “Production cost”. The effect of the most significant political, social and techno-economic factors on the potential growth of the bioplastics sector has also been examined via simulations. The analysis demonstrated that the model is affected more (is more sensitive) to shifts in technoeconomic factors.

The land sector needs to increase biomass production to meet multiple demands while reducing negative land use impacts and transitioning from being a source to being a sink of carbon. The new Common Agricultural Policy of the EU (CAP) steers towards a more needs-based, targeted approach to addressing multiple environmental and climatic objectives, in coherence with other EU policies. In relation to this, new schemes are developed to offer farmers direct payments to adapt practices beneficial for climate, water, soil, air and biodiversity. Multifunctional biomass production systems have potential to reduce environmental impacts from agriculture while maintaining or increasing biomass production for the bioeconomy across Europe. Here, we present the first attempt to model the deployment of two such systems, riparian buffers and windbreaks, across >81.000 landscapes in Europe (EU27 + UK), aiming to quantify the resulting ecosystem services and environmental benefits, considering three deployment scenarios with different incentives for implementation. We found that these multifunctional biomass production systems can reduce N emissions to water and soil loss by wind erosion, respectively, down to a “low” impact level all over Europe, while simultaneously providing substantial environmental co-benefits, using less than 1% of the area under annual crops in the EU. The GHG emissions savings of utilizing the biomass produced in these systems for replacing fossil alternatives, combined with the increases in soil organic carbon, correspond to 1-1,4% of total GHG emissions in EU28. The introduction of “eco-schemes” in the new CAP may resolve some of the main barriers to implementation of large-scale multifunctional biomass production systems. Increasing the knowledge of these opportunities among all EU member states, before designing and introducing country-specific Eco-scheme options in the new CAP, is critical.

The present work provides an analysis of the potential impact of fossil-based Low Carbon Aviation Fuels (LCAF) for the European aviation sector, with a time horizon to 2050. LCAF are a crude-derived alternative to kerosene, offering some Green House Gas (GHG) savings, and have been defined by ICAO as eligible fuels for mitigating the environmental impact of aviation. A methodological framework to evaluate the EU technical potential for LCAF production is developed, based on data on crude utilization for jet fuel production in EU refineries, relevant carbon intensity reduction technologies, market prices, and aviation fuel volumes. Two different baselines for fossil-derived kerosene carbon intensity (CI) are considered: a global figure of 89 gCO2e/MJ and an EU-27-specific one of 93.1 gCO2eq/MJ. Three scenarios considering increasing levels of CI reduction are then defined, taking into account the current and potential commercial availability of some of the most relevant carbon intensity reduction technologies. The analysis demonstrates that, even if LCAF could offer GHG saving opportunities, their possible impact, especially when compared to the ambition level set in the most recent European legislative proposals, is very limited in most of the analysed scenarios, with the exception of the most ambitious ones. At 2030, a non-zero technical potential is projected only in the higher CI reduction scenario, ranging between 1.8% and 14.2% of LCAF market share in the EU-27 (equal to 0.6 to 4.75 Mtoe), depending on the considered Baseline for CI. At 2050, almost all considered scenarios project a larger technical potential, ranging between 6.9% and 22.2% for the global Baseline (2.21 to 7.13 Mtoe), and between 1.8% and 16.2% for the EU-27 Baseline (0.58 to 5.2 Mtoe). LCAF additional costs to current production costs are also discussed, given their relevance in large-scale deployment of these technologies, and are projected to range between 39 and 46.8 USD/toe.

This chapter presents an overview of the Geospatial Analysis Approaches for Assessing Biomass Potentials from Agricultural Landscapes. The chapter begins with a discussion about the sustainability challenges and opportunities for assessing the biomass resources potentials, tackling the main sustainability aspects linked to the use of agricultural biomass for energy, competition for land and other resources, the impact on land as well as the ways for addressing uncertainty risks and benefits for bioenergy. This information provides the basis for a detailed analysis of the geospatial methods used for assessing the bioenergy potentials in agricultural landscapes, especially for energy crops and agricultural residues. The section describes different approaches that employing different methodologies, from simple statistical to more complex spatially explicit methods and integrated modelling assessments. Depending on the focus and constraints adopted, the results can be expressed as Theoretical, Technical, Economic, Environmental and/or Sustainable potentials. Following the resource assessment section, the techniques used for estimating the energy potential of biomass resources are described. The common approach is to simulate a combination of facilities that consume and transform the biomass resources into energy products (biofuels, electricity, heat, etc.). In this regard, there are two main types of methodological approaches: suitability and optimality analyses. The suitability analysis, based on multi-criteria evaluation, encompasses a collection of procedures for solving problems based on multiple rules or criteria. The suitability analysis relies on heuristic algorithms to satisfy the location-allocation problems, which are used to identify optimal locations for bioenergy plants taking into consideration the availability of feedstock (supply), the transportation network, and the customer’s needs for energy (demand). In combination, these methods can provide geospatial information about the bioenergy potential in agricultural landscapes.

This paper presents an overview of the development and perspectives of biogas in and its use for electricity, heat and in transport in the European Union (EU) and its Member States. Biogas production has increased in the EU, encouraged by the renewable energy policies, in addition to economic, environmental and climate benefits, to reach 18 billion m3 methane (654 PJ) in 2015, representing half of the global biogas production. The EU is the world leader in biogas electricity production, with more than 10 GW installed and a number of 17,400 biogas plants, in comparison to the global biogas capacity of 15 GW in 2015. In the EU, biogas delivered 127 TJ of heat and 61 TWh of electricity in 2015; about 50% of total biogas consumption in Europe was destined to heat generation. Europe is the world's leading producer of biomethane for the use as a vehicle fuel or for injection into the natural gas grid, with 459 plants in 2015 producing 1.2 billion m3 and 340 plants feeding into the gas grid, with a capacity of 1.5 million m3. About 697 biomethane filling stations ensured the use 160 million m3 of biomethane as a transport fuel in 2015.

Anaerobic digestion is increasingly used worldwide to generate energy from biogas, bringing significant economic and environmental benefits. In particular, in the European Union (EU), biogas can contribute significantly in several countries to reach the renewable energy targets. This study provides an assessment of the spatial distribution of the biogas potential of farm manure from livestock and poultry in Europe, which is a key issue for the location and economic performances of a bioenergy plant. Biogas estimates provided in this study are computed through a spatial analysis algorithm that uses data of livestock and poultry, manure production and collection, leading to the evaluation of the spatial distribution of biogas potential at 1 km spatial resolution. Following this analysis, the theoretical biogas potential of manure was estimated at 26 billion m3 biomethane in Europe (23 billion m3 biomethane in the EU) and the realistic biogas potential, counting on collectible manure, was assessed at 18 billion m3 biomethane in Europe (16 billion m3 biomethane in the EU). Several maps provide the suitable locations and capacity of manure-based biogas plants in two different scenarios. Between 13,866 and 19,482 biogas plants could be built in Europe, with a total installed capacity between 6144 MWe and 7145 MWe, and an average capacity between 315 kWe and 515 kWe.

This paper provides an overview of waste generation and treatment operations in the European Union (EU) and other European countries and an analysis of the possibilities for the use of municipal solid waste (MSW) for energy production. A geographic information system based methodology was developed to investigate the spatial distribution of MSW and to identify the optimal location for new potential waste-to-energy in Europe. In 2016, there were 512 plants in Europe, with 251 combined heat and power plants, 161 electricity-only and 94 heat-only plants, which provide a total incineration capacity of 93 million tonnes. The suitability analysis showed that there is a potential to implement around 248 new waste to energy plants in the EU and 330 in all Europe, with a total capacity of 37 and 50 million tonnes, respectively. This represents an additional primary energy production of 260 PJ (6.2 Mtoe) in the EU, in comparison to 406 PJ (9.7 Mtoe) already produced in 2015, and about 352 PJ (8.4 Mtoe) in all European countries considered in this analysis.

86% of the total water consumed for fuel production in Africa corresponds to oil. 74% of the water consumption for power plant operations is for coal power plants and 60% of the water withdrawals is for natural gas power plants. Renewable energies represent 2% of water consumption and 0.06% of water withdrawals in electricity production in Africa.

The European New Green Deal and the REDII set ambitious targets, aiming to achieve a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. The transport sector is the most critical area to decarbonize, given the rigidity of both infrastructure and end-use technologies, as well as the challenge of reaching cost-effective production of sustainable advanced renewable fuels. Several researchers, stakeholders and groups of interest, such as international and governmental organisations, NGOs, business analysists, scientists and other actors elaborated scenarios on biofuels market penetration by 2050. These studies are largely used by policy makers, even if not necessarily were subject to a rigid peer review and verification process. This work presents an extensive literature review of the main published investigations, to assess and quantify the authors' different visions. These forecasts intend to evaluate the possible future development of the sector based on current and foreseeable policies, as well as industry and investors’ business plans; at the same time, these estimates should also provide policy makers with a sound base for policy development towards achieving climate goals. Through preliminary screening, based on a methodology of a set of ex-ante conditions, this work identified the most relevant publications and structured the analysis of the collected data. A total of 18 publications were selected from the literature review, resulting in 56 scenarios to be examined. This work allowed to achieve a comprehensive summary and quantification of the selected scenarios, all of which focus on biofuel contribution to transport decarbonisation in the period 2030–2050. Given the occurrence of several factors, as the ongoing and future technological development, the adoption of more efficient mobility models, the hybridization and electrification of transports, the Total Fuel Consumption for the transport sector is expected to reduce in Europe: averaged projections from the analyzed scenarios account for 312.8 Mtoe in 2030 and 274.2 Mtoe in 2050. Biofuels are expected to significantly contribute to achieve the EU targets, with a progressive shift towards advanced feedstock: on average, their total contribution is expected to account for 24.5 Mtoe in 2030, and for 48.3 Mtoe in 2050, while advanced biofuels are projected for an average contribution of 8.7 Mtoe in 2030 and 36.5 Mtoe in 2050. This work analysed pre-pandemic published scenarios: the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the global as well as EU economies are uncertain, but there is a serious risk of hampering and postponing investment decisions in the whole energy area, making the achievement of RED and EU Green Deal targets even more challenging in this historical moment.

Bioenergy is the main source of renewable energy worldwide and it is expected to continue to play a significant role in the future energy system. Biomass availability, competition between the alternative uses of biomass, as well as the sustainability issues are major concerns for bioenergy deployment. Despite large uncertainties, most estimates show that biomass is likely to be sufficient to play a significant role in the global energy supply system. Bioenergy could expand from current 56 EJ to 145 EJ by 2060, with an increased role of modern bioenergy on behalf of traditional use of biomass. Bioenergy can have a particular contribution to decarbonizing certain sectors for which there are no other options or they are very limited, such as in the freight road transport, aviation, and maritime transport. The future contribution of bioenergy depends on the capacity to mobilize large amounts of biomass. Biomass trade (either direct or indirect) would play an increasing role in the future development of bioenergy. Policy support is needed to reach the energy and climate targets and to ensure a competitive, sustainable, and secure energy. The latest developments in renewables and technology improvements led to a major decrease in the investment costs (mostly for wind and solar photovoltaic) and thus to significant cost reduction. Bioenergy can be competitive in many cases, especially when cheap or even negative cost of biomass feedstock is available. Support needs to be tailored to the technology, feedstock, and plant size. An appropriate policy framework and strong policy measures are needed to support the bioenergy and to move toward low-carbon energy system, including targets for emissions reduction, shares of renewable energy, and policies phasing out fossil fuels. Support should be differentiated between technologies, feedstock, and plant size, taking into account specific circumstances to enable balanced market development, adequate energy mix, and ensure the deployment of technologies that are at different level of development. Ensuring sustainability of biomass is a key issue in the wider context of a bio-based economy. Most studies demonstrate that the majority of bioenergy pathways have lower GHG emissions than fossil energy systems if land use changes (direct or indirect) are avoided. GHG emissions will be lower and can be close to carbon neutrality if biomass is produced with low energy input or derived from residue streams, converted with high conversion efficiency and if the energy used is renewable, including for transport. The crucial factors appear to be the amount and type of fossil fuel used to produce, transport, and process the feedstock and the efficiency in the conversion process. Bioenergy production brings significant opportunities to deliver a number of social, environmental, and economic benefits in addition to the climate and energy goals. Bioenergy provides good opportunities for agricultural markets and has the capacity to promote sustainable development in rural communities. The benefits and the impacts of biofuels or bioenergy production depend strongly on the specific context. Bioenergy synergies with food production, water, ecosystems, health, and welfare can produce multiple benefits, if properly planned and managed.

The use of renewable energy is projected to increase substantially in the European Union to reach a share of 20% in final energy consumption and 10% renewable energy in transport by 2020. The renewable energy contribution is further expected to increase to 55%–75% of gross final energy consumption in 2050. According to the latest reports, the European Union has made significant progress since 2005 and is on track to reach its 2020 renewable energy targets. This paper provides a review of the policy framework for renewable energy in the European Union and an analysis of the progress made by the use of renewable energy as well as the expected developments until 2020 and beyond. It focusses on the contribution of bioenergy, the major source among renewables in the European Union. As biomass availability is a critical issue for the bioenergy production, this paper provides an analysis of the biomass demand for reaching the 2020 targets, in relation with the expected domestic supply and biomass potential.

Energy is a critical issue for Africa, where large number of people do not have access to energy. Energy recovery from waste can play a role in minimising the impact of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) on the environment with the additional benefit of providing a local source of energy. This study was carried out to assess, at the African level, the role which waste could play in providing energy to citizens and provides an estimate of the total potential of energy from waste incineration and from landfill gas (LFG). The results show an energy potential of all waste generated in Africa of 1125 PJ in 2012 and 2199 PJ in 2025. Nevertheless, if energy recovery through LFG is considered, about 155 PJ could be recovered in 2012 and 363 PJ in 2025 if waste actually collected, or projected to be collected, is considered. The electricity generation could reach 62.5 TWh in 2012 and 122.2 TWh in 2025, in case of full waste collection, compared with electricity consumption in Africa of 661.5 TWh in 2010. If waste actually collected is considered, these estimates decrease respectively to 34.1 TWh in 2012 and 83.8 TWh in 2025. Apart from continental estimates, the study provides detailed information at the country level and a vision of the spatial distribution of energy from waste based on the city population in major African cities.

The European Commission has set a long-term goal to develop a competitive, resource efficient and low carbon economy by 2050. Bioeconomy is expected to play an important role in the low carbon economy. This paper provides a review of the policy framework for developing a bioeconomy in the European Union covering energy and climate, agriculture and forestry, industry and research. The Europe has a number of well-established traditional bio-based industries, ranging from agriculture, food, feed, fibre and forest-based industries. This paper proposes an analysis of the current status of bioeconomy in the European Union and worldwide until 2020 and beyond. We estimate the current bio economy market at about € 2.4 billion, including agriculture, food and beverage, agro-industrial products, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry, wood-based industry, biochemical, enzymes, biopharmaceutical, biofuels and bioenergy, using about 2 billion tonnes and employing 22 million persons. New sectors are emerging, such as biomaterials and green chemistry. The transition toward a bioeconomy will rely on the advancement in technology of a range of processes, on the achievement of a breakthrough in terms of technical performances and cost effectiveness and will depend on the availability of sustainable biomass.

Mexico's government has introduced a Law on Climate Change that is unique worldwide; it establishes targets for greenhouse gases reductions at the same level of developed countries despite being an emerging country. This reform represents a crucial challenge for the electrical and transport sectors largely dependent on fossil energy since Mexico is the ninth-largest oil producer in the world. Local industry and academic sectors are called to lead the introduction of renewable energy sources, and particularly to enhance the share of energy from biomass in the local energy basket. Thus, this paper outlines the baseline on regulatory, energy, and carbon markets, and the scientific capacity to increase bioenergy utilization in Mexico. Furthermore, it opens a discussion about the steps forward with regard to sustainability and research needs, emphasizing some priorities and principles to develop a bioenergy system environmentally compatible in this country. © 2014 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts, Biorefining published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper provides a geographical assessment of potential bioenergy production in the European Union from residues of eight agricultural crops (wheat, barley, rye, oat, maize, rice, rapeseed and sunflower). The evaluation is geographically explicit at the scale of 1 km2 and is based on two main computational steps. In the first step the amount of crop residues resulting from statistical assessment based on the methodology developed by Scarlat et al. [1] have been spatially allocated on the EU-27 1 territory using several auxiliary geospatial layers describing, for example, land cover, expected biomass productivity derived from soil parameters, climatic zones and topographical conditions. In the second step the number of model power plants (i.e., plants with a size of 50 MW thermal input and a raw material demand of about 100 kt/yr might be conveniently fed with available crop residues was estimated on the basis of two different allocation strategies implying a different grade of optimization. The results show that the estimated crop residue resources in EU-27 could provide fuel for about 850 plants expected to produce about 1500 PJ/yr. Mobilization needs for the residues are also estimated, leading to a total amount of 1.5×1012–2×1012 tkm are necessary for the full potential exploitation.

According to the renewable energy directive 2009/28/EC, the European Union Member States should increase by 2020 the use of renewable energy to 20% of gross final energy consumption and to reach a mandatory share of 10% renewable energy in the transport sector. This study aims to quantify the impact of 2020 bioenergy targets on the land use in the EU, based on the projections of the National Renewable Action Plans in four scenarios: Scenario 1. Bioenergy targets according to NREAPs; Scenario 2. Bioenergy targets according to NREAPs, no second generation biofuels; Scenario 3. Bioenergy targets according to NREAPs, reduced import of biofuels and bioliquids; Scenario 4. Bioenergy targets according to NREAPs, high imports of biofuels and bioliquids. This study also considers the credit for co-products generated from biofuel production. The analysis reveals that the land used in the EU for bioenergy would range between 13.5 Mha and 25.2 Mha in 2020. This represent between 12.2% and 22.5% of the total arable land used and 7.3% and 13.5% of the Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA). In the NREAPS scenario, about 17.4 Mha would be used for bioenergy production, representing 15.7% of arable land and 9.4% of UAA. The increased demand from biofuels would lead to an increased generation of co-products, replacing conventional fodder for animal feed. Considering the co-products, the land used for bioenergy would range between 8.8 Mha and 15.0 Mha in 2020 in the various scenarios. This represent between 7.9% and 13.3% of the total arable land used in the EU and 4.7% and 8.0% of the UAA. In the NREAPS scenario, when co-products are considered, about 10.3 Mha would be used for biofuels, bioliquids and bioenergy production, representing 9.3% of arable land and 5.6% of agricultural land. This study further provides detailed data on the impact on land use in each Member State.

Renewable energy use is growing at a much faster pace than the rest of the economy in Europe and world-wide. This and the dramatic oil price increases in 2005 have lead to a remarkable re-evaluation of the renewable energy sector by politics and financing institutions. Despite the fact that there are still discrepancies between the European Union and the USA how to deal with climate change, renewable energies will play an important role for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the world wide introduction of tradable green certificates. Apart from the electricity sector, renewable energy sources for the generation of heat and the use of environmental friendly bio-fuels for the transport sector will become more and more important in the future.

This paper provides an overview of the Norwegian biomass resources for bioenergy use, bioenergy market and frame conditions through a comparison with Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which have a leading role in bioenergy production in the European Union. Although the contribution of renewable energy in Norway is among the highest in Europe (58%), mainly due to hydroelectricity, bioenergy has a low contribution to Norwegian energy supply (6%). As the experience from the other EU Member States showed, long-term, stable policies and relatively strong incentives are needed to initiate and build up a bioenergy market. In Norway, there is still a significant available potential for increasing the bioenergy contribution to the energy supply. The abundance and relatively low prices of energy (i.e. fossil fuels and electricity), in connection with the need of high investment costs, did not favour so far bioenergy production. Additional forest biomass may be mobilized in Norway by more intensive management of currently exploited forests. However, there are several limitations related to topography, accessibility and economics. The biomass resources and the full range of technologies available for heat or electricity generation both at small and large scale that can provide good opportunities for increased bioenergy production. The experience gained in Denmark, Finland and Sweden may be relevant for Norway, as well as for other EU Member States, where there is a deficit of mobilization of biomass resources and insufficient industrial integration of bioenergy with other forest-based sectors.

This paper provides a resource-based assessment of availability of biomass resources for energy production in Romania, at NUTS-3 level. The estimation of available biomass includes the residues generated from crop production, pruning of vineyards and orchards, forestry operations and wood processing. The estimation of crop residue availability considers several site-specific factors such as crop yields, multi-annual yield variation, environmental constraints and competitive uses. The evaluation of agricultural residues was based on specific residue to product ratios, depending on crop type and crop yield. An estimate of pruning residues is proposed, based on current orchard and vineyard areas and specific ratios of residues. Woody biomass considers forest and forestry residues (including firewood) and wood processing by-products, taking into account the type and share of the unused part of the tree biomass and technical and economic aspects, including availability and competitive use. The amount of agricultural and forest residues available for bioenergy in Romania was estimated at 228.1 PJ on average, of which 137.1 PJ was from annual crop residues, 17.3 PJ residues from permanent crops and 73.7 PJ/year from forestry residues, firewood and wood processing by-products. The biomass availability shows large annual and spatial variations, between 135.6 and 320.0 PJ, due to the variation in crop production and forestry operations. This variation, which is even larger at the NUTS-3 level, if not properly considered may result in shortages in biomass supply in some years, when biomass is available in a lower amount than the average.

The objective of this paper is to provide a review on the latest developments on the main initiatives and approaches for the sustainability certification for biofuels and/or bioenergy. A large number of national and international initiatives lately experienced rapid development in the view of the biofuels and bioenergy targets announced in the European Union, United States and other countries worldwide. The main certification initiatives are analysed in detail, including certification schemes for crops used as feedstock for biofuels, the various initiatives in the European Union, United States and globally, to cover biofuels and/or biofuels production and use. Finally, the possible way forward for biofuel certification is discussed. Certification has the potential to influence positively direct environmental and social impact of bioenergy production. Key recommendations to ensure sustainability of biofuels/bioenergy through certification include the need of an international approach and further harmonisation, combined with additional measures for global monitoring and control. The effects of biofuels/bioenergy production on indirect land use change (ILUC) is still very uncertain; addressing the unwanted ILUC requires sustainable land use planning and adequate monitoring tools such as remote sensing, regardless of the end-use of the product.

Mexico ranks 9th in the world in crude oil reserves, 4th in natural gas reserves in America and it is also highly rich in renewable sources (solar, wind, biomasss, hydropower and geothermal), however its potential has not been fully exploited. Hydropower is the renewable energy source with the highest installed capacity within the country (11,603 MW), while geothermal power capacity (958 MW) makes Mexico to be ranked 4th in the use of this energy worldwide. Wind energy potential is concentrated in five different zones, mainly in the state of Oaxaca, and solar energy has a high potential due to Mexico’s ideal location in the so called Solar Belt. Biomass energy has the highest potential (2,635 to 3,771 PJ/year) and also the highest research publications in the country during the last 30 years (1982-2012). Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico has led research publications in hydropower, wind, solar and biomass energy and Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas in geothermal energy during this period. According to General Law for Climate Change the country has set the goal of 35% of energy generated should come from renewable sources by 2024.This paper presents an overview of the renewable energy options available in Mexico, current status, main positive results to date and future potential. It also analyses barriers hindering improvements and proposes pertinent solutions., JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficiency

The paper presents the activities of Romanian specialists concerned with CO 2 emissions arising from human activities, primarily the main factors responsible for the rapid climate changes. The first section shows the CO 2 emissions' level for the last years, related to European emissions, concurrently with a comparative presentation of main sources and their contribution to the global CO 2 emissions in Romania. Furthermore the paper presents the prognosis for the CO 2 emissions' evolution in Romania up to 2020. Further, the research activity performed in Romania and the results obtained so far are presented for the development of a suitable CO 2 retention technology to reduce CO 2 emissions from flue gas generated by power plants. The paper also highlights the possibilities for further utilization in industry of the CO 2 retained through application of the technology developed by ICPET-CERCETARE for CO 2 retention.

In the paper is described the explorative research program on CO 2 removal, performed with the aim to review the CO 2 recovery technologies and to obtain the most suitable method for CO 2 recovery from flue gas. Further, the paper presents the activity focused in studying on laboratory scale the chemical absorption with solvents, and activators in order to obtain data on the most advantageous solvents and operating conditions. The CO 2 recovery laboratory facility is in detail presented, together with the experiments performed for the absorption and desorption processes which leaded to the encouraging results.

The renewable energy policies in the European Union have already led to a significant progress; the energy mix should further change until 2020. Italy is planning to meet the 2020 targets on renewable energies also thanks to a relevant paradigm shift in renewable energy exploitation. Indeed, in 2005 the sector where RES were more present in Italy was electricity production with 203 PJ of renewable origin, while in the heating and cooling sector renewable energy penetration was limited to 80 PJ. On the contrary, in 2020 heating and cooling is expected to absorb the highest amount of renewable energy (438 PJ) with renewable electricity expected to count for 356 PJ. Bioenergy, a renewable energy resource particularly suitable for electricity, heating & cooling and in transport, will be at the core of this sectorial shift in renewable energy production and use and is expected to become the dominant form of RES before 2020. The paper makes a detailed analysis of the recent developments and expected evolution of the Italian energy mix in next decade. It provides an overview of the Italian bioenergy sector in comparison with other Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and with leading countries in the European Union with a special focus on the production, exploitation and potentials on the basis of the analysis of the Italian National Renewable Action Plan. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

This paper provides a resource-based assessment of the available agricultural crop residues for bioenergy production in the European Union, at the level of the 27 Member States. The assessment provides the amount of the residues produced, collected, their present uses and the residues left available for bioenergy. This study considers the crop production and yields and multi-annual yield variation for each crop. The calculation was based on specific residues to product ratios, which were determined, depending on the crop type and crop yield. Sustainable removal rates were considered in order to protect soil fertility. The results show large spatial and temporal variations of available crop residues within EU27. The average amount of crop residues available for bioenergy in EU27 was estimated at 1530 PJ/year, with a variation between 1090 and 1900 PJ/year. The average value represents about 3.2% in final energy consumption in the EU27 while the variation 2.3-4%. This variation, which is even larger at the level of Member States, may result in shortages in biomass supply in some years, when crop residues are available in a lower amount than the average.

We analyze an optical system consisting of a number of basically elements (BE) arranged in a quasi-periodic structure (QPS) of phyllotaxis type, which offers the best packing in many natural bodies. In our simulations, we change the parameters which generate this QPS to find its diffractive optical properties. This structure is then made on glass using e-beam lithography. To characterize this QPS, we use the digital holography (DH) method to reconstruct the amplitude and also the phase in object plane (QPS plane). Using different parameters of the spherical reference wave for holograms recording we change the contrast in holograms to improve the reconstruction of the object.

The evolution and current status of fluidized bed technology in Romania are presented. After a period of about 10 years when the FBC technology was rejected as a solution for power generation, due to the new environmental restrictions, the market is open again. Potential users are especially industrial units with high energy consumption, having combustibile wastes resulting from the technological processes. Two case studies are presented. The first is the utility from the city of Motru, producing thermal agent for the town district heating. It is currently equipped with one FB boiler (11.6 MWt hot water) and two pulverized coal boilers (50 t/h steam). The equipment is more than 40 years old, and is no longer acceptable in terms of thermal efficiency and pollutant emmissions. Taking into consideration the important biomass resources from the area, it was decided to build a new CFB boiler firing a mixture of local fuels — lignite and biomass waste. The second case study is ELECTROCARBON S.A. Slatina, the second important polluter from Olt county, producing carbon electrodes for use in metallurgy. Carbon waste resulting from the technological process have been deposited for many years in a nearby landfill, amounting to about 1.2 million tons. In spite of its high calorific value, because of the low volatile content and the grinding difficulties, little use was found for this material. Investigations are carried out to burn it in a fluidized bed boiler located near the site, that would replace two existing heat recovery steam generators producing electricity for the internal consumption.Copyright © 2005 by ASME

A pulsed laser has been used to generate a laser plasma plume (a dusty plasma) from a pressed powder target situated in the room atmosphere. This dusty plasma has been analyzed with a probe laser beam, a polarizing interferometer and a CCD camera. Our results show that this dusty plasma is a depolarizing medium. The maximum depolarization degree of the probe laser beam is 5%.

Considering the rise time (understanding the rise speed as well) of the electrical intensity of the pumping pulse as the key parameter characterizing the output power of a copper-type laser, we present here a simplified model of the main kinetic processes occuring during the electrical pumping pulse and afterglow in a Ne-CuBr laser. The a priori knowledge of the typical temporal behavior of the electron density and electron temperature reduces the number of coupled differential equation to be solved. The importance of the parasitic radiative filling of the lower laser levels 2D via channels that are not involving the upper laser levels 2P is enhanced. The comparative green-yellow lasing efficiencies and the temporal timing of the optical pulses with respect to the excitation pulse are consistent with the experiments.© (2004) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

In this paper we present a glycerin-filled interferometer which is suited to determine the thermally induced space-time refractive index profile of an optical, uranyl-ion-doped glass. The refractive index of the sample changes when irradiated with an Ar+ laser or a pulsed Nd-YAG laser and modifies the interference pattern of a probe beam. According to the task performed, the interferometer is used in longitudinal and transversal configurations. Using the model of the thermal absorption and diffusion, one can find the relation between the refractive index variation, temperature gradient and phase shift of the interference pattern. We calculate the refractive index changes of the on and off axis as well as its temporal variation during the relaxation process. The modifications of a thermally induced phase grating is interpreted in terms of a one-dimensional, structured gaussian beam obtained from a double refractive crystal of KDP (KH2PO3).© (2003) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Here we use a blank recordable compact disk as a diffractive device. A simple model for the disk grating is proposed. After the disk is properly cut, small pieces of it are completely immersed in the liquid of interest. Such a small piece is in fact a single-use reflective grating and we call it removable compact disk grating. Because it's very cheap and, for this reason, easy to remove it, the compact disk grating is a suitable device for contaminating fluids and particularly for human serum. The principle of the method allows to calculate the refractive index of human serum by measuring the angular displacement of the diffracted maxima, or by fringe counting in a grating interferometer.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

We study the processes of glass heating and melting by absorption of laser radiation using profilometry in reflected light and interferometric real time analysis. The sample irradiation is obtained by an argon ion laser and the interference pattern is generated by a He-Ne laser or by another argon ion laser. In the reflected beam we observe a change of the ring pattern caused by the increasing of pumping power. Above a certain level an additional ring pattern appears. We study the dependence of the structure of the ring patterns as function of the power of the pumping laser beam. From the diffraction pattern and the interference pattern given by a wedge shearing interferometer we estimate the shape and dimension of the mound and respectively the dimple generated for different pumping powers.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

In this paper we present a sensitive photothermal interferometric detection technique using a Wollaston prism. The interference fringe pattern is formed by overlapping of the ordinary and extraordinary beams with adjustable intensities by a linear polarizer. The interferometric montage is made both for the pump beam (Ar-ion laser) and the probe beam (He-Ne laser). From the analysis of the interference patterns obtained separately for the two beams, we calculate the absolute change of the refractive index in the middle of the heated zone of an uranyl-doped optical glass, as well as the average transverse refractive index gradient induced by the pump laser. The experimental results are interpreted in terms of a Gaussian beam propagating through a weak absorptive medium whose refractive index is thermally modified by the pump beam.