Plan for promoting the demonstrated systems and technologies for further development – D6.4

This report is the output of the task 6.4 to approach a Plan for promoting the  demonstrated systems and technologies for further deployment. The goal of this task was divided into four specific objectives: 1. To assess the role of the demonstrated new or improved machinery for the sustainable and reliable supply of forest biomass to the facilities, with special focus on cost reduction and/or additional biomass supply that can be achieved by the demonstrated innovative technology; 2. To make proposals to promote the innovation and subsequent technology transfer and to present suggestions on how the inventions that have been developed in this project can overcome the obstacles encountered and reach commercialization; 3. To develop scenarios for the potential markets of lignocellulosic forestry residues for biorefineries and energy use; 4. To perform a risk assessment to estimate the side‐effects of not putting interesting inventions into practice. In the first part, there is a summary of the assessment of the machinery demonstrated in the framework of the INFRES project. Some of the main advantages of the innovations are the cost reduction in comparison with conventional systems, in addition to improved productivity and increased supply. Besides this, a couple of innovations showed fuel savings compared to previous supply chains. Moreover, other improvements have been observed, but without a quantitative assessment. Finally, as a conclusion, certain innovations are successful only when they are used in the conditions they were designed for. In the second part, a plan for overcoming the previously identified barriers was elaborated, and the plan was then submitted for assessment by several experts. The application of the most important measures to overcome the barriers that manufacturers face when developing an innovation is mainly in the hands of the manufacturers themselves, and partly in the hands of policy makers who may contribute through the development of appropriate financing instruments or compensations for high‐risk investments in SME’s. In the case of measures proposed to overcome the barriers that manufacturers face during the implementation or use phase, the application of the measures is in the hands of a balanced mix of the main stakeholders, including forest companies and manufacturers. It means that both have to work, sometimes together, to overcome the detected barriers. In the third part, any of the future scenarios anticipates an increase in woody biomass demand. The growth of the biorefinery sector will change the landscape of the forest biomass requirements by 2030. Indeed, feedstocks such as forest residues and stumps can be easily used by this sector. Besides this, the increase and improvement of the machinery used in the forest biomass supply chains, together with the optimization of the whole chains, take some time. As a consequence, it is a challenge for Europe to reach high enough competitiveness and innovation levels so as to cover the demand needs in the best way, with its own resources, seeking a positive impact on all EU regions and on European machinery manufacturers. Finally, the fourth part concludes that if technological and logistical innovations are not implemented in forest biomass supply chains, then energy and environmental targets in the EU will not be reached. Sustainability and cost efficiency gains in the biomass supply chains will not be achieved either. The introduction of innovative solutions as those presented by INFRES will be made possible by implementing the measures that were identified in the third part for overcoming the barriers in the development, implementation and use phases of the innovations.

2016