Bioenergy represents the highest share of renewable energies consumed in the European Union and is still expected to grow. This could be possible by exploring bioenergy production on Marginal, Underutilised, and Contaminated lands (MUC) that are not used for agricultural purposes and therefore, present no competition with food/feed production. In this paper, the viability and sustainability of bioenergy value chains on these lands is investigated and measures for market uptake were developed. Using three case study areas in Italy, Ukraine, and Germany, a screening of MUC lands was conducted, then an agronomic assessment was performed to determine the most promising crops. Then, techno-economic assessments followed by sustainability assessments were performed on selected value chains. This concept was then automated and expanded through the development of a webGIS tool. The tool is an online platform that allows users to locate MUC lands in Europe, to define a value chain through the selection of bioenergy crops and pathways, and to conduct sustainability assessments measuring a set of environmental, social, and economic sustainability indicators. The findings showed positive results in terms of profitability and greenhouse gas emissions for bioethanol production from willow in Ukraine, heat and power production from miscanthus, and biogas and chemicals production from grass in Germany. The webGIS tool is considered an important decision-making tool for stakeholders, which gives first insights on the viability and sustainability of bioenergy value chains.

Workshop organized by INDIGO project as a collaborative activity among EU funded projects in the area of District Heating and Cooling. The objective of the workshop was twofold: (1) to create a cluster of European funded projects working in the area of District Energy Systems; and (2) to create a networking opportunity in which to share experiences on the results and difficulties of the researches, and to identify synergies.

We find that there is sufficient technical feedstock availability for Greece to reach its medium-term targets on the production and use of advanced biofuels, renewable gases, electrofuels and recycled carbon fuels for the Greek transport sector. Our analysis suggests that the biomass fraction of municipal solid waste, the biomass fraction of industrial waste, animal manure and sewage sludge, tree prunings, carbon dioxide feedstocks from industrial sources and refuse derived fuels/plastics are feedstocks with sufficient availability until 2050 for the production of renewable fuels and gases for the transport sector in Greece. As a rough indicator, if all the technically achievable feedstocks covered in this study are converted into associated advanced fuels (excluding recycled carbon fuels), this could equate to 7% in 2020, 8.2% in 2030, 9.3% in 2040 and 10.3% in 2050 of the total energy consumed in the transport sector. With policy support, the production of biomethane from the biomass fraction of municipal solid waste, hydrotreated vegetable oil and recycled carbon fuels have possibilities in Greece by 2030, while electrofuels and biomethane from other sources have possibilities by 2040 and lignocellulosic ethanol does not have possibilities in the long run due to limited feedstocks and high costs.