IEA IETS Annex 11: Industrial Biorefineries (Working period 2020-2022)

Targets

The IEA IETS Annex XI aims at industrial scale solutions that achieve large scale decarbonization of energy sectors through integrated biorefineries. For this purpose, decision tools will be developed to support industry in the development of sustainable bioeconomy strategies in the best possible way and the future focus will be on the reduction of GHG emissions, the consideration of circularity, and the use of digitalization to increase competition.

The Austrian activities refer in particular to

• the development of process and system concepts as well as valorization threads for industrial biorefineries with maximum resource efficiency and minimum energy intensity as well as
• the socio-economic evaluation of industrial bioeconomy strategies.

Content

Based on real case studies, (process and system) concepts and valorization pathways for industrial biorefineries are developed with a special focus on the holistic consideration of resources and energy efficiency. The entire value chain is considered (products, by-products, waste streams and their valorization/recycling/end-use pathways in terms of circular economy) and evaluated ecologically, techno-economically, as well as socio-economically.

The methods for the assessment of resource and energy efficiency (AEE INTEC), as well as socio-economic aspects (EI-JKU) are integrated in a kit of tools and methods, which complements internationally existing assessment tools with the national contributions in the best possible way. The evaluation of concepts for industrial biorefineries, developed on the basis of real case studies, leads to a decisive added value by linking national and international activities.

Results

The following results are available at the end of the project:

• Process and system concepts for biorefineries with combined resource and energy efficiency
• Methods for the evaluation of maximized resource efficiency and minimized energy intensity of bioeconomy strategies
• Methods for socio-economic assessment of industrial bioeconomy strategies
• Overview of digitization methods in industrial biorefineries

With the development and evaluation of product and process concepts, which enable the minimization of the necessary energy demand or the integration of renewable energy (combined resource and energy efficiency) also for material biobased utilization pathways, a scientific basis is created for the current development of the planned tasks "GHG emission reduction in industrial biorefineries", "Application of artificial intelligence and digitalization to increase the competitiveness of biorefineries" as well as "Circular economy of industrial biorefineries", within the Annex XI.

Canada (Lead), Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Austria, Netherlands

DI Dr. Bettina Muster-Slawitsch
AEE - Institut für Nachhaltige Technologien
E-Mail: b.muster@aee.at

DI Christoph Brunner
AEE - Institut für Nachhaltige Technologien
Email: c.brunner@aee.at

DI Sarah Meitz
AEE - Institut für Nachhaltige Technologien
Email: s.meitz@aee.at

DI Johannes Lindorfer
Verein Energieinstitut an der Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
E-Mail: lindorfer@energieinstitut-linz.at