SEEMLA

Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands

The SEEMLA project (‘Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands’) receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and has started in January 2016. The main objectives of the project are

• the development and optimisation of cropping systems for special marginal sites,
• the promotion of the re-conversion of marginal lands for the production of bioenergy through the direct involvement of farmers, foresters or the responsible public authorities, e.g. by means of guidelines and manuals, and
• the strengthening of local small scale supply chains.

ifeu will be responsible for the sustainability assessment of the proposed production chains by investigation of environmental and socio-economic impacts. Analyses will include a life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle environmental impact assessment (LC-EIA) which focuses on local/site-specific environmental impacts, life cycle costing (LCC) and qualitative approaches to social aspects such as influence on rural development. All individual assessments will identify optimisation potentials and provide important qualitative and quantitative information from which recommendations for implementation strategies can be derived.

Publications

• N. Rettenmaier, T. Schmidt, S. Gärtner, G. Reinhardt: Life Cycle Assessment of Bioenergy from Lignocellulosic Crops Cultivated on Marginal Land in Europe. Proceedings of the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2017, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 April 2017
• S. Galatsidas, N. Gounaris, E. Dimitriadis, N. Rettenmaier, T. Schmidt, D. Vlachaki: Developing tools to identify marginal lands and assess their potential for bioenergy production. Proceedings of the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2017, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 April 2017
• N. Rettenmaier, T. Wagner, S. Gärtner, G. Reinhardt: High hopes for marginal land? A life cycle assessment of bioenergy from lignocellulosic crops. Proceedings of the 2nd International Bioeconomy Congress 2017, Stuttgart, Germany, 12–13 September 2017
• G. Reinhardt: How to improve the sustainability of 1st and 2nd generation biofuels for transportation. Keynote talk. Proceedings of the 9th Annual Congress and Expo on Biofuels and Bioenergy "Biofuels and Bioenergy for Future", Dubai, UAE, 16-17 April 2018
• S. Galatsidas, N. Gounaris, E. Dimitriadis, D. Vlachaki, […], N. Rettenmaier, G. Reinhardt et al: Revealing bioenergy potentials: Mapping marginal lands in Europe - the SEEMLA GIS-tool. Proceedings of the EUBCE 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, 14 – 18 May 2018
• N. Rettenmaier, H. Keller, S. Gärtner, M. Schmehl, G. Reinhardt: Environmental and socio-economic impacts of bioenergy from lignocellulosic crops cultivated on marginal land in Europe. 2nd International SEEMLA Symposium at the EUBCE 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, 15 May 2018
• G. Reinhardt: Latest LCA developments in Europe: First time ever results for footprints of land use and phosphate towards more conclusive LCAs of alcohol fuels. Proceedings of the 23rd International Symposium on Alcohol Fuels (ISAF), Hangzhou, China, 1 – 4 November 2018.
• N. Rettenmaier, H. Keller, M. Schmehl, S. Gärtner, G. Reinhardt: How environmentally and socio-economically sustainable is biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands? SEEMLA Final event, Brussels, Belgium, 20 November 2018.
• S. Gärtner, M. Schmehl, T. Wagner, N. Rettenmaier, G. Reinhardt (2018): Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands in Europe: Final report of definitions and settings for WP 4. In: SEEMLA project reports, supported by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme under GA No. 691874, IFEU - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, 2018. http://seemla.eu/en/project-deliverables/
• N. Rettenmaier, M. Schmehl, S. Gärtner, G. Reinhardt (2018): Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands in Europe: Final report on environmental assessment covering LCA & LC-EIA. In: SEEMLA project reports, supported by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme under GA No. 691874, IFEU - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, 2018. http://seemla.eu/en/project-deliverables/
• H. Keller, N. Rettenmaier, G. Reinhardt (2018): Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands in Europe: Final report on socio-economic assessment. In: SEEMLA project reports, supported by the EU’s H2020 under GA No. 691874, IFEU - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, 2018. http://seemla.eu/en/project-deliverables/