Marginal land

Land availability is a major factor which limits the production of bioenergy and bio-based products. Land use competition is likely to intensify worldwide over the coming decades. Against this background, the increasing use of marginal land, i.e. land which is currently not used for agricultural or any other purposes, has been suggested as an alternative with few associated negative environmental and socio-economic impacts. ifeu investigates the environmental impacts of biomass production on marginal land in projects including the EU-funded projects OPTIMA, Global-Bio-Pact, SEEMLA and MAGIC.

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Projects

MAGIC

Marginal lands for Growing Industrial Crops: Turning a burden into an opportunity

Industrial Crops can provide valuable resources for high added value products and bioenergy. MAGIC aims to promote the sustainable development of resource-efficient and economically profitable…

SEEMLA

Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands

Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, the three-year project is focusing on the reliable and sustainable use of biomass from marginal land.

COSMOS

COSMOS aims at reducing the dependence on imported coconut and palm kernel oils and fatty acids and on castor oil as sources for medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA, C10–C14) and medium-chain polymer…

OPTIMA

The project, coordinated by the University of Catania, focused on the Mediterranean region where marginal lands are usually characterised by poor water availability.

Global-Bio-Pact

The main objective of the Global-Bio-Pact project was the development and harmonisation of global sustainability certification schemes for biomass production, conversion systems and trade in order to…

Wissenschaftliche Studie

Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrotreated Jatropha Oil

The objective of this screening life cycle project was to evaluate the environmental advantages and disadvantages of Jatropha HVO in comparison to conventional diesel.

Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Jatropha Biodiesel

Within this project, ifeu was commissioned by Daimler AG to evaluate the environmental impacts of using the promising plant Jatropha for biofuels

Publications

G. Reinhardt: Camelina and Crambe: Sustainable Alternatives for Agriculture? Oral presentation, C.A.R.M.E.N.-Symposium 2019: Energie- und Ressourcenwende: Impulse aus dem ländlichen Raum [Energy and Resource Transition: Impulses from rural areas], Straubing, Germany, 1 – 2 July 2019 A.L. Fernando, N. Rettenmaier, P. Soldatos, C. Panoutsou Sustainability of perennial crops production for bioenergy and bio-products. In: Alexopoulou (ed.): Perennial Grasses for Bioenergy and Bioproducts, pp. 245-283, Elsevier 2018. A.L. Fernando, J. Costa, B. Barbosa, A. Monti, N. Rettenmaier Environmental impact assessment of perennial crops cultivation on marginal soils in the Mediterranean Region. Biomass and Bioenergy Vol. 111, pp. 174-186, Elsevier 2018. N. Rettenmaier, T. Schmidt: LCA of perennial grasses. In: Biobased Future, No. 5, p. 20, 2016. T. Schmidt, A.L. Fernando, A. Monti, N. Rettenmaier: Life cycle assessment of bioenergy and bio-based products from perennial grasses cultivated on marginal land in the Mediterranean region. BioEnergy Research, Special Issue on Optimization of Perennial Grasses for Biomass Production in the Mediterranean Area, Vol. 8(1), pp. 1548-1561, Springer, 2015

H. Keller, N. Rettenmaier, G. Reinhardt: Integrated sustainability assessment of bioenergy and bio-based products from perennial grasses cultivated on marginal land. In: OPTIMA project reports, supported by the EU’s FP7 under GA No. 289642, ifeu, Heidelberg, Germany, 2015

N. Rettenmaier, S. Gärtner, H. Keller, M. Müller-Lindenlauf, G. Reinhardt, T. Schmidt, A. Schorb: Life cycle assessment of bioenergy and bio-based products from perennial grasses cultivated on marginal land. In: OPTIMA project reports, supported by the EU’s FP7 under GA No. 289642, ifeu, Heidelberg, Germany, 2015 N. Rettenmaier, A. Schorb, G. Hienz, R. Diaz-Chavez: Report on sustainability impacts of the use of marginal areas and grassy biomass. In: Global-Bio-Pact project reports, supported by the EU’s FP7 under GA No. 245085, ifeu, Heidelberg, Germany, 2012 N. Rettenmaier, S. Köppen, S. Gärtner, G. Reinhardt: Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrotreated Jatropha Oil. Commissioned by Daimler AG, Stuttgart, 2008

G.A. Reinhardt, S. Gärtner, N. Rettenmaier, J. Münch, E. v. Falkenstein: Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Jatropha Biodiesel. Commissioned by Daimler AG, Stuttgart, 2007