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Date Published:
15 January 2016

Volume 7, Issue 1


The promises of Paris

Feature
It took two weeks of heated negotiations,but the work is now done. The world leaders gathered in Paris have celebrated their success in Paris as the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (COP21) drew to a close. The 196 participants drafted the Paris Agreement, which will set an international outline for limiting global warming to ‘well... [read more]

Word on the street

Feature
Industry leaders give their predictions for the year ahead.

Less talk, more action

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The European Union claimed to have played a key role in brokering the COP21 agreement in Paris last December, sending a clear signal to investors, businesses, and policymakers that the global transition to clean energy is here to stay and that resources have to shift away from fossil fuels. The proof of that claim, however, will rest in... [read more]

Innovate and invest

Feature
The macro drivers for investment into UK waste projects have been both well understood and well received amongst the London financial community in recent years. Increased landfill taxes, regulatory targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, commitment to the vision of a circular economy, and historical underinvestment into waste... [read more]

Investing in bioenergy: a financial perspective

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What are the various elements of a bioenergy investment which need addressing in order to secure external investor financing? A business plan is a necessity for funders' participation in a project. Despite this, poor quality plans constitute one of the most common problems for financiers. An unfortunate consequence is that a bad... [read more]

Financing a complex waste project

Feature
Many projects in the renewables industry share a similar set of financing challenges. These include negotiating fundable project contracts, finance structuring, and project management. Within each lies a myriad of challenges, as any developer knows. Narrowing down further into the renewables sector, waste and biomass have their... [read more]

The Dutch agitators

Feature
Brothers Jan and Toine Aben from Wanroij, North Brabant in the Netherlands, run a family business called Aben BV. The company operates in dairy farming, pig farming, and recycling with a biogas plant. These utilities are spread over four different locations. In 2003, the brothers founded Aben Recycling BV. The recycling branch... [read more]

Stirred, not shaken

Feature
At the most simple level, mixing an anaerobic digester is important to release gas bubbles trapped in the medium. This is done in order to gain an even temperature throughout the reactor and to prevent stratification. In terms of the reactor microbiology, mixing ensures efficient transfer of organic material to the active microbial biomass, which is important for inoculation. It will also... [read more]

Down under

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Yarra Valley Water is Metropolitan Melbourne’s largest water and sewerage business, providing water supply and sewerage services to over 1.7 million people and over 50,000 businesses. Now the company is developing a new anaerobic digestion (AD) facility in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, to convert organic waste into energy. The facility will be co-located with the existing... [read more]

Failure-proofing AD

Feature
In order to select the optimal storage tank for an anaerobic digestion (AD) application, a series of potential failure points must be considered. The most important area inside an AD tank is the vapour zone area. This is the area where storage tank designs and coatings have been known to fail. There are numerous digester designs offered in the marketplace today. The ultimate digester design must... [read more]

Still going strong

Feature
Although subsidies are declining in Europe, it will remain the world’s most important market for biomass power plants, with €75 billion to be invested within the next 10 years. The market in Asia is flagging at a high level and still shows the worldwide largest capacity increases. These are the results of ecoprog’s latest market analysis. Today, there are almost 2,900 active... [read more]

The cloud that helps the crops grow

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To understand the applications and benefits of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for biomass production, look no further than a recent partnership between DataMapper and Genera Energy. DataMapper, a cloud-based UAV software that is a product division of PrecisionHawk, and Genera, a provider of biomass supply and supply chain services, are in the process of rolling out analysis tools for biomass... [read more]

From emitter to reducer

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On the River Ouse in North Yorkshire, UK, sits the village of Drax. From amidst the village’s flat farmland rise several steadily humming cooling towers of the eponymous Drax Power Plant. Commissioned in two phases in 1974 and 1986, the originally coal-fired Drax is the largest power station in the UK. In 2014 the plant produced an approximate 8% of the total UK energy output. But with the... [read more]

A new lease of life

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In Europe, renewable energy targets are in place for 2030, with more long-term goals still to be set. Every European nation is different. Denmark, for example, has one of the highest percentages of electricity generated by renewables, and with no natural resources like hydropower, Denmark is switching away from fossil fuels using primarily biomass and wind. Many district heating plants and... [read more]

Biomass utilisation and cost

Feature
More than 100 billion litres of first generation biofuels was produced globally in 2014. Around 55% of this was corn ethanol produced in the US, and 25% was sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil. However, investment in the bioenergy sector continues to grow as greater emphasis is placed on the advancement of second generation cellulosic biofuel produced from cellulosic biomass such as agricultural... [read more]