The transition to a bioeconomy requires vast amounts of feedstock to serve a wide range of functionalities in a broad panel of applications in sectors as: construction, textile, paper, automotive, horticulture, and livestock farming. Herbaceous crops and residue streams like flax, hemp, miscanthus, cereal straw, reed and verge grass offer a wide range of characteristics which can serve multiple applications. This report analyses and explores the potential of production and valorisation of herbaceous feedstock in the Netherlands and eventually at regional level.An analysis is made of current production and applications of herbaceous crops and residue streams.Present supply and demand were matched by an evaluation of imports and exports.Circular economy policies, agendas and ambitions were reviewed for relevant topics: climate change, circular bioeconomy, regional development; and at 3 levels: EU, Netherlands and province of Gelderland.Also, important considerations regarding circularity and sustainability aspects of biobased value chains were discussed, with focus on construction and textiles sector.Further, potential future use in products, indication of demanded product volumes for most promising applications, and production of herbaceous feedstock in the Netherlands in 2050 were studied. An exercise to match estimated demand and required production area was performed, taking into consideration typical scale of conversion technologies related to product demand.Subsequently a SWOT analysis for use of each herbaceous feedstock for regional conversion into biobased applications is carried out to identify the main points of attention and needs such as knowledge, infrastructure, collaborations, regulations and policies, technology for the valorisation of different feedstocks for different applications. Finally, recommendations are provided to next possible actions to materialise the transition to regional supply of herbaceous biomass for making bio-based products by local circular value chains.Compared to conventional crops, flax, hemp and miscanthus are relatively small crops in production volumes. Each of them finds its way in a diverse range of applications as mentioned above. And despite the small volumes, flax and hemp feedstock and products are exported and imported for several reasons, circularity and regionality not being an aspect of decisive importance. Cereal straw as a side stream and verge grass and reed as residue streams are produced in much higher quantities, yet they are underutilised from a circular economy perspective and mainly ploughed under directly without prior other use. Using e.g. cereal straw as animal bedding first would retain the soil improving capacity while largely reducing the need to import straw.Towards combatting climate change, establishing circular bioeconomy and developing regional value chains, policy frameworks are set at the 3 levels: EU, Netherlands and province of Gelderland. What is missing, however, is focus on value added specializations and innovations in circular econo...
This report describes the case of pineapple residues as potential feedstock for new carbon-based materials, especially the use of pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) in textiles. Currently, pineapple crop residues are an environmental burden and their discharge an important cost for the pineapple industry in many tropical countries. The use of pineapple residues as feedstock for biomaterials could create potentially a win-win situation: The pineapple industry can add value to crop residues that are currently a costly waste, while the residues provide a valuable feedstock for various biomaterials contributing to the bioeconomy.Using Costa Rica as a case study, the objectives of this study were to:1. Identify pineapple residue valorization options with a focus on the characteristics of PALF for textiles.2. Estimate the amount of pineapple residues potentially available for PALF.3. Better understand the agronomic, technical, economic, social-institutional bottlenecks hampering the transition towards a biomaterial transition.4. Identify follow-up R&D tracks to deal with the identified bottlenecks with focus on the total use of pineapple residues. This study identifies five major application domains for pineapple residues, i.e., fibers (including PALF for textile), chemical compounds, animal feed, substrate, and energy. Because only 10-20% of the dry matter of the pineapple leaves consists of PALF the remaining residual biomass will also have to find an application (in the bioeconomy) for enhancing the economic viability and optimizing the sustainable use of PALF in the textile and apparel industry. Cascading of different valorization options may increase the resource use efficiency and the economic value of the pineapple residues.Current management costs of pineapple residues in Costa Rica varies between 32 and 81 USD/ton dry matter. The amounts of crop residues and PALF that each year come available after the second harvest of pineapples in Costa Rica are large enough for scalable solutions. We estimate that annually ≈ 620,000 t dry matter of crop residues is available for valorization options, which contains about 45,800 and 91,600 t PALF per year. At the same time, biogas (LPG) can be generated from the crop residues in an amount sufficient to meet about 13% of the national LPG requirements per year, which is currently based for 100% on imports.Despite the large amount of biomass available and the need for more environmental-friendly ways to dispose pineapple residues up to date there are no large-scale initiatives to bring any of the identified valorization options to scale in Costa Rica. There is even less attention for the cascading of different valorization options, which have the potential to reinforce the economic viability of individual valorization options. Four interrelated bottlenecks are identified that hinder valorization developments in Costa Rica: i) The failure to account for the true costs of current residue management, which slows down the industry's response to develop alternative ways to dispose the res...
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