Support for businesses and local authorities in North West Europe

Bioenergy Support Centres (BSC) have been created as part of the BioenNW project to support companies, organisations and local authorities to deliver local bioenergy more efficiently and cost-effectively. Five BSCs have been created to date and they are located in the regions of:

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Ile-de-France, France

Saarland, Germany

Wallonia, Belgium

West Midlands, UK

The BSCs provide expertise and advice to help you to realise the economic and environmental benefits available from turning waste into bioenergy.

Each Bioenergy Support Centre provides:

• State-of-the-art bioenergy demonstration plants
• Feedstock testing facilities
• Scientific demonstration facilities
• Bioenergy decision support tools
• Comprehensive bioenergy document library
• Training, workshops and educational materials
• International network of contacts and experience for bioenergy supply chain
• Support to industry orientated projects and commercial partnership
• Links to other bioenergy associations and EU funded projects

When preparing your bioenergy business case, there are a number of factors that must be taken into consideration. These include:

• The efficient use of the heat and electrical energy generated
• The supply of feedstock (waste) in sufficient quantities
• The logistics of getting the waste from the supply point(s) to the bioenergy production plant.

In turn, these factors need to be compared to the cost of disposing of the waste source by traditional means, such as a landfill site, and its associated environmental impact. In some cases, the primary reason for using bioenergy may be to process contaminated waste and reduce the amount of plastics etc that need to be sent to landfill sites, with the energy produced being a side benefit. Your local BSC will also provide information about the regulatory framework concerning contaminated waste, waste policy and be able to answer any other questions you may have.