Last week, EBNet director Prof Sonia Heaven took part in an IEA Task 37 meeting that was timed to coincide with the triennial Central European Biomass conference in Graz, Austria. The plan was to network with participants on behalf of a number of EBNet’s groups, but this fell through when she had to attend online rather than in person due to a badly-timed broken wrist. The online sessions covered progress on topics in the Task 37 work plan for the current triennium, however, and there was plenty to interest EBNet members and WGs.
One work package, led by Task 37 Lead Dr Bernhard Drosg, concerns monitoring of digester microbiomes and what this can tell us about digester performance and operation: our Bioinformatics and AF WG Leads are now preparing case study materials for possible inclusion. The AD and AF WGs hope to contribute to a work package on digestate utilisation, led by Prof Bernadette McCabe of the University of Southern Queensland. There was also an update on the E-Fuels & Biomethane work package, led by Dr Laurent Spreutels of NRC Canada, for which some of the work on CO2 biomethanation as a tool for industrial decarbonisation and from last year’s New Biomethane workshop could potentially be of interest.
Dr Mark Walker, who leads EBNet’s AD WG, said: “Findings from the New Biomethane workshop have not been made publicly available yet, but look very interesting. If we are able to disseminate any of this work to wider audiences by contributing to a Task 37 report, that will be an outstanding outcome for the workshop and the working group”.
The CO2 Biomethanisation report was sponsored by Carbon Recycling Net and EBNet, and the New Biomethane workshop was run by four EBNet WGs.