With just over a fortnight to go, Marseille, France is all set to host the 32nd edition of the annual European Biomass Conference and Exhibition (EUBCE), the worlds's largest international conference on research, technologies, and applications in biomass and bioeconomy.
Taking place on June 24-28, 2024, at Parc Chanot in Marseille, the 32nd EUBCE is, according to the organizers ETA-Florence Renewable Energies, slated to bring together 1,500 participants, 60 partners, 20 exhibitors, and 20 European Horizon Europe projects to discuss the latest developments and innovations in the field, promote meetings and establish partnerships.
Guillaume Boissonnet, Research Director at the CEA’s I-Tésé Institute, is this year’s General Chairman and the CEA will be well represented alongside IFPEN, INRAE, CIRAD, CNRS, the academic world, ADEME, FranceAgriMer and the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment.
Exploring the full potential
In Europe and France, bioenergy is the most widely used renewable energy making a significant contribution to the defossilization of the energy mix.
Although biomass is mainly used to produce heat and electricity, it has great potential for other applications such as biofuels, biogas, and biomolecules for the chemicals and materials industries.
European policies and those of several countries, including France, show that this resource will play an important role, both in terms of its uses and its carbon storage properties: food, materials, molecules, energy, and negative emissions.
It is also an ambitious component of the National Low Carbon Strategy and the National Biomass Mobilisation Strategy. It is also the subject of several national programs and public-private partnerships for energy transition.
Packed program
The EUBCE 2024 conference program, coordinated by the European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC) with the support of the Circular Bio-Based Europe Joint Undertaking, with nearly 800 presentations, will be an opportunity to discover the latest scientific, technological, and commercial trends, and to review the latest research and developments from institutes, universities and companies around the world, as well as energy policies.
It will be an opportunity to answer the questions that arise now that a large number of technologies have reached technological maturity and the feasibility of industrial processes has been demonstrated:
- How to develop the best use of biomass in sectors that need to be defossilized but are difficult or impossible to decarbonize?
- How can we harmonize the approaches and interests of the various research, industrial, and economic communities at the European and national levels?
- What legislation(s) should be in place to ensure that increased use respects ecosystems and biodiversity and addresses Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) issues?
The opening morning of the conference will take place on the morning of June 24, 2024, and will be attended by scientific, industrial, and institutional leaders.
High-level representatives from the International Energy Agency (IEA), ADEME, the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning, the General Directorate for Energy and Climate, and the Ministries of Research, Agriculture, Environment and Economy will be present.
Representatives of the European Commission Joint Research Center, the European Parliament, and the Sud-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) region will also be present.
The welcome ceremony and speeches by the PACA Region, the City of Marseille, and the host, the University of Aix-Marseille will take place late on June 24, 2024, in Parc Chanot.
It’s time to make it clear that biomass has a key role to play in Europe’s energy future while preserving its role as a carbon store and sink. It’s time to show that biomass can be advantageously combined with other decarbonized energy sources and vectors such as electricity, heat, and hydrogen. It’s time to show that the circular carbon economy is a concept for the future, applicable to both biomass and CO2, said Guillaume Boissonnet, General Chairman of the Conference, and Research Director at CEA.
