The 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition ended on Friday, June 22, 2012. Conference General Chairman, Dr.-Ing. B. Krautkremer Fraunhofer Institute IWES, Head of Bioenergy System Technology concluded at the EU BC&E Closing Session: “Biomass is multi-usable for energy as well as for material use. The technologies are quite advanced and the industry well-established.  This gives hope to come up with the challenges we are facing in these times of transition of our energy system. Biomass will obviously play a key role towards a sustainable supply”.

The Conference Programme was defined and structured under the guidance of the Technical Programme Coordination group Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink, Dr. David Baxter and Dr. Jean-Francois Dallemand, all from the European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre.  Dr. David Baxter highlighted in his summary: “Biomass conversion technologies have progressed rapidly in the last year. In some cases technologies have made giant steps forward and expect to achieve commercial reality well with the next 5 years, way ahead of the 2020 target in Europe. The best example of the latter is lignocelluloses ethanol where commercial-scale plants are already under construction. This is not to say there are many challenges and R+D will be needed for a long time to come. So, the European Biomass Conference will need to focus on supporting exploitation of new ideas as well as refining the technologies close to market”.

“Primary energy supply from biomass could triple by 2050 in a scenario compatible with an increase of average world temperature by two degrees Celsius” said Dr. Paolo Frankl, Head of the Renewable Energy Division of the International Energy Agency, during his presentation of the IEA Roadmap on Bioenergy for Heat and Power at the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition held in Milan this week. “Modern bioenergy technologies would also play a crucial contribution for the achievement of the objectives of the UN Secretary General initiative “Sustainable Energy For All” presented and discussed at the Rio+20 conference”, he added.

The European Biomass Conference ranked on top level of the world's leading events in the biomass sector. 332 keynote, plenary, oral and parallel events presentations, 12 parallel events were held during the week, covering all aspects of biomass and bioenergy. The Exhibition showed the newest products and technological developments in the biomass sector with 64 exhibitors and 28 exhibitors’ presentations. The discussions focused on current topics like Biomass Resources, R&D on Biomass Conversion Technologies for Heating, Electricity and Chemicals R&D on Processes for Solid, Liquid and Gaseous Fuels from Biomass, Industrial Demonstration and Business Concepts, Biomass Policies, Markets and Sustainability.