WASTE2BIOFUEL: DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED AND LESSON LEARNT

Difficulties encountered

The Project has faced two main problems since its inception:

 Delay in obtaining the permits and  in the Spanish legislation on environmental quality, no authorization is required for R & D facilities, but this circumstance has not been incorporated into the environmental impact legislation. This has been a major barrier to the project.

 Liquidity problems to face the construction of the pilot. In the first steps of the project, the partner responsible of the pilot plant construction had liquidity problems. These problems was solved with the entry of a capital risk which solved financial feasibility of the company .

Termination of the project

At the end of 2019, disagreement occurred in relation to the prototype situation and the project demonstration has finally led to the termination of the project prematurely.

Lesson learnt

Regarding the legal framework inconsistencies have been found between different legislations that must be solved in a future, such as emissions, waste, biofuels, renewable energy and environmental quality policies.

We have observed that waste legislation places many barriers to the recovery of waste in terms of obtaining permits (considering the IGFT as incineration) while on the other hand it is driven by renewable energy legislation. In addition, the fuel obtained is considered biofuel but also as waste (no losing this consideration), so some technicians of the administration believe that it can only be used in a co-incineration facility not for transport.

At the beginning of the project , we assumed that problems with waste gasification systems occur mainly at the technical level. It soon became apparent, however, that the plants built did not fail because of technical challenges, but often because of economic reasons.

Future steps

The consortium will continue their works supporting the instruments and measures to provide incentives for the application of the waste hierarchy:

• Charges and restrictions for the landfilling and incineration of waste which incentivise waste prevention and recycling, while keeping landfilling the least preferred waste management option;
• Support to research and innovation in advanced recycling technologies and remanufacturing;
• Use of best available techniques for waste treatment;
• Economic incentives for regional and local authorities, in particular to promote waste prevention and intensify separate collection schemes, while avoiding support to landfilling and incineration;
• Promoting continuous dialogue and cooperation between all stakeholders in waste management and encouraging voluntary agreements and company reporting on waste.