Annually around 700 million tons of agricultural wastes are produced within the EU which represents a high load for farmers that are obligated to get rid of them. So far, the majority of the time manure and crop residues have been receiving the cheapest treatments although these are not the most adequate ones. Upgrading to biogas (AD) by means of anaerobic digestion

(AD) represents an alternative treatment with a lot of potential as it not only prevents pollution, but also allows for energy and nutrient recovery.

There are still many challenges to be solved in order to make this technology effective to treat agricultural waste and widely accessible to European farmers. Its distribution is still scattered in the EU and farmers, depending on their location, have different opportunities to apply this technology. It is necessary to clarify which are the best conditions, adapted to local situations to treat the targeted residues and make this information accessible to farmers though the IAGs which represent them.

The possibility of co-digestion opens a door plenty of potential to farmers who could be able to treat their own waste together with other organic substrates. By these means, farmers will treat their own residues properly and at the same time, they could make a profit by treating and managing organic waste from other sources (waste disposal and management fees) and by selling and/or using its outputs: heat and electrical power together with a stabilised biofertiliser.

The aim of the proposing IAGs is to gather and gain knowledge about financial, legal and technical requirements to develop feasible agricultural AD treatments for different local conditions to further transfer it to their SME members. This will strengthen the competitiveness of AD treatment of agriculture waste against other treatments and will ensure the compliance with the European and national environmental legislation.

In order to enhance the actual European development of decentralised anaerobic digestion (AD) the AGROBIOGAS project has the following objectives.

I. To increase the efficiency of AD with agricultural waste in co-digestion with other organic residues by developing:

a.) laboratory/pilot scale experiments on co-fermentation completed by the end of month 10, in order to support the results obtained by simulation.

b.) and a European co-fermentation substrate database (month 13)

c.) a specific AD Simulation Toolkit (month 23) in order to predict the most

convenient mixtures of co-substrates for decentralised agricultural biogas

plants taking into account the wide variety of farmers and conditions in Europe.

d.) To perform large scale experiments to evaluate and optimise the AD

Simulation Toolkit

II. To gather the scattered information about biogas local projects and make it accessible to farmers and farmers associations, ensuring a successful performance of current and future AD plants.

This objective will be achieved by:

a.) developing an European Agricultural Helpdesk Network of advice for

decentralised AD plants (biogas farmers) that will be finished by the end the

project (month 36).

b.) Developing an Investment Decision Tool based on the AD simulation toolkit to advise farmers interested in AD

c.) developing an European Operational Guidelines of Good practices in AD

processes (based on the AD simulation toolkit) in 5 different languages which

will be finalised in month 26

III. To reduce the uncontrolled disposal of AD sludge by the development of recommendations for the use of it as bio-fertiliser (the bio-fertiliser certification system will be accomplished by the end of month 8)

IV. To train the IAGs in utilisation of the Helpdesk components, the co-fermentation Substrate database and in applying the bio-fertiliser recommendations.

In a second step the IAGs will introduce the Helpdesk network, its components and the benefits to their member SMEs.

V. To disseminate the generated knowledge by:

a.)Development of a project website (month 4)

b.) Specific training activities for IAGs, (seminars of discussion – combined with workshop, seminars of training for software use, workshops on full scale plants, etc) partners related with the agriculture development, related with the

assessment, consulting and dissemination of new technologies by the end of

month 32.

c.) Specific training activities for SMEs core groups (workshops on model full-scale AD plants with 10-15 participants, seminars, courses of management AD plants, environmental legislation courses, etc)of farmers and SME related with the provision of AD technologies and consulting will be accomplished by the end of month 36.

d.) An information campaign performed by IAGs, which will be accomplished by the end of month 36.

Co-ordinator:

1. Dansk Landbrugsrådgivning Landscentret (DAAS) Denmark

IAG – Partners:

2. European Biomass Industry Association (EUBIA) Europe

3. Fachverband Biogas e.V- German Biogas Association (GBA) Germany

4. Asociacion Agraria Jovenes Agricultores (A.S.A.J.A.) Spain

5. Slovenska Asociacia pre biomasu (SK-BIOM) Slovak Republic

6. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie e.V.(DGS) Germany

7. Coordinadora de Organizaciones de agricultures y ganaderos (COAG) Spain

8. Panhellenic Confederation of Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives (PAS) Greece

SME – Partners:

9. Anneberg Gård (AG) Sweden

10. Hagaviks Gård AB (HG) Sweden

11. Azienda Agricola Testa Lara (AAT) Italy

12. Polnohospodarske druzstvo Agricultural Cooperative (PDK) Slovak

Republic

13. Biomasse Energie GmbH (BME) Germany

14. Elbe Bioenergie GbR (ELBE) Germany

15. Reliable Environmental Solutions (RES) Italy

16. Santiago Apóstol SCA (SA) Spain

17. Bioazul S.L. Spain

18. EARL des Brimbelles (EARL) France

RTD – Partners:

19. Verein zur Förderung des Technologietransfers an der

Hochschule Bremerhaven e.V. Unweltinstitut (TTZ) Germany

20. Syddansk Universitet (SDU) Denmark

21. Universitetet som utbildar och forskar för livet (SLU) Sweden

22. Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU) Austria

23. Centre Wallon de Recherches Agronomiques (CRA-W) Belgium

24. Universitat def Barcelona (UB) Spain

Co-ordinator organisation name: Dansk Landbrugsrådgivning Landscentret (DAAS)

Co-ordinator name: Thorkild Q Frandsen

Co-ordinator email: tqf@agrotech.dk

Co-ordinator phone: +45 8743 8468