INFRES · Innovative and effective technology and logistics for forest residual biomass supply in the EU

INFRES aims to accelerate the technological development and open new paths to EU’s renewable targets by producing research based knowledge, technological solutions and service innovations for forest residue feedstock supply. INFRES aims at high efficiency and precise deliveries of woody feedstock to heat, power and biorefining industries by: Producing technological and logistic innovations for developing new harvesting, transport and storage technology for forest fuel procurement, Demonstrating new solutions in full supply chains from harvesting to transport and storage in real operational environment Spotting the technological, economic, regulatory and other bottlenecks in the innovation structures for the forest energy sector, Assessing the environmental, economical and social sustainability for the developed logistics including scenarios for different fuel sources, methods, technologies and transport distances and Disseminating the outcomes of research and demonstrations to the practices.Project consortium has 23 partners including 9 leading forest energy research organizations of accompanied with 14 SME along the biomass supply chain. SME’s include manufacturers of harvesting technology, chippers, feedstock supply enterprises, forest harvesting and transport providers, truck technology and IT service provider to manage fleet and storages. During the project INFRES develops and demonstrates technological and logistical solutions that decrease the fossil energy input in the biomass supply by 20% and reduces the raw material losses by 15%. The cost of supply can be reduced by 10-20% and precision of supply improves the economic outcome of CHP production by 10%. The CO2 emissions of feedstock supply will diminish by 10%. With the novel technologies and efficient transfer of best practices between the countries in the consortium and other countries with similar natural conditions the volume of forest energy supply in EU27 by 2015 will be 30% higher than today.