Solid Biomass
Perspectives of Renewable Energy in the Danube Region
Dr. Gábor Pintér
The Danube Region is rich in solid biomass. The central European climate is perfect for the
agriculture and for the forestries. These are those economic sectors which produce the most of
solid biomass. But what does “solid biomass” mean exactly:
1. Products or by-products from the agriculture
2. Products or by-products from the forestries
3. Biological residues
The solid biomass potential of the Danube Region is huge but the countries use only the shred
of it. Slovakia just has finished a nuclear power plant and Hungary has decided to start to
extend its nuclear power plant so it seems the energy policy of some countries do not count
much with the solid biomass. The “Why?” question is waiting for our answer.
If you hear the word solid biomass you can think about many other problems and open
questions. We should find answers for these during the conference:
Solid biomass is CO2 free but is it really mean that it cause no pollution?
State supports are different in different countries. Do we need to support solid biomass?
We burn solid biomass in big power plants in Hungary but in Austria lot of biomass is burnt
in small plants. Which is recommended?
What do you think about transporting solid biomass? What is a maximum transportation
distance? Which transportation version is preferable (road, train, ship)?
What should we do from solid biomass: food or energy? Can we make both together?
If we have more places we could write here a lot of questions but “the floor is yours”, please
feel free to search new questions.
The goal of the conference is to calculate the biomass potential of the Danube Region. Here is
the way how you can prepare your abstracts and conference papers:
1. Write about your topic, is it already researched or is this a new field?
2. Theoretical potential: you can calculate it mostly by area (without the residues). If you
know the yield of biomass and the heating value in a specific area you can have the
theoretical potential [amount of energy].
3. Technical potential: think about the technology (e.g.: burning arboreal and non
arboreal plants causes technology problems in the furnace; or impossible to bale the
sunflower straw). What kind of power generation is used: large/small, combined
(heat+electric energy), or only heat or only electric energy?
4. Marketing potential: how is the state support for the solid biomass in your country?
How is the market regulation? Is there any demand for the heat or only for the electric
energy? How was the energy price tendency in your country? (In Hungary the energy
prices have reduced in the past two years!)
The above mentioned four points could not always stay in separate chapters in your paper but
please think about them to calculate complex! Please feel free to count with new points with
other problems but try to calculate with the above mentioned points also.
Do not forget that our goal is to establish the solid biomass potential of the Danube region!