First Stakeholders’ Vision Document D’APPOLONIA - bio-hypp.eu€¦ · 30.11.2016 WP 5 / D’APPOLONIA Short Summary This document is aimed to collect the opinion of key stakeholders,

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 641073

Page 1

Grant No: 641073

Bio-HyPP

Deliverable No Title Submission Due Date WP/Lead

D5.4 First Stakeholders’ Vision Document

30.11.2016 WP 5 / D’APPOLONIA

Short Summary

This document is aimed to collect the opinion of key stakeholders, and to understand their future visions regarding the key topics of the project. In particular, the steps towards commencing Stakeholders engagement are described. Answers collected from the first online consultation “Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group Questionnaire: an insight into the future EU Energy market” are reported and analysed. The outcome of the document is therefore to define the future steps, for a full involvement of Stakeholders within the project, and the identification of potential inputs to be implemented within the business models and plans.

Printed Date 30.11.2016

Dissemination Level

PU Public X

PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)

RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)

CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)

Ref. Ares(2016)6713345 - 30/11/2016



Page 2

Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................... 3

List of Acronyms .............................................................................................................................. 4

1 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 5

2 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6

3 Stakeholders identification and contact ...................................................................................... 7

3.1 Stakeholders categories ...................................................................................................... 7

3.2 Stakeholders selection and contact ..................................................................................... 8

4 Questionnaire methodology .................................................................................................... 14

4.1 Purpose of the questionnaire ............................................................................................ 14

4.2 Questionnaire structure and questions .............................................................................. 14

5 Questionnaire outcome ........................................................................................................... 16

5.1 Respondents .................................................................................................................... 16

5.2 Analysis of responses........................................................................................................ 17

5.2.1 Section 1 - Stakeholder category .................................................................................. 17

5.2.2 Section 2 - Current knowledge ..................................................................................... 18

5.2.3 Section 3 - Future barriers ............................................................................................ 21

5.2.4 Section 4 - Future opportunities .................................................................................... 23

5.2.5 Section 5 - Bio-HyPP peculiarities and future scenarios ................................................... 28

5.2.6 Section 6 - Suggestions and expectations ...................................................................... 29

5.3 Key findings and results .................................................................................................... 30

6 Next steps ............................................................................................................................... 32

6.1 Selection of events ........................................................................................................... 32

6.2 Stakeholders workshop .................................................................................................... 33

7 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 34

References ..................................................................................................................................... 35



Page 3

List of Figures

Figure 3.1: Invitation email. .............................................................................................................. 8

Figure 3.2: Stakeholders Group invitation letter. ................................................................................ 9

Figure 3.3: First page of Stakeholders Engagement Document. ........................................................ 10

Figure 3.4: Second page of Stakeholders Engagement Document. ................................................... 11

Figure 3.5: Registration form – cover page. ..................................................................................... 12

Figure 3.6: Stakeholders Group registration form. ........................................................................... 13

Figure 4.1: Email invitation to the questionnaire. ............................................................................. 14

Figure 4.2: First page of the questionnaire. ..................................................................................... 15

Figure 5.1: Countries of provenience of respondents. ...................................................................... 16

Figure 5.2: Question 1 responses. ................................................................................................... 17






Figure 5.8: Question 10 responses. ................................................................................................. 20

Figure 5.9: Question 11 responses. ................................................................................................. 21

Figure 5.10: Question 12 responses. ............................................................................................... 22












Page 4

List of Acronyms

AD Anaerobic Digestion

BE Belgium

CHP Combined Heat and Power

DE Germany

ESCO Energy Service Company

EU European Union

kWe Thousand Watts of Electric Power (103 W)

IT Italy

MGT Micro Gas Turbines

NG Natural Gas

NL The Netherlands

OFMSW Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste

R&D Research and Development

SOFC Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

UHC Unburned Hydrocarbons

USA United States of America



Page 5

1 Executive Summary Bio-HyPP is a Horizon 2020 EU funded project, started on 1st June 2015 that will run for 4 years. Bio-

HyPP aims to develop a full scale technology demonstrator of a hybrid power plant using biogas as

main fuel in lab environment, in order to reach the goals of improving the efficiency of CHP systems

while simultaneously widening the biomass feedstock base as well as increasing operational flexibility.

This report constitutes the Deliverable D5.4 “First Stakeholders’ Vision Document” for the Bio-HyPP

project, and aims to collect the opinion of key stakeholders and their future visions on the key subject

of the project. In particular, the steps followed for Stakeholders engagement are described, and the

answers to the first online consultation “Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group Questionnaire: an insight into

the future EU Energy market” are reported and analysed.

The analysis of respondents’ categories showed that the Bio-HyPP project caught the interest of

different stakeholders’ typologies active both in the biogas and energy-production sectors, with high-

level knowledge within the sectors. They selected the high cost of technology as the most alarming

barrier for the diffusion of both micro-CHP and biogas technologies. Other possible barriers has been

identified with the lack of consumers’ awareness, regarding micro-CHP systems, and the lack of

appropriate regulations regarding both sectors. Distributed generation is foreseen as a promising

solution and micro-CHP market is expected to grow in EU. Also the installation of CHP systems within

micro-biogas grids have been evaluated as a feasible and promising solution. Food processing

industries have been identified as the most suitable scenario for the future installation of micro-CHP

systems and for the installation of the Bio-HyPP system. The identification of the most suitable sizes to

install the system at biogas production site or within a micro-biogas grid, selected a similar small-mid

size range of electric power output.

The present report is organized into the following Chapters.

In Chapter 2 a brief introduction is presented, describing the methodology used to outline

Stakeholders’ vision on the Bio-HyPP future development.

Chapter 3 provides an overview of the main categories of Stakeholders that have been interviewed,

and the steps done for their engagement.

After a description of the methodology and the structure of the questionnaire in Chapter 4, Chapter 5

describes the main results collected, analysing the respondents’ answers and highlighting the most

important outcomes for the project.

In Chapter 6 the next steps planned for the engagement of new stakeholders and for the full

involvement of the Stakeholders Group members are provided. Conclusions are drawn in Chapter 7.



Page 6

2 Introduction The Bio-HyPP project intends to establish a Stakeholders Group involving key players, from industry

members to research institutions, operating in sectors crucial to the project. Relevant data and

feedback provided by the stakeholders will support the market analysis and business model activities

and will provide important feedbacks and suggestions for the future exploitation and technological

improvement of the Bio-HyPP system.

The Stakeholders Group members will be contacted and involved with dedicated interviews and

meetings. Contacts with the stakeholders group will also take the form of a workshop. Main

deliverables of this task will be the preparation of two Stakeholders’ Vision Documents that will be

based on the collected stakeholders’ contributions.

First of all, according to the project’s objectives, Stakeholders Group has been established. Then, in

order to extract important input for the project advance from key players involved within the sectors

crucial to the project, a questionnaire has been developed. The aim of the questionnaire was to collect

and analyse the experience and knowledge of the selected Stakeholders.

The first Stakeholders’ questionnaire is titled “Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group Questionnaire: an insight

into the future EU Energy market”. It is mainly focused on the future prospective of the European

Energy market, the future applications and the technological objectives of the project, as well as the

future development of biogas and natural gas technologies, particularly CHP. The questionnaire aims

to identify a common vision among Stakeholders for the future development and installation of the

Bio-HyPP system.

The second document about the opinion of key stakeholders and their future vision, namely “D5.6 -

Second Stakeholders Vision Document” will be delivered in May 2018 (month 36 of the project). That

document will contain an in depth view of Stakeholders’ feedback and comments regarding the

results obtained from the experiments performed and the outcomes from the workshop that will be

held.

The Stakeholders’ contribution is aimed to provide the Bio-HyPP consortium with the necessary

external feedback from an industrial and market point of view and will support the project with

valuable and experienced commercially oriented insights toward the future marketability of the Bio-

HyPP system.



Page 7

3 Stakeholders identification and contact In order to establish a Stakeholders Group, involving key players operating in sectors crucial to the

project, the Bio-HyPP Consortium analysed the industrial and market sectors related to the Bio-HyPP

project. The analysis was divided into three main categories of interest, strictly related to the project.

These categories are in particular the CHP and micro-CHP systems sector, the biogas sector and the

“energy” sector, comprising energy production, grid management and distribution.

In the framework of these categories, different stakeholders were selected, operating in different

positions of the corresponding value chain, to effectively and entirely cover the identified sectors. The

aspects covered by the analysis varied from the component manufacturing, both for biogas plants and

CHP/micro-CHP systems, the installation and management and the final use. Also in the energy sector

the production, grid management and distribution were considered. Also associations and research

institutes related to the sectors of interest were identified as key players for the Bio-HyPP project and

were included in the list of stakeholders to get in contact with.

3.1 Stakeholders categories Based on the analysis carried out on the value chains of selected sectors, namely CHP/micro-CHP

systems, biogas and the energy sector, the following categories of Stakeholders to get in contact with

could be introduced:

CHP technology provider: 1. CHP system manufacturer 2. Fuel Cells manufacturer 3. Micro Gas Turbine manufacturer 4. Other CHP component manufacturer

Biogas plant technology provider

5. Biogas plant manufacturer

6. Biogas plant component manufacturer

Biogas plant manager/owner

7. Biogas plant manager

8. Biogas plant owner

System installer

9. CHP system installer

10. Biogas plant installer

Energy services provider

11. Electric energy provider

12. Gas provider

13. Heating provider

14. ESCO

15. Contractor

Grid manager

16. Electricity network manager

17. Gas network manager

18. Heating network manager

Industrial player



Page 8

19. Farmer

20. Industrial player

Building owner/manager

21. Commercial building owner

22. Commercial building manager

Research group or association

23. Research institution

24. Association

The same categories have been suggested to the Stakeholders, for their own categorization in the first

question of the Stakeholders questionnaire (see Chapter 5.2.1). These categories permit to entirely

cover the sectors of interest for the Bio-HyPP project, in addition to “Other” category for Stakeholders

not recognizing themselves in the previous ones. Opening up a contact with Stakeholders from these

categories will permit to receive a complete view from directly involved players, in all the aspects

related to the future manufacture, installation, use and management of the Bio-HyPP system.

3.2 Stakeholders selection and contact Once the crucial sectors were thoroughly analysed and the categories of stakeholders were identified,

a list of stakeholders has been selected, with the collaboration of all the partners in the project

Consortium, with the aim of the best coverage of the selected sectors and categories possible.

At first, 53 possible Stakeholders were identified and invited to join the Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group.

The complete list of contacted companies is not reported in the present deliverable, due to

confidentiality reasons.

The selected possible Stakeholders were contacted through an invitation email, sent from the Bio-HyPP

project email address ([email protected]). The email invited them to register online to join the Bio-

HyPP Stakeholders Group. The text of the invitation email is reported in the following Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1: Invitation email.

The invitation email included two documents, as attachments, namely the Invitation Letter and the

Stakeholders Engagement Document. These documents have been specifically prepared to catch

the interest of the possible Stakeholders and effectively engage them. In particular the Stakeholders

Engagement Document offers an insight into the Bio-HyPP project, presenting the benefits and

advantages for Stakeholders Group members, the proposed opportunities and the requested efforts.

mailto:[email protected]



Page 9

The content of the attached documents is reported in the following Figure 3.2, Figure 3.3 and Figure

3.4.

Figure 3.2: Stakeholders Group invitation letter.



Page 10

Figure 3.3: First page of Stakeholders Engagement Document.



Page 11

Figure 3.4: Second page of Stakeholders Engagement Document.



Page 12

The invitation e-mail also contained a direct link to the online registration form, permitting the

possible Stakeholders to easily register to the Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group, inserting some contact

details. A view of the online Registration form set up for Stakeholders registration, available at

http://survey.bio-hypp.eu/, is reported in Figure 3.5 and Figure 3.6.

Figure 3.5: Registration form – cover page.

http://survey.bio-hypp.eu/



Page 13

Figure 3.6: Stakeholders Group registration form.



Page 14

4 Questionnaire methodology The aim of the questionnaire was to collect and analyse the valuable and experienced knowledge of

the selected Stakeholders, in the sectors related to the project.

The questionnaire was implemented on the online platform Lime Survey (https://www.limesurvey.org/)

that permits to create, edit and analyse online surveys with its online service based on open source

software.

The Stakeholders Group members were invited to participate in the questionnaire with an e-mail. The

text of the questionnaire invitation (anonymous) e-mail is reported in Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1: Email invitation to the questionnaire.

4.1 Purpose of the questionnaire The first Stakeholders’ questionnaire was mainly focused on the future prospective of the European

Energy market, the future applications and technological objectives of the project, as well as the

future development of biogas and natural gas technologies, in order to identify a common vision

among Stakeholders for the future development and installation of the Bio-HyPP system.

The Stakeholders’ contribution will provide the Bio-HyPP consortium with the necessary external

feedback from an industrial and market point of view and will support the project with valuable and

experienced commercially oriented insights towards the future marketability of the Bio-HyPP system.

4.2 Questionnaire structure and questions The questionnaire is titled “Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group Questionnaire: an insight into the

future EU Energy market”. The first page of the questionnaire included a short project description

and the purpose of the questionnaire. The first page is reported in Figure 4.2.

https://www.limesurvey.org/



Page 15

Figure 4.2: First page of the questionnaire.

The questionnaire was composed by 6 Question Groups, namely:

1. Stakeholder category (4 questions); 2. Current knowledge (7 questions); 3. Future barriers (4 questions); 4. Future opportunities (8 questions); 5. Bio-HyPP peculiarities and future scenarios (2 questions); 6. Suggestions and expectations (4 questions).

The number of questions for each section in reported in parentheses, next to the section’s name.

Totally, the questionnaire is composed by 29 questions. The entire list of the questions is reported and

completely analysed in the following Chapter 5.



Page 16

5 Questionnaire outcome The aim of the present questionnaire is to identify market needs and future developments of biogas-

fired CHP systems. The Stakeholders analysis was performed to identify the key Stakeholders in the

sectors related to the Bio-HyPP project. The selection intended to cover the entire value chain of the

system involving industrial players, associations and research centres active in different roles: from

technology providers to possible customers. The analysis of responses will equip the Bio-HyPP project

with a market insight that will be the baseline for the development of a future business model for the

developed system. Moreover the results will be useful to orient future development steps in order to

overcome possible barriers identified by the Stakeholders.

5.1 Respondents The survey was performed during October 2016 and involved 53 potential Stakeholders. 13 of them

accepted to sign in the Stakeholders Group. The list of Stakeholders that accepted our invitation

becoming members of the Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group is kept as confidential input to the following

activities of the project.

Successively, the Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group members were invited to participate in the online

questionnaire in order to give their opinion and suggestions on the project. 8 of them completed the

questionnaire entirely. Other 4 Stakeholders started the survey, not completing it. The uncompleted

surveys weren’t taken into account for the analysis of responses because they were interrupted in an

initial step and have been considered not relevant. The questionnaire was in English version only. The

questions were formulated to gather information about current knowledge of biogas, SOFC/MGT

hybrid system as well as existing barriers and their future overcoming.

Analysing the countries of provenience of the respondents, it is possible to note that the majority of

them is based in Italy (50%) and Germany (25%). One respondent is from Belgium (12,5%) and one

from USA (12,5%). The geographical provenience of the respondents is graphically reported in Figure

below.

Figure 5.1: Countries of provenience of respondents.

One important aspect is that the most of the stakeholders come from the two largest European biogas

markets, confirming an interest of this kind of sector towards new high efficiency technology for

biogas exploitation.



Page 17

5.2 Analysis of responses In the present Chapter, a detailed analysis of the responses is carried out. The analysis is divided per

section and question. Every section is taken into account and introduced by a brief explanation of the

contents, reported at the beginning of each subchapter. In-depth analysis of the questions contained

in each section is reported below.

5.2.1 Section 1 - Stakeholder category

In the first section of the questionnaire, the basic information about the categories of the Stakeholders

are collected in order to identify their backgrounds and previous experiences related to the energy

sector and to map all the information that could represent an added value to be exploited in the

project framework. Moreover, in order to evaluate the number of people that could be potentially

reached by the Stakeholders Group members’ engagement, the numbers of employees and

associations’ members of respondents have been collected.

Question 1 - Please, select the category of stakeholders you or your organisation belong to:

The interviewed Stakeholders could choose the category to which they belong to from a list of 24

categories. The same list has been previously reported in Chapter 3.1. The analysis of responses shows

the presence of two Associations, two Research institutions, a Contractor, an Electrical energy

provider, a Biogas plant owner and a stakeholder that categorize itself as belonging to the “Other”

category (see Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2: Question 1 responses.

Question 2 - Please, add a short characterization of your activity:

This question, asking to specify some details about the activities carried out by the respondent, was

available only for respondents that in the previous question selected the categories: “Biogas plant

component manufacturer”, “Farmer”, “Fuel Cells manufacturer”, “Industrial player”, “Other CHP

component manufacturer”, “Other” and “Research institution”. The responses to the present

question have been kept as confidential.

Question 3 - How many employees does your organisation have?

The characterization of the respondents on the base of their employees shows the numbers reported

in the following chart. The respondents are characterized by different numbers of employees, from 3

to 20.000, covering a large range of different companies in terms of employees form small enterprises

to large ones. One respondent preferred not to specify its number of employees.



Page 18


Question 4 - How many members does your organisation have?

Associations were also asked to give a number of registered members, in order to have an overview of

possible channels to be used for a further dissemination of the results of the Bio-HyPP project and to

engage other possible Stakeholders interested in our project. The number of members of the

associations participating in the survey are respectively 109 and 665 for the two responding

associations.

5.2.2 Section 2 - Current knowledge

The second section of the questionnaire analysed the current knowledge of the Stakeholders, asking

them to rate themselves in different aspects and topics related to the Bio-HyPP project and, more in

detail, to the energy and biogas sectors.

Question 5 - Please rate your current knowledge about the following topics related to CHP

(Combined Heat and Power) technology:

(1= I know nothing, 5= I am an expert)

The first question of the section asked to the stakeholders to rate their knowledge about different

topics related to CHP and different technologies used for combined production of heat and power.

The average value of rates collected by different technologies is reported in Figure 5.4. It can be

highlighted that the Stakeholders rate themselves more expert in fields strictly related to our project,

such as “Micro-CHP” (3,75), “(Micro) Gas Turbine” (3,5) and “Fuel Cells” (3,25). Differently, the topic

appearing more distant from our project, i.e. “Steam engine”, shows the lowest value of knowledge

(2,4).




Page 19

Question 6 - What size do you identify as micro-CHP?

According with the responses collected for this question, there is no clear idea of the size identifying

micro-CHP systems. Three respondents accord in the definition of micro-CHP as plants having an

installed electrical power minor than 10 kWe. Other two respondents select the “<20 kWe” option.

The remaining respondents selected higher values as shown in Figure 5.5.


Question 7 - Please rate your current knowledge about the following topics related to

biogas:

(1= I know nothing, 5= I am an expert)

The respondents’ knowledge about topics related to biogas is represented in the following chart. The

Stakeholders describe their knowledge about “Biogas use” with a high rate (4,25 as average value)

while they have minor closeness with “Biogas purification” (3,4).


Question 8 - Does your organisation have previous experience with the following topics?

In this question the respondents were asked to point out if they had previous experiences with some

topics related to the Bio-HyPP project, regarding different aspects of the energy sector. All the

respondents had previous experiences with “CHP systems” and “Electric energy production”. Seven

out of eight had previous experiences with “Biogas” and “Natural gas”. Only five out of eight had

previous experiences with “Micro-CHP”, although they marked out a quite high level of knowledge in

the previous Question 5.



Page 20


Question 9 - For the topics you selected 'Yes', please, briefly describe your previous

experience:

In this question the respondents were invited to describe their background experiences related to the

previous Question 8. Several experiences are related to CHP: installation, management and selling are

covered. Also valuable experiences in the field of Biogas fired plant could be an interesting starting

point to properly enhance for the future application of the system developed within the project.

Question 10 - Have you ever heard about the SOFC/MGT Hybrid system?

The results of this question show that only one respondent had not heard about the SOFC/MGT

Hybrid system, while the remaining seven were already aware of the existence of such technology.


Question 11 - Have you ever heard about micro biogas grids with so-called satellite CHP

systems for local utilization of biogas?

The responses show that six out of eight respondents had previously heard about micro biogas grid.

This represents a feasible method to operate the system developed within the project. Also the

awareness of this possibility among energy-sector involved players could be an important starting

point. Their knowledge about this topic will be further followed up during the Stakeholders Group

meeting, in order to receive inputs and suggestions for the definition of the business model for our

product.



Page 21


5.2.3 Section 3 - Future barriers

In this third section, the barriers that could hinder future diffusion of the technologies developed

within the project, and more in general the ones related to combined heat and power production and

biogas, are analysed and rated by the interviewed. This will permit to get an insight into the problems

from a market oriented prospective and to elaborate a planned strategy for market uptake.

Question 12 - According to your viewpoint, how much could the following barriers hinder

the diffusion of micro-CHP?

(1= nothing, 5= very much)

Future barriers that have been identified as the most problematic for the diffusion of the micro-CHP

technologies are “High cost of technologies” (4,5), “Lack of consumers’ awareness” (4,25) and “Lack

of appropriate regulation” (3,75). The other barriers shown as options and their average evaluation

are reported in the chart below.



Page 22


Question 13 - Do you see other possible barriers for the diffusion of micro-CHP systems, not

listed above?

No other barriers were identified in addition to the ones listed in the previous Question 12.

Question 14 - According to your viewpoint, how much could the following barriers hinder

the diffusion of biogas plants?

(1= nothing, 5= very much)

Barriers that could hinder the future diffusion of biogas plants, indicated by the respondents as the

most alarming are “High cost of technologies” (3,6), “Lack of appropriate regulation” (3,4),

“Feedstock supply problems” (3,2). Comparing Question 14 to Question 12, it is possible to highlight

an average lower value for all the responses. This can be related to the fact that biogas is a more

mature technology compared to micro-CHP, so barriers for a future diffusion of biogas are seen as

more surmountable. Moreover, it is possible to highlight a correspondence of the topics of “High cost

of technologies” and ”Lack of appropriate regulation” in the higher places in the list, showing the

perceived importance of economics and regulatory framework for the diffusion of new technologies.



Page 23


Question 15 - Do you see other possible barriers for the diffusion of biogas systems, not

listed above?

The additional barriers indicated by the respondents could be traced back to other ones, already listed

in the previous question’s option list. Responses are reported in table.

Table 5.1: Question 15 responses.

Public acceptance, normative and legislative inadequacies and deficiencies.

Negative public and political awareness.

5.2.4 Section 4 - Future opportunities In the fourth section an analysis of trends and opportunities within the energy sector is carried out in

order to define future scenarios for the applicability of the technologies developed during the project.



Page 24

Question 16 - According with your expectations and point of view, please rate, ranking up

to 5, the following future trends and technologies, evaluating their importance for the EU

energy market in the next 10 years:

In this question respondents were asked to assess the importance of several future trends related to

the energy sector. The trend receiving the high average quotation is “Distributed generation” (4,3),

followed by “Bio-methane” (4,1) and “Agro-Energy (Energy production from biomass)” (3,5).


Question 17 - According with your viewpoint, please select the most suitable scenarios for

the future installation of micro-CHP systems:

Please select at most 5 answers

Question 17 suggested some scenarios identified during the previous steps of the project (D1.1 -

Analysis of market opportunities and legislative assessment [1]) in order to select the most suitable for

the installation of a micro-CHP unit. Both Question 17 and Question 25 (specifically addressing the

Bio-HyPP system) selected the most suitable scenarios for a future application of the systems. The deep

knowledge of the energy sector and the previous experiences of the respondents could orient the Bio-

HyPP consortium during the definition of market strategies and business models in a successive project

phase. The responses selected ”Food processing industries”, “Hospitals” and “Hotels and motels” as

the most suitable scenarios, followed by “Industrial sector” and “Small industrial businesses”. The

complete list of selected scenarios is presented below.



Page 25


5

Food processing industries

Hospitals

Hotels and motels

3

Industrial sector

Small industrial businesses

2

Laundries

Residential buildings

Stores and supermarkets

Universities and campuses

Wastewater treatment plants – industrial

Wastewater treatment plants – urban

1

Animal and agricultural farms

Clinics and nursing homes

Offices

Public buildings

Separate source bio-waste treatment plants

Sport arenas and fitness centres

Swimming pools and leisure centres

Question 18 - Major analysts agree expecting an increase of the installed micro-CHP

systems in the next years. According to your point of view, how much can the number of

installed units in Europe realistically increase by 2030? (The estimate for 2015 is around

40.000 units [2])

(% related to the total number of actually installed units)

This question had the purpose of analysing the respondents’ expectations about future prospective of

micro-CHPs’ market. The responses have been very distributed among different options, as shown in

the following bar chart.




Page 26

Question 19 - The role of micro biogas grids with satellite CHP systems has gained

significance in the last years with the support of public funding. According to your point of

view, how important and useful do you rate the role of such micro grids in the future to

increase the economic sustainability of the biogas value chain?

Please rate from 1 (= not important) to 5 (= very important):

A future method to operate the Bio-HyPP system could be its installation within a micro biogas grid.

This solution sees the installation of a centralized anaerobic digestion plant, producing biogas, and a

series of CHP units located in the nearby area. The biogas is exploited in the CHP systems located at

the final users premises and is transported to the centralized plant by a micro-grid. In this question the

respondents were asked about the future importance and usefulness of such solution. The distribution

of Question 19 responses is reported in the following bar chart. The average rate is 3,5.


Question 20 - Please, select the most suitable size for the future installation of CHP

systems, installed at biogas production site:

The selection of a suitable size for the installation of a CHP system at biogas production site, brought

to the answers’ distribution reported in Figure 5.15. The 50% of respondents selected the size “51-

150 kWe”, 25% of them selected the“250-500 kWe” size range and other 25% of respondents

selected the “500-1000 kWe” option.


Question 21 - Please, select the most suitable size for the future installation of micro-CHP

systems used as satellite CHP system within a micro biogas grid:

Question 21, similarly to the previous one, intends to select the suitable size of the system in another

operative solution. In this case the system is operated within a micro biogas grid as a satellite micro-



Page 27

CHP. Also in this case, the 50% of respondents accorded, selecting the size “51-100 kWe”. The

others selected minor sizes, excepting one that selected the larger size, i.e. the option “> 500 kWe”.


Question 22 - Please, rate the most interesting feedstocks for biogas production in future

scenarios:

(Ranking up to 5):

The selection of the most interesting feedstock for biogas production brought to an answers’

distribution as reported in the following bar chart. At a first evaluation of the results it is possible to

note very little difference between different options. Among others, the Organic Fraction of Municipal

Solid Waste (OFMSW) (4,25) is expected to be the most interesting feedstock, followed by Agricultural

residues and by-products (4,13) and Agro-food residues.


Question 23 - Do you see other potential feedstock to exploit for biogas production, not

listed above? What other interesting feedstock have you identified?

Other feedstocks indicated are reported in the following table. Some of them were already reported in

the list suggested in the previous question.


Cover crops (second harvest), Livestock effluents, Nitrogen fixing plants, Agricultural by-products.

Energy crops.



Page 28

5.2.5 Section 5 - Bio-HyPP peculiarities and future scenarios

This section explicitly addresses the Bio-HyPP system and asked the respondents to give some opinion

about it. The section is composed by two questions.

Question 24 - According to your viewpoint, what are the benefits that represent the

strength points of the Bio-HyPP system for its future marketability?

Please select 2 answers

In the first question of this section, the respondents were asked to rate the benefits of the Bio-HyPP

system in order to evaluate the system from a market prospective. The combined production of heat

and power has been selected as the more important strength point for the future marketability of the

system. Other benefits rates are reported in the following chart.


Question 25 - Please, select the most suitable scenarios for the future installation of the

Bio-HyPP system:

This question is analogous to the previous Question 17, but in this case the scenarios are referred

specifically to the Bio-HyPP system, differently from the generic micro-CHP system addressed in the

previous question. Respondents, in this case, accorded in the selection of a scenario: six out of eight

selected “Food processing industries” as one of the two possible responses they had, showing high

perception of suitability for this scenario. The following table reports the specific rates collected by the

other scenarios of installation. It is possible to highlight how the same scenario has been selected as

the most suitable in both Question 17 and Question 25.



Page 29

Table 5.4. : Question 25 responses.

6

Food processing industries

4

Wastewater treatment plants – industrial

3

Animal and agricultural farms

Industrial sector

Separate source bio-waste treatment plants

Swimming pools and leisure centres

2

Greenhouses

Hospitals

Wastewater treatment plants – urban

1

Hotels and motels

Sport arenas and fitness centres

Stores and supermarkets

Trade & commerce companies facilities

5.2.6 Section 6 - Suggestions and expectations In the last section of the questionnaire, the respondents were asked about their expectations and

suggestions for a better understanding of what they want to share with us and what they expect to

obtain from our Stakeholders Group. The deep energy sector and market knowledge owned by the

respondents have to be properly investigated in order to receive the best suggestions for our system

and to obtain as many insights as possible into future marketability of the system.

Question 26 - In your opinion, are there any other stakeholders or possible users we

should be talking to?

The stakeholders were asked to suggest other possible players and stakeholders active in the sectors

strictly related to the Bio-HyPP project, in order to enlarge our Stakeholders Group and to reach a

larger audience. Other possible stakeholders have been proposed by the respondents and contacted in

order to invite them to join our Stakeholders Group. They have been contacted through the same

invitation email used for other stakeholders as reported in Chapter 3.2. No other members joined our

Stakeholders Group.

Question 27 - Do you have questions for the Bio-HyPP project partners?

No questions were presented for the Bio-HyPP project partners.

Question 28 - Are you interested in a Stakeholders Group meeting?

The majority of respondents declared that they are interested in a future Stakeholders Group meeting. The only exception is represented by the USA respondent. This answers represents an important feedback for the Bio-HyPP project, showing the real interest in the Bio-HyPP project also for a relatively small Stakeholders Group. The chart representing the answers to Question 28 is reported in the following chart.



Page 30


Question 29 - Do you have suggestions about topics of interest for our first Stakeholders

Group meeting?

In this question the Stakeholders were asked about our first Stakeholders group meeting in order to select the topics of interest for them and to explore their expectations about the project. The answers to this question are reported in the following table.


Importance of biogas purification for the use in SOFC - Biogas or biomethane as main supply (as you have already to introduce a reforming unit).

Detailed research concept presentation and discussion of future applications.

5.3 Key findings and results In this Chapter the key findings and results of the questionnaire are summarized, together with a first

planning of actions and solutions to be performed during the next steps of the project, suggested by

the questionnaire results.

The analysis of respondents’ categories shows that the Bio-HyPP project caught the interest of

different typologies of stakeholders, mainly associations and research institutions active both in the

biogas and energy-production sectors. The majority of respondents are related to the biogas sector,

reflecting the search of innovative solutions to boost the sector and overcome incentives-dependency.

Their current knowledge about topics related to the project is high-level, rated slightly higher for

biogas-related topics compared to CHP-related ones. Many valuable experiences have been reported

as background of respondents. The Consortium will evaluate how to fully exploit this knowledge in

the next steps of the Stakeholders’ engagement process.

Concerning barriers, the high cost of technology is seen as the most alarming issue for the future

diffusion of both micro-CHP and biogas technologies. This issue is considered less relevant for the

biogas sector, probably due to the larger diffusion of the technology to date.

Other possible barriers has been identified with the lack of consumers’ awareness, regarding micro-

CHP systems, and the lack of appropriate regulations, regarding both micro-CHP and biogas sectors.

All these aspects will be taken into account during the duration of the Bio-HyPP project in order to

overcome them. In particular:



Page 31

Manufacturing costs will be monitored during the entire duration of the project in order to

minimize them in a successive phase, when the product will be able to reach the market and

components will be produced in large quantities; costs of competitive solutions will be taken as

reference during the Life Cycle Costs Analysis; techno-economic analysis will be performed in

order to evaluate the costs and revenues and payback for the future potential investors.

The possible customers will be informed about the innovative Bio-HyPP system and advised of the

possible benefits the system could provide and large audience will be reached through different

dissemination activities.

Policy makers will be informed about project results and about suggestions and expectations of

the Stakeholders Group, in order to provide useful recommendations relevant for the sectors

related to the Bio-HyPP project.

Distributed generation of energy is foreseen as a promising opportunity within the future energy

market. Also the European micro-CHP market is expected to grow in the next 15 years with optimistic

estimates. The installation of CHP systems within micro-biogas grids have been evaluated as a feasible

and promising solution.

The selection of scenarios for the future installation of micro-CHP systems and for the installation of

the Bio-HyPP system led to the selection of the same scenario at the most suitable, i.e. food processing

industries.

This scenario was already considered as a promising possibility for the installation of the system as

reported in the Deliverable 1.1 “Analysis of market opportunities and legislative assessment” and will

be further evaluated during the business model definition.

The identification of the most suitable sizes to install the system at biogas production site or within a

micro-biogas grid, selected a similar range of electric power output, namely 51-150 kWe and 51-100

kWe. This small-mid size has been considered as the most suitable and, thanks to its flexibility, could

be rather chosen as a feasible size for future system development. These results will be taken into

account during successive phases of system size definition.

Finally, the respondents showed interest in participating in a meeting that will be set up during the

next year.



Page 32

6 Next steps The Bio-HyPP Consortium intends to fully exploit the experience of the Stakeholders Group members

in order to collect valuable and experienced commercially oriented insights towards the future

marketability of the system. In particular, the Stakeholders will be further involved to discuss specific

research results and exchange important feedback and comments. In order to do this, the

Stakeholders will be invited to participate in workshops organized by the Consortium in 2017.

Although the Stakeholders Group members so far seem to be highly interested in the Bio-HyPP project

and their knowledge and background appear really relevant for projects topics, their number has not

been satisfying yet.

For this reason the Consortium intends to enlarge the Bio-HyPP Stakeholders Group, maintaining the

objective to reach a relatively small number of Stakeholders showing real interest in the project and

owning deep knowledge in the sectors related to the project.

The results of the present questionnaire and the analysis of responses will be used as starting point

during the business model identification (D1.6 – Innovative Business Model). At the same time the

study for the identification of a feasible business model will help the Consortium to identify the

categories of Stakeholders to involve and their specific role within the Bio-HyPP value chain.

6.1 Selection of events Further dissemination activities will permit the Consortium to get in contact with other possible

Stakeholders and to invite them to join our Stakeholders Group. In this framework an event has

already been identified and contacted for the realization of a dissemination event.

Other possible events are continuously monitored in order to select the ones that could represent the

best choices for the Bio-HyPP project assuring an effective contact with interested Stakeholders and an

efficient way of disseminating our results among target audience.

A list of selected events, related to the project topics, is presented in the following Table.

Table 6.1: EU Events related to the Bio-HyPP topics.

# Conference Date Place Related topics

1 International Conference on Biogas Science and Technology (ICBST)

23-24.01.2017 Paris, France

Gas Technology, Biogas upgrading, Bio-hydrogen.

2 Biogas – expo & congress 2017

8-9.02.2017 Offenburg, Germany

Biogas, Operational flexibility.

3 Biogas Italy 24.02.2017 Rome, Italy International fair on biogas technologies and applications.

4 World Sustainable Energy Days - European Energy Efficiency Conference

1-3.03.2017 Wels, Austria

Combination of energy efficiency with renewable energy sources.

5 International Conference Progress in Biogas IV

8-10.03.2017 Stuttgart, Germany

Optimal integration of biogas in the energy system; Self-sufficiency and safety of energy supply; Pre-treatment technologies; Gas cleaning - gas processing; Biogas generation from bio-waste and wastewater treatment plants; Process control, modelling of the biogas process.

# Conference Date Place Related topics

https://www.waset.org/conference/2017/01/paris/ICBST




http://www.biogas-offenburg.de/en/biogas

http://www.biogas-offenburg.de/en/biogas

http://www.biogasitaly.com/

http://www.wsed.at/en/programme/european-energy-efficiency-conference.html




http://www.progress-in-biogas.com/de.html





Page 33

6 International Conference on Bioenergy, Biogas and Biogas Production (ICBBBP)

04-05.05.2017 Rome, Italy Energy and Power Engineering, Bioenergy, Biogas, Biogas Production.

7 International Conference on Renewable Energy Gas Technology (REGATEC)

22-23.05.2017 Parchi del Garda, Italy

Anaerobic digestion, gas cleaning and upgrading, Power-to-gas, biomass and waste gasification for CHP production, Bio-methane as transport fuel or for grid injection.

8 European Biomass Conference and Exhibition (EUBCE)

12-15.06.2017 Stockholm, Sweden

The entire value chain of biomass.

9 POWER-GEN Europe & Renewable Energy World Europe

20-22.06.2017 Cologne, Germany

Combustion techniques and technologies including bioenergy Environmentally driven technological innovation Decentralized energy and CHP.

10 BioEnergy Italy 20-22.02.2016 (next N/A)

Cremona, Italy

International fair on bioenergy technologies and applications.

11 International trade fair and Congress for Heating, Cooling and CHP

19-21.04.2016 (next N/A)

Messe Frankfurt/ Main, Germany

CHP installations, Heat transfer and distribution, Bio heat installations, Renewable energies, Decentralised energy systems, Research and material testing.

12 Annual Micro-CHP In Europe Summit

08-09.06.2016 (next N/A)

Brussels, Belgium

Micro-CHP market and future trends.

13 European Biogas Conference

27-29.09.2016 (next N/A)

Ghent, Belgium

Biomethane production, circular economy, Bio-refineries, Biogas and syngas production, Future markets.

14 RoEnergy South-East Europe

19-21.10.2016 (next N/A)

Timisoara, Romania

International exhibition and conference on renewable energies.

15 BIOGAS Convention Hannover and Energy Decentral

15.-18.11.2016 (next N/A)

Hannover, Germany

CHP plants maintenance and services, decentralized energy supply.

6.2 Stakeholders workshop The Stakeholders Group members will be invited to participate to a roundtable/workshop that will be

organized in 2017. The Consortium agreed to organize it in the second half of the year in order to use

the remaining time to develop an effective strategy to fully involve the Stakeholders Group members

and to enlarge the Stakeholders Group.

Moreover, efforts will be spent on the strategic set-up of the event that could give the best return

possible in term of qualitative engagement, to reach the audience that could return the more effective

opinion on the future technological developments of the Bio-HyPP system.

http://waset.org/conference/2017/05/rome/ICBBBP





http://gantrack3.com/t/l/2039677/3_ODM0MDAzNTExMQ==/




http://www.eubce.com/home.html



http://www.powergeneurope.com/en_GB/index.html



http://www.bioenergyitaly.com/

http://www.eneff-messe.de/en/




http://www.delta-ee.com/summits/11th-annual-micro-chp-in-europe-summit

http://www.delta-ee.com/summits/11th-annual-micro-chp-in-europe-summit

http://biogasconference.eu/

http://biogasconference.eu/

http://www.aebiom.org/events/roenergy-south-east-europe/

http://www.aebiom.org/events/roenergy-south-east-europe/

https://www.energy-decentral.com/en/





Page 34

7 Conclusions This report describes the collection of the opinion and the knowledge of key Stakeholders in order to

define a common vision among Stakeholders for the future development and installation of the Bio-

HyPP system.

In particular the steps followed for Stakeholders engagement are explained, from the identification of

Stakeholders categories to get in contact with, to the establishment of the Bio-HyPP Stakeholders

Group.

The methodology and the structure used for the first Stakeholders questionnaire “Bio-HyPP

Stakeholders Group Questionnaire: an insight into the future EU Energy market” have been explained

and the responses thoroughly analysed.

The analysis of respondents’ categories showed that the Bio-HyPP project caught the interest of

different typologies of stakeholders, mainly associations and research institutions active both in the

biogas and energy-production sectors. Their current knowledge about topics related to the project is

high-level, rated slightly higher for biogas-related topics compared to CHP-related ones.

Concerning barriers, the high cost of technology is seen as the most alarming issue for the future

diffusion of both micro-CHP and biogas technologies. This issue is considered less relevant for the

biogas sector, probably due to the larger diffusion of the technology to date. Other possible barriers

has been identified with the lack of consumers’ awareness, regarding micro-CHP systems, and the lack

of appropriate regulations, regarding both sectors.

Distributed generation is foreseen as a promising opportunity within the future energy market,

regarding both micro-CHP and biogas sectors. Also the European micro-CHP market is expected to

grow (in the next 15 years) with optimistic estimates. The installation of CHP systems within micro-

biogas grids have been evaluated as a feasible and promising solution.

The selection of scenarios for the future installation of micro-CHP systems and for the installation of

the Bio-HyPP system led to the selection of the same scenario at the most suitable, i.e. food processing

industries. The identification of the most suitable sizes to install the system at biogas production site or

within a micro-biogas grid, selected a similar small-mid size range of electric power output, namely

51-150 kWe and 51-100 kWe.

Finally, the respondents showed interest in participating in a meeting that will be set up during the

next year.

The Stakeholders’ contribution will provide the Bio-HyPP consortium with the necessary external

feedback from an industrial and market point of view and will support the project with valuable and

experienced commercially oriented insights toward the future marketability of the Bio-HyPP system

and the most market oriented technological improvements.



Page 35

References

[1] Bio-HyPP Consortium, “D1.1 - Analysis of market opportunities and legislative assessment,” 31

January 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.bio-hypp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/D1.1-

Market-opportunities-and-legislative-assessment.pdf.

[2] Delta-ee on behalf of COGEN Europe, “The benefits of micro-CHP,” [Online]. Available:

http://www.cogeneurope.eu/medialibrary/2015/05/19/d6648069/miro-CHP%20study_merged.pdf.