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Workshop report: The workshop began with introductions from the coordinators of the two projects, Bert Annevelink (Wageningen University Agrotechnology & Foodinnovations, Netherlands) from Biopol, and Christophe Luguel (Association Industries & Agro-Resources, France). Both coordinators gave a very warm welcome to all participants and expressed their anticipation for a highly interactive day with much constructive feedback on the presentations and questions raised. The timeliness of the workshop was stressed as both projects are entering a critical phase of focusing efforts on the key findings from the first year of research. Welcome from the European Commission Piero Venturi, Scientific Officer of the projects, welcomed the participants on behalf of the European Commission and described how biorefineries had, since the conception of the projects, become one of the key issues in European research. He clearly outlined the potential for biorefinery research to contribute to European economy through its influence on policies such as energy, trade, agriculture and environment. Dr. Venturi highlighted the Commission’s recent Lead Market Initiative as a mechanism of interest for biobased materials that were identified as one of the six emerging lead markets. He also took the opportunity to announce that, in the call KBBE-2008-2B, there will be also a CSA project funded until a maximum of 1 million Euro by the EC on 'Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for integrated biorefineries'. Furthermore, a Joint Call on Biorefinery with a total budget of 57 MEuro organised jointly by Directorate Agriculture, Energy, Materials and Environment of DG RTD will be published soon. In summing up, Dr. Venturi told the audience that the Commission has the creation of a roadmap towards future development as a short-term target. In order to optimise allocation of the Commission’s funds for R&D towards genuine bottlenecks he said that they would be glad to have the opinions of participants on every topic in this area. ‘Definition and technical status of biorefineries’ Prof. Birgit Kamm (FI biopos e.V., Germany) and Prof. Wim Soetaert (Univ. Gent. Belgium) followed the welcome speeches with a presentation of the technologies employed in biorefineries and routes to their integration. A selection of such integrated concepts were introduced, and it was explained that definitions can be delineated on the basis of either feedstock or technology, which gives rise to both overlap and synergies between the concepts. However, both Professors Kamm and Soetaert were agreed that four main concepts can be identified. More Presentations:
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