The kick-off event took place on 28 February in Linz, Austria with both project partners and selected companies from the biomass and the Danube logistics sector. The aim of the meeting was firstly, to inform the public about the project’s planned activities, results and benefits for the target groups and secondly, align the activities with the expectations of the project beneficiaries.
Photo © viadonau
Furthermore two external speakers, Mr. Christian Schlagitweit from proPellets Austria and Mr. Ralf Jina from the First-DDSG Logistics Holding GmbH, were invited to give key note presentations regarding the energetic use of biomass and biomass logistics in the Danube region.
Mr. Schlagitweit’s presentation outlined the growing European market for wood pellets and its potential for cargo on the Danube not only because of the growing production in the Black Sea Region but also because of the increasing demand which has to be satisfied through imports.
Mr. Jina gave an overview to the company First-DDSG Holding GmbH. He demonstrated the routes of transport on the Danube waterway and also gave an impression on the dimensions and capacity of different vessels used by his company. Through this presentation, the project consortium has been given an impression of the possibilities of inland waterway transport and its limitations.
The presentations of these stakeholders have shown how important the transport of goods on the Danube is and that the project meets current requirements.
Project details
A large amount of biomass is available along the Danube with the potential to improve energy security and foster sustainable energy production. However, currently biomass is mainly processed locally due to a lack of secure, efficient and environmentally-friendly logistic solutions. The ENERGY BARGE project for the first time will build on synergies between the bioenergy industry and the Danube logistics sector. For this purpose ENERGY BARGE will analyse requirements regarding transport, handling and storage of the biomass feedstock, identify promising biomass products for inland waterway transports, initiate concrete transports via Danube through B2B events and implement pilot actions in selected Danube ports.
The ENERGY BARGE team consists of 23 project partners (15 PP and 8 ASP) from the bioenergy industry and Danube logistics sector from Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and Italy ensuring a broad geographic coverage and the participation of partners from all EU countries along the Danube. The project duration is 30 months: January 2017 – June 2019.
Further detailed information about the project can be found here.
