6.2 Biodigester & transport system

For transport biofuel produced by the bio-digester will be used. Biofuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel have the potential of decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions that would take place if normal fossil fuels will be used to power the new transport system (Hunt, 2006). This part therefore focusses on the implementation of the bio-digester.

2015-2018 Obtain support from farmers that want to exploit the biodigester

Farmers should form a collective that wants to exploit the biodigester. The size of the collective can vary between 5 and 40 farmers. The collective has to collect enough money (also with subsidies) to build a biodigester. It is also important that they have good contacts and contracts with other biomass suppliers (for example with Maarten Dijker of the mushroom cultivation).

2015-2018 Inform inhabitants on implementation of the biodigester

The municipality has the task to inform local residents and in this way try to prevent protests. They must communicate that the biodigester allows them to become more self-supportive and more sustainable.

2015-2018 Obtain permission to build the biodigester

The municipality has to give the right permissions for the construction of the bio digester. On the higher governmental level it is important that the white list gets extended with the types of biomass present on the island. In that way, also suppliers of for example coffee waste can join.

2015-2020 Find subsidies

In 2020 the collection bins will be distributed, meaning that before this time the funds need to be found to embed the new technology to produce biofuel. The Municipality is expected to set long-term goals and to set rules and laws for the achievement of such goals. A good way of starting the shift towards a new sustainable way of moving waste and food would be cooperating directly with the actor (HVC) in order to find funds and to set schedules. A complicated issue to solve at the first steps will be the making the all parts of the new network cooperating with each other and to balance the waste and food streams. Schedules for the synchronization of the different parts will be needed before 2020, while considering the possibility that not all the components of the new bio-cycle will be built yet.

2018-2020 Build biodigester

Since in 2012 there were already 232 biodigesters located in the Netherlands, it is assumable that building a bio digester on Texel will not give any problems once permission is granted.  

2020 Start transportation which is partly based on biofuel

It is possible that the biodigester does not receive enough material in the beginning to produce enough biofuel for transportation. Continuous research on how to improve biofuel production and taken actions to increase this is necessary. Although importing biofuel may not be sustainable since it involves transport, it could be interesting to analyze if it is more sustainable to run on important biofuel in the starting phase than to run on fossil fuels. This research has to be conducted between 2015 and 2020.

2020-2025 Continues research to new technologies to improve the bio-digester and to increase material supply for the biodigester

The biodigesters need huge amounts of biomass, thus manure and co-products. In this period of time, the collection from manure from farms and coproducts through waste separation needs to be increased. The more materials for the biodigester can be collected, the more biofuel can be produced.

2025-2030 optimize the schedule for material exchange.

Once research is performed on how to increase material supply for the biodigester and waste separation has already been implemented for a while, more attention can be paid to the moment of exchanging waste.  In this period of time it is important to optimize the schedule since the program has run for a while now and is becoming more stable.