Students:Group Three: Eliška, Kiki, Magda, Veronika

We started our day at a suburb of the city of Graz at the headquarters of the Saubermacher company that was established with regard to sustainable development using modern technologies and solar panels as an ecological source of energy. This private company is located next to Graz and has gradually developed from a family-size company to become a large international specialist engaged in the sorting and subsequent treatment of waste. Although the company is active in more European countries, the day’s presentation dealt only with the issue of handling communal waste in Austria.

The waste coming from industry was set aside and the presenter, Mr. Richard Dornauer, was perfectly prepared and all of us were given a handout so that we could follow his presentation in an easier way. The company Saubermacher is mechanized to a great extent and human resources exist merely as an controlling element at the very end of the waste sorting process. A very interesting point was the issue of using residual plastic in the form of flakes as fuel for a cement factory. Apart from the provinces of Styria, Vienna and Lower Austria, Saubermacher also has 40 subsidiary companies in several European countries, including the Czech Republic. There we can talk about the Rumpold Company that provides all services in the field of handling waste with regard to the environment. Our whole field trip was perfect, although we missed out on seeing the process ourselves.



Img 1: Saubermacher company.

In the afternoon we went to the southeast border of Styria. In the city of Mureck we visited three companies working together on one site. From 1990 SEEG, Nahwärme and ökoStrom have worked with bioenergy here. Before Nahwärme was set up, the Mureck district was dependent on fossil fuels whereas the surrounding forests were full of "useless" wood. The idea of having a local source for heating developed into today's company which collects wood from surrounding areas and during the winter it burns the material and produces heat for Mureck's schools, municipal buildings, church and 210 households.

The idea to build ökoStrom – a biogas power plant – came in 2000. Now it collects sewage and liquid waste from agriculture in huge tanks. The mixture is then sealed into tanks and under an anaerobic process it produces biogas that produces electricity as well as a little bit of heat. The company, together with locals, decided to use better technology for emission extraction from the escaping air.

SEEG, the last of the trinity, is responsible for biodiesel production from rapeseed. Biodiesel is used by local farmers but mainly by public transport companies and SEEG’s trucks. In addition, it also powers a biogas unit and local heating. There is also the possibility of using cooking oil as an additional material. A few years previously restaurant chains were happy to get rid of used cooking oil but later on its value was recognised and competition between biofuel companies arose, and so its price increased. Because of the lower price of electricity, the companies are not only dependent on subsidies and other new investments must be found. Therefore, there is new PV power plant on the field next to the site. Even more efficient is the idea to build a glasshouse with organic vegetables and PV panels on the roof, which is better subsidized.

The motto of the company: Nature-Energy-Mureck Region-Peace, aptly expresses its philosophy and the emphasis on local development and self-sufficiency. It may also be caused by the fact that a majority of owners are local farmers. From the presentation of this place, we would highlight the complexity of the bioenergy cycle and the best technologies available.

Img 3: Mureck Energy Cycle, Source: Bio-energy Mureck brochure

BIODIESEL

Advantages

- One of the main advantages of biodiesel fuel is that it is less polluting than petroleum diesel and is also renewable.

- It has excellent biodegradability (after 28 days it degrades by 95% compared to 40% biodiesel, petroleum diesel).

- The lubricating property of the biodiesel may lengthen the lifetime of engines

- Pure biodiesel is a non-toxic, environmentally friendly fuel that does not contain sulfur, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and halogens.

Disadvanteges

- At present, biodiesel fuel is about one and a half times more expensive than petroleum diesel fuel.

- Another biodiesel fuel disadvantage is that it can harm rubber hoses in some engines.

- Biodiesel fuel distribution infrastructure needs improvement, which is another of the disadvantages of biodiesel fuel.

- More at: Berkeley biodiesel, Bionafta

BIOMASS

Advantages

- Theoretically inexhaustible fuel source.

- When direct combustion of plant mass is not used to generate energy (i.e. fermentation, pyrolysis, etc. are used instead), there is minimal environmental impact.

- Alcohols and other fuels produced by biomass are efficient, viable, and relatively clean-burning.

- Available throughout the world.

Disadvantages

- Could contribute a great deal to global warming and particulate pollution if burned directly.

- Still an expensive energy source, both in terms of producing the biomass and converting it to alcohols.

- On a small scale, there is most likely a net loss of energy--energy must be put in to grow the plant mass.

- A biogas plant requires space and produces a dirty smell.

- Crops which are used to produce biomass energy are seasonal and are not available over the whole year.

- More at: ianswer4u.com

CRITIQUE

The first negative thing about alternative fuels such as biodiesel and biomass is the need of a large initial investment, which could be a problem for the expansion of the technology to poorer countries or regions. Therefore, there is a big need for state subsidies, but as we know, they aren’t inexhaustible and infinite. There is also a big risk that the resulting income will be much lower than the expected income due to changing market prices over time. As our guide mentioned, there is also a problem with sufficient capacity in the region needed to grow rapeseed, therefore we don’t understand why the photovoltaic panels have been built mainly on the (arable?) ground. We think that the company should, for example, try to use available space on roofs to reduce the built-on area. Also, the resources needed for the production of biodiesel are more and more limited, which leads to growth in prices of the resources and which naturally also leads to growth in the price of biodiesel. This process then disadvantages smaller manufacturers. We could of course find many other controversial aspects.



Img 4: Number and distribution of biogas plants. BIOM

The situation in Czech is not so bad. Even though the topic of green energy is not very popular in politics, according to the Biom’s map there are quite many biogas stations around the country. A positive fact is certainly that the majority of them is small-scaled so that they can use less material only from nearer distance. Furthermore Greg mentioned in his book Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy that Czech “had  the largest number of biodiesel production plants in the world” among only three had high production capacity. For our work is interesting that the biodiesel industry came here from better developed Austria and adopted the model of small farmers’ cooperatives.