The Proforbiomed Project is «important for the entire region, because it involves all the municipalities, through AMAL, and partners such as Algar, but it is especially important for Monchique», he revealed to Sul Informação mayor Rui André, mayor of that mountain town.
The various Algarve authorities and entities participating in the Proforbiomed project signed, this Friday, an agreement with the common goal of developing the biomass market in the Algarve and Baixo Alentejo region, which highlights the actions with which each institution can participate.
The signing of the agreement took place at Instituto Superior Dom Afonso III (INUAF), in Loulé, at the end of the “Proforbiomed Seminar – Applicability of results in the region”.
According to Jorge Botelho, president of AMAL (Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve), it is now necessary to move from the «action plan to execution».
This agreement is the first step in creating a cluster, but the collaboration between entities does not only start with this signature, as they are all already cooperating to materialize the biomass market in the south of the country.
Although there is a license for the construction of a biomass production unit in Monchique, granted about 10 years ago to EDP, but never used, which would allow for the production of electricity, the exploitation of biomass in the region will have to be reused. at the small scale level.
In the Algarve, the Municipality of S. Brás de Alportel was a pioneer in the use of biomass, by installing a boiler to heat the water in municipal swimming pools, reducing its fuel bill by around 50 percent.
In addition to energy production, biomass can also be used for cosmetic and pharmaceutical use. Inês Marques, responsible for coordinating the Proforbiomed project, warns of the need for, in the long term, «there is a sustainable exploitation of biomass, without leaving land subject to erosion, nor leaving the species that inhabit these areas unprotected»».
For now, the first positive impact of this exploitation of biomass in the region is the reduction of fires.
That's exactly what the Mayor of Monchique defends, for whom this Proforbiomed Project has "a double meaning": on the one hand, "there is the issue of reusing forest residues for energy production, reducing the energy bill" .
«We, by the way, already have the intention of proceeding with a pilot project for the heating of water in the municipal swimming pool and perhaps even other public equipment, using biomass».
But there is an even more important aspect for Monchique: it is that «the use and recovery of forest residues, which will have a commercial value, will be important to ensure the cleaning of forests» and also to reduce the presence of weed species, such as «mimosas».
For use as a biofuel, biomass has to be reduced to pellets. According to mayor Rui André, it is still necessary to define «who will produce these pellets and where, that is, if they will be produced here in the region or if the biomass will be sent from here to a unit outside the region».
However, the mayor says he welcomes the emergence of a «small production unit for pellets in Monchique».
«This is an increasingly profitable business, especially if municipalities become customers of this product. There may even be an application from AMAL, through AREAL [Regional Agency for Energy and Environment of the Algarve] for a project to reuse this waste involving Algar», stressed Rui André.
Proforbiomed (Promotion of residual forestry biomass in the Mediterranean basin) is a Strategic MED project, developed by a partnership of 18 entities from the MED space, including CICAE/INUAF – Center for Research in Environmental and Business Sciences of Instituto Superior Dom Afonso III. Portuguese partners in the project are also Algar and ICNF.
With the signing of this agreement, the partners are now studying the best legal way to move this project forward, which could include forming an association.
Comments