Rural BioReFarmeries

The Rural BioReFarmeries project aims to demonstrate an improved green biorefinery model, empowering farmers and enhancing economic returns across Europe's regions, by:

• Developing a Smart Biomass Supply Chain (SBSC) tool and using ICT technologies to improve the chain’s logistics, ensuring high-quality biomass delivery.
• Optimising a decentralised green biorefinery system, demonstrating small-scale processing of green biomass into farm products and high-value ingredients, while also exploring the potential for multiple small-scale biorefineries to feed into larger centralised plants.
• Establishing cascading rural biorefinery value chains to support farmers in balanced use of primary green resources, as well as developing new revenue streams through the efficient use of resources and collaboration with industry partners.
• Testing and implementing new business models to ensure fair income distribution at the farm gate, emphasising the development of high-value ingredients and materials to improve farmer diversification potential and competitiveness.
• Demonstrating a more environmentally sustainable model for grassland farmers by using grass-based co-products to replace imports, reduce food spoilage, and create fertilisers and energy, while also evaluating socio-economic and environmental impacts.
• Focusing on scalability and replication potential, aiming to transfer its model to diverse grassland regions of Europe through workshops, training activities, and a Rural Green Biorefinery Network, while also examining social acceptance and developing policy recommendations.

• Ensuring that farmers actively participate in value creation, fostering balanced, cooperative models for sustainable grassland management and carbon sequestration.
• Demonstrating innovative production technologies, products, and systems aimed at advancing the state-of-the-art in small-scale green biorefineries.
• Significantly improving resource efficiency from grassland and other green biomass sources, promoting circularity and longer bioeconomy value chains.
• Enhancing industrial competitiveness and strategic autonomy, supporting inclusive business models and boosting Europe’s economy.
• Increasing economic returns and generation renewal in rural areas through diversified income sources and job opportunities.
• Creating skilled job opportunities and extending product portfolios in primary production sectors and small businesses, particularly in regions with underdeveloped capacities.
• Supporting farmers and rural communities to become more resilient and competitive based on better use of their bioresources to create essential products for their communities and the EU economy.
• Creating six adaptable business models for diverse European regions together with farmers and other stakeholders. A 25% revenue boost is expected by drawing from demo innovations and partner insights.
• Enabling a significant reduction in land use and other climate and environmental benefits through improved resource efficiency and diversified product streams.
• Promoting sustainable farming, assessing impacts with LCA and biodiversity evaluations. The target is to achieve a 15% reduction in GHG emissions from dairy farms and 20% from pig diets, while also boosting pollinator abundance and enabling energy and nutrient recirculation.
• Promoting efficient recycling of nutrients and reduction of transportation and logistics costs through a circular approach to biomass use.
• Fostering social acceptance of circular bio-based solutions and products, informed by social life cycle assessment and acceptance studies to drive societal uptake and adoption of biorefineries.