
“Biomass Pathways” Report.
Biomass Connect has commissioned the external consultancy NNFCC to produce a report about the value-chain/pathways within the Biomass Industry.
The report will assess the potential for biomass crops in the UK, considering current barriers to their development and the actions required to enable the formation of sustainable value chains and market growth.

Pathways Report – Tasks:
- Feedstock Selection: Refine a long-list into a short-list of 6 or 7 focus crops.
- Market Analysis: Identify target markets for shortlisted biomass sources.
- Value Chain Assessment: Assess biomass pathways for key stakeholders and identify gaps.
- International Trade Review: Analyse trade data for import/export opportunities.
- Barriers and Enablers: Review to identify barriers and propose enabling actions.
The findings will be compiled into reports with infographics for ease of communication.
Key milestones include interim reports, stakeholder roundtables, an output that will be available to inform the BC/BFI Showcase in November, and a finalised report by December.
Report Includes
The report will include:
- a review of value chains and gaps,
- identification of barriers and propose community level enabling actions to support value chain development,
- market analysis covering biomass applications in:
- biochemicals,
- bioproducts,
- biomaterials,
- fuels and energy and also
- some non-financial/’system services’.
Report Approach
The report will be approached by conducting a detailed review of potential UK biomass crops, their end-user markets, value chain actors and gaps, export potential, the barriers to their development and enabling community actions to support the development of innovative value chains.
The approach is based both on literature review (academic and grey literature), NNFCC expert knowledge and stakeholder engagement. Key stakeholders are likely to include BFI projects, Supergen, FR/FC and NFU/CLA, as examples. Stakeholders will be invited to participate in semi-structured interviews and wider discussions to solicit opinions and insights, to discuss and validate findings and to communicate the outputs.
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Outputs and Updates
We’ll add outputs and updates here when they are ready. So far the short-list of crops to be investigated are:
- Miscanthus
- SRC Willow
- SRC Poplar
- Hemp
- SRF Eucalyptus
- SRF Alder
- SRF Poplar
- Seaweed
- Reed Canary Grass