Interreg North Sea Region - BIOCAS

Biocas: The development of prosperous rural areas in the North Sea Region by realizing Biomas Cascading Alliances (BCA) covering all stake-holders involved in the value chain of biomass

The rural areas of the North Sea Region (NSR) are expected to play a major role towards the development of a regional circular bio-economy. The objective of the BIOCAS project is to ignite this development and turn the rural areas into smart specialized regions for the integrated and local valorization of biomass, based on biomass cascading principles.

Ghent University focuses on the topic of bio-based composite bridges.

The rural areas of the North Sea Region (NSR) are expected to play a major role towards the development of a regional circular bio-economy. The objective of the BIOCAS project is to ignite this development and turn the rural areas into smart specialized regions for the integrated and local valorization of biomass, based on biomass cascading principles. The biomass cascading principle means extracting valuable components out of biomass before it is processed. The 18 BIOCAS partners from Denmark, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands firmly believe that this will generate economic, societal and ecological benefits and prosperity. This will accelerate greening and revitalization of the rural areas.

The main focus of BIOCAS is to realize concrete Biomass Cascading Alliances (BCA's) for a more sustainable conversion of biomass. A BCA covers all stakeholders which are involved in the value chain of biomass (Feedstock -> Processing -> Product + Waste streams/Feedstock). Via triple helix, science, business and governmental input, the BCA's will be realized and thus ignite the development of a strong regional circular economy in the rural areas of the NSR.

Objectives

These are the objectives of biocas

The initiatives of BIOCAS share four circular bio-economy principles:

1. An integral approach, including the whole chain of production, collection, treatment/conversion and application.
2. A truly circular perspective that includes the value of healthy soil, nutrition value of food products and biodiversity.
3. A direct linkage between the optimal valorization of biomass and prosperity of regional (rural) communities (closing the cycle as locally as possible).
4. Participation of partners along the entire biomass chain including ‘specialized’ SMEs for the valorization of biomass.

Role of Ghent University

Ghent University focuses on the dissemination in Flanders of the results on the use of bio-composites in bridge-building

Website

https://northsearegion.eu/biocas/

Contact

Prof. Wouter De Corte
Department of structural engineering
Phone number: 09 243 25 30
E-mail