INNOVATIVE BEST PRACTICE AWARDS 2023
27 April 2023
Sustainable forest management as a fire prevention measure and use for renewable heat supply in rural tourism facilities through the +Bosque initiative by Monteholiday Ecoturismo wins the award for best innovative practice with Biomass.
This practice combines actions in the natural environment, in this case a holm oak grove, to reduce the risk and impact of fires, thereby increasing safety for users of the campsite resort and local residents of the village. At the same time, the installation integrates a renewable heat network that is supplied through state-of-the-art boilers fed with the biomass collected in the actions, and a management of the interior temperatures in the cabins and facilities of the resort through their monitoring.
Monte Holiday Ecotourism | "Monte Holiday Ecotourism + Forest": bioenergy to preserve the forests of the Sierra de Madrid and protect its visitors+Forest is the set of actions coordinated by Monte Holiday Ecotourism that includes adaptive forest management against forest fires and energy recovery from the biomass obtained in the campsite's own heating network. This action decarbonises the activity of the campsite while protecting the environment and the users of the tourist complex located in a holm oak forest in the Sierra de Madrid. |
3 honour mentions
In addition 3 practices were awarded with honour mentions for the implementation of new ways of using, selling or transforming biomass, which were highly commended both in the public vote and in the jury's evaluation process:
BIOENERGY IBERICA SL.
| Installation of a biomass boiler operating with cocoa shells for a production of 2 tons/hour of saturated steam. The new biomass boiler at the Cantabrian chocolate factory uses cocoa husks to obtain energy, the first of its kind in Spain. Its replication will be facilitated thanks to the innovation process developed by Bioenergy Ibérica SL for this peculiar fuel. |
DAB - AKD Solutions S.r.l.
| Dab automatic pellet dispenser The Dab automatic pellet dispenser allows the consumer to easily buy pellets for domestic heating at any time and avoiding the cost of bagging, while allowing the owner to offer pellets at an advantageous price and with simplified management, thanks to thepowerful remote management software.
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Serrat Shredders
| Briquetting machine for shredded wood from fruit renovated plantations for frost Capable of producing a 20 kg biomass briquette from the shredding of the aerial part of the fruit tree. Powered by a tractor, it offers the versatility of being transported to different storage points. These briquettes open up a new consumer niche: an economical and local anti-frost solution for fruit trees.
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18 nominationsA total of 18 candidates were nominated for the prize for the best innovative practice, including practices for obtaining and using agro-biomass, self-consumption, energy technologies and innovative sales systems. See here the 18 nominations (award page 2023). How did the contest evolve?The 2023 competition sought to identify innovative technologies, processes or business models, which go a step beyond the usual practices, and provide advantages in their implementation: providing new solutions, or improving the performance or applicability of the same. In short, innovative practices, not so well-known, but already available to be used and put into practice. This time the Spanish BRANCHES award is integrated into the AVEBIOM Innovation Award launched in January 2023 within the framework of the activities of Expobiomasa, the sector's leading trade fair in Spain, which gathers more than 400 expositors and more than 10,000 visitors. In this way, a new candidacy is created, for the best innovative practice, complementary to the already traditional call for technological innovation. To this end, the BRANCHES Spanish NTN (INtercamBIOM Network) organised a call for applications between 16 January and 31 March 2023. After the closing of the application period, up to 18 applications were collected. The INtercamBIOM network (managed by AVEBIOM and the technology centre CIRCE), and organiser of the award, published the nominations and organised an open and popular public vote between 10th and 20th April 2023. During this 11-day period, 1,213 votes were collected, which contributed 50% of the final score, as established in the competition rules. In parallel, a jury composed of 4 entities (CEDER-Ciemat, CIRCE Foundation, ASEMFO and AVEBIOM) evaluated each practice taking into account the value of each application, according to the criteria of feasibility, innovation, social and environmental impacts, and replicability. The aim was to select promising, innovative, replicable and already available practices that could enable an expansion in the use of biomasses. After the award: more dissemination at Expobiomasa (9th May)INtercamBIOM, in its aim to promote the dissemination and transfer of innovative practices with biomass, invited the winning and the most genuine practices to participate in future workshops and events to continue to make them more visible. The first touchstone, on 9 May, at Expobiomasa, through the Workshop "Innovative business practices that enable new businesses in bioenergy and bioeconomy", as part of the Innovation Day "Inspiring practices to innovate with biomass". Link to News in Spanish: https://intercambiom.org/2023/04/27/premios-a-las-mejores-practicas-innovadoras-de-2023/ |