Biorefining in Wallonia: towards a regional strategy for a biobased economy

Many countries and regions in Europe are nowadays setting up biobased economy strategies and action plans. For Belgium, the case of the Walloon region is discussed in this talk through a SWOT analysis. Even if a large part of the territory is covered by agricultural and forestry productions, the feedstock supply and availability are rather restricted. However, in order to stimulate the development of biorefineries in the Walloon region, it is important to support a reliable upstream supply chain. Therefore, several options are currently evaluated by the government, the industrial sectors and academic/research centers and presented herein through several pilot, R&D or industrial initiatives.