Other lecturers had talked about political and social issues associated with renewable energy in developing countries. Michael Beil's talk covered the technical aspects of biomethane provision, i.e. how to produce biogas and how to refine it to biomethane.

For demonstration, Michael Beil brought a bag of biogas which he led through a Bunsen burner and ignited it in front of the audience.Some students took the opportunity to light a cigarette in the biogas flame. Beil and Lindner also introduced BIOGASMAX as an example of a trans-European research project. Jan Paul Lindner explained the relevance of anthropogenic climate change and how biofuels may be a solution - if the environmental impacts are properly assessed.

After introducing the students to the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA), he described how it can be used to identify environmental hotspots along the life cycle of a product (such as a renewable fuel) and how the greenhouse gas emission can be systematically reduced at every stage from feedstock provision to fuel combustion.

The audience asked how biogas/biomethane projects could be established in their home countries. Some asked for cooperation opportunities with partners from the Biogasmax consortium and with the EU in general, since their home countries are all too often either not able or not interested in funding environmental research and development projects. In spite of the fact that the workshop had been held on a Sunday morning the students were very interested in the opportunities of producing energy from waste and the assessment of such lifecycles. That was proven in many questions to the speakers during and after the sessions.