The objective of SmartCHP is the realization of a cost-effective and flexible energy system by using a liquid bio-energy carrier to fuel an efficient diesel-engine based CHP. It will develop a smart and flexible, small-scale CHP unit (100-1,000 kWe) fueled with fast pyrolysis bio-oil originating from different types of biomasses and/or residues. Fast pyrolysis converts biomass into a uniform liquid intermediate called FPBO, and the process is characterized by a high feedstock flexibility. Nowadays, FPBO is produced on commercial scale in Europe. For small scale biomass CHP systems a standardized fuel, enabling optimization of the conversion units and thus creating a cost competitive value chain, is highly preferred. Moreover, to achieve high resource efficiencies at all times a highly flexible ratio between heat and power generation is desired. A smart, demand driven unit should be capable of dealing with the fluctuating energy demand and/or varying availability of wind/solar power. The SmartCHP system combines a FPBO fueled engine and flue gas boiler to produce electricity and heat at a high efficiency over the whole load range. A dedicated flue gas treatment guarantees low emissions. Moreover, a wide, adjustable heat-to-power ratio is covered which enables to respond directly to actual energy demands. The final result of SmartCHP is an integrated system consisting of an engine, boiler and flue gas treatment system adapted and optimized to run on FPBO (TRL 5). A real-time, predictive, dynamic model will be developed to find the optimal operation point at all energy demands. Techno-economic, socio-economic and environmental assessments will be performed to identify real market opportunities. The SmartCHP unit will be based on standard diesel engines, and specific investment costs are expected to be around 1,200 Eur/kWe; an electricity price below 0.10 Eur/kWh is realistic. Several case studies will be presented to illustrate the opportunities throughout Europe.

Biofuels are one of few options for decarbonizing transport in the short to medium term. However, they are often criticised for indirect land use change (ILUC), which is critical due to lack of high quality agricultural land and increasing world population. At the same time, significant contaminated land areas remain unused. CERESiS aims to provide a win-win sustainable solution to both issues by facilitating land decontamination through phytoremediation, growing energy crops to produce clean biofuels. In the longer term, this will increase the land available for agriculture, while producing non-ILUC biofuel. The project is based on three pillars. The phytoremediation pillar will identify a range of promising energy crops, focusing on key contaminants worldwide. They will be trialed in North, South, Eastern Europe and Brazil, with samples characterised and converted to biofuels. The technological pillar will optimize two clean biofuel conversion technologies, Supercritical Water Gasification & Fast Pyrolysis integrated with novel contaminant separation technologies, focusing on eliminating, stabilising or retrieving the contaminants in an easy to manage form. The Decision Support pillar will develop an open access, modular and expandable Decision Support System able to identify optimal solutions for each application. It will incorporate land, phytoremediation, technological, economic, environmental parameters providing critical information to stakeholders & policy makers on the suitability of combinations of phytoremediation strategies and conversion technologies for particular sites, contaminants, environmental restrictions etc. It will include Techno-economic analysis of pathways, LCA & LCC, supply chain optimization, and performance assessment against SDG goals. Partners from five EU countries, Ukraine, Brazil and Canada representing the entire value chain collaborate for the development and assessment of the integrated pathways.