The Circular Fuels project integrates concentrated solar heat, solar electrical energy, and thermochemical conversion of bio-based waste materials to produce sustainable aviation fuels. Coupling concentrated solar heat with fast pyrolysis to produce sustainable aviation fuels has not yet been achieved and requires technological innovation. Waste wood (A+B) and agricultural residues (straw), listed in the Renewable Energy Directive (REDII Annex IX), will be used as cheap and abundant bio-based waste material feedstocks. The feedstock will be first converted into renewable bio-oil in the new solar assisted fast pyrolysis. The use of solar energy removes the need to burn any fraction of the pyrolysis products to heat the pyrolysis process. The solar pyrolysis will produce valuable by-products, such as biochar, that can improve the economics of the process. The pyrolysis oil will be stabilized and upgraded to reduce the oxygen content to close to zero by slurry hydrotreatment and hydrodeoxygenation. These processes will employ green hydrogen, produced using optimized solar photovoltaic-assisted water proton exchange membrane electrolysis. Finally, the oil will be fractionated into sustainable transportation fuels by distillation. Our main objective is to maximize the fraction of jet fuel. In addition, we will analyze all component fractions suitable as transportation bio-fuel products, such as gasoline and diesel, to maximize the profitability of the concept. The proposed new thermal pyrolysis process pathway is not yet standardized for ASTM D7566 (Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons). Therefore, we will perform compatibility and turbine combustion tests for the required standardization and inclusion into ASTM D7566. We aim for a sustainable aviation fuel production price of 1.5 €/kg. We will analyze the sustainability aspects of the technology and give policy recommendations for successful commercialization.

The EU targets at replacing 10% of all transport fossil fuels with biofuels by 2020 to reduce the dependence on petroleum through the use of nationally, regionally or locally produced biofuels, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the EU is concerned with the questionable sustainability of the conventional biofuels and the unattractive production costs of second and third generation biofuels. The BioMates project aspires to contribute to the drastic increase of non-food/feed biomass utilisation for the production of greener transportation fuels via an effective and sustainable new production pathway. The project will validate the proposed innovative technology which has the potential of over 49 million tons CO2-eq savings, at least 7% crude oil imports reduction which corresponds to over 7 billion € savings for EU, while indicating its socio-economic, environmental and health expected benefits. The main premise of the BioMates project is the cost-effective and decentralized valorization of residual (straw) and nonfood (Miscanthus) biomass for the production of bio-based products of over 99% bioenergy content. The bio-based products’ targeted market is the EU refining sector, utilizing them as a bio-based co-feed of reliable, standardizable properties for underlying conversion units, yielding high bio-content hybrid fuels which are compatible with conventional combustion systems. The BioMates approach is based on innovative non-food/feed biomass conversion technologies, including ablative fast pyrolysis and mild catalytic hydrotreating, while incorporating state-of-the-art renewable H2-production technology as well as optimal energy integration. The proposed pathway for decarbonizing the transportation fuels will be demonstrated via TRL5 units, allowing the development of an integrated, sustainability-driven business case encompassing commercial and social exploitation strategy.

FUEL-UP project aims at producing simultaneously the key renewable SAF and marine fuels from 100% biogenic feedstocks (primarily forestry residues) through pyrolysis and downstream upgrading of pyrolysis oils to advanced biofuels, reducing GHG emissions of the important aviation and marine transport sectors. FUEL-UP will demonstrate at TRL6-7 the production of sufficient aviation and marine fuel in the project, transforming 1000 L HPO to 450-500 L SAF, 300-350 L marine diesel and 100-200 L marine fuel Naphtha/Bio-methanol co-blend for testing. The key challenges are to de-risk and optimize stabilisation, deoxygenation, hydrodeoxygenation, hydrotreatment and hydro-isomerisation steps; including optimisation of catalysts and scalability. FUEL-UP will ensure the fuel quality meets standards and engine specifications. The produced SAF will be tested according to aviation standards (Tier 1, 2 & 2.5) to qualify them with D4054 certification and provide a strategy for fuel certification through introduction to EU Clearinghouse. The produced marine biofuels streams fuel quality (marine diesel and Naphtha enhanced Bio-methanol co-blend) will be assessed with marine engine testing performed according to ISO 8217 and ISO 8178 standards. FUEL-UP will also maximise the valorisation of all carbon side streams (gaseous and aqueous), with aqueous phase treatment and extraction up to 80%, resulting in at least 200 L valuable compounds /t HPO, followed by subsequent conversion into high quality biogas. The heavy component of Naphtha fraction will be evaluated for aromatisation by continuous catalytic reforming to produce solvents. Environmental impact of the value chain will be assessed to show up to 80% GHG emission reduction compared to fossil fuels and provide scenarios for green hydrogen production. Process engineering will ensure scale-up of technologies to reach commercial scale by 2030 and replication in 10 sites by 2035 and 25 sites by 2040, allowing production of >2Mt fuels.

Black Liquor to Fuel (BL2F) process produces drop-in biofuels for aviation and shipping from black liquor, a side stream of chemical pulping industry. 83 % CO2 reduction compared to fossil fuels, and competitive production cost of 0.90 €/l for drop-in sustainable aviation fuel are received. A large deployment, using a variety of biomass, can yield >50 billion liters of advanced biofuels by 2050, then satisfying the EU demand for advanced biofuels for aviation (15 Mtoe) and shipping (30 Mtoe). First-of-a-kind Integrated Hydro Thermal Liquefaction (IHTL) process at pulp mills produces fuel intermediate for further upgrading in oil refineries. Biomass is converted to low oxygen content (85 %. Integrated hydrothermal HydroDeOxygenation (IHDO) will further upgrade HTL-oil to fuel intermediate (< 5 w-% O2), classifying as bunker-like marine fuel or feedstock for high-quality aviation and marine fuels production. The process innovations of BL2F are: 1) combined salt separation and HTL-reactor, enabling direct upgrading of HTL-oil, 2) reforming of the aqueous phase to hydrogen, decreasing the need for external fossil hydrogen in IHDO, 3) integrating the process to pulp mill, offering cost reductions in treating of the gaseous and solid side streams by existing process installations. The BL2F is supported by CEPI, Avinor, and Rolls Royce and covers the whole value chain: The 6th largest producer in the world of bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp NVG, the leading biorefinery supplier Valmet, catalyst developer Ranido and Neste, the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel collaborate with excellent research partners; VTT, PSI, SINTEF, Tampere University, KIT, Brunel University London. LGI and industrial partners maximize the impact of the project. The ambitious goals and strong consortium strengthens European leadership in renewable biofuels and climate protection.

To reach its climate neutrality goals Europe needs to rely heavily on Power-to-X (PtX) technology to replace the many applications of fossil fuels that are not easily electrified. Many PtX technologies are however still immature or not ready for deployments yet, highlighting the need for a sustained R&D effort in the field. Neutron- and synchrotron sources can play a crucial role in this effort however lack of key instrumentation is limiting the current possibilities. ACTNXT will upgrade the instrumentation at current neutron- and synchrotron sources to enable it to provide crucial knowledge within PtX areas such as efficiency, safety, price, raw material consumption, and durability. This will be done by developing instrumentation for: 1. Operando measurements of processes and flow inside PtX components 2. Materials behaviour under hydrogen exposure 3. Reliable and high throughput investigation novel materials 4. Operando measurements hazardous chemical reactions The new instrumentation will be designed for broad adaptation as upgrades for many existing research instruments across Europe. Prototypes of all 4 instrumentation types will be constructed at leading research infrastructures and their capabilities tested and demonstrated. This is supplemented by a common knowledge platform addressing common challenges such safety and planning of complicated experiments. During the project the consortium will have a very strong dialogue with the user communities to ensure that the developed instrumentation matches its needs and that it is ready to take full advantage of the instrumentation also after the end of the project. In doing so ACTNXT aims to give the European green industry a huge boost and ensure that it captures a major part of an emerging trillion Euro PtX market.