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.

The REALIZE project aims to present a carefully selected and pre-qualified portfolio of new renewable energy generation technologies to the EU Innovation Fund (IF) through proposals resulting from successfully completed Horizon projects in Renewable Energy Sources (RES). The project will support IF project promoters to win major Innovation Fund support or propose alternative funding opportunities at EU, national and local level. Intense support will be given to ten technology partners in the consortium building on their results from 15 pre-qualified Horizon projects. From these, we will prepare seven IF proposals spanning a variety of sectors: Concentrated Solar Power, wind, solar thermal and solar photovoltaics, ocean energy and biofuels as energy-producing installations and as manufacturing projects for small-, medium- and large-scale calls. Their technology will be profiled. REALIZE will also reach out to the broader renewable energy community, with conferences and written material addressing IF’s selection criteria; sharing “lessons learnt” (including with Innovation Fund’s designers) and explaining the complementarity of different public funding programmes. Deep collaboration with other projects funded under the same call topic is foreseen but not counted upon.

Among solutions to reach an EU net zero emissions economy by 2050, advanced biofuels have the potential to save several gigatons of CO2 emission per year. However, their development is hampered by a complex feedstock to be processed, the massive investments needed for each new refinery unit, the lack of certification for market adoption and above all, social acceptance of the biofuel production itself. REFOLUTION will tackle these limitations by delivering a cost-effective production (reduction of CAPEX by 50% and OPEX by 45%) of advanced biofuels for the aviation and marine sectors via a process that can be implemented in existing European refineries. REFOLUTION will demonstrate the transformation of bio-oils produced from fast pyrolysis (FP) into advanced biofuels, through intermediate process steps (stabilisation, fractionation) combined with downstream co-processing technologies at different levels of severities (temperature, hydrogen consumption, carbon yield) for targeting different applications: Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) co-processing for aviation (TRL7) and marine sectors, and hydrotreating for marine (TRL6). REFOLUTION is gathering 14 leading EU entities covering the full biofuel value chain to deploy risk-mitigation pathways for successful implementation into existing refineries. The project will deliver a comprehensive toolbox of models, standards, social assessment and exploitation pathways for interfacing with current refinery models and available documentation for further replication in other existing refineries, from a dozen in 2030 several hundred pyrolysis units delivering bio-feedstocks to the 90+ refineries in 2050.