Subcontracted by: Exergia Energy and Environment Consultants S.A.
For: CINEA – European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency
[June – September 2023]
studio Gear Up (Eric van den Heuvel) provided senior expert review to one of the draft chapters of the “Study on Development of Outlook for the Necessary Means to Build Industrial Capacity for Drop-in Advanced Biofuels”. This study has been carried out by a consortium lead by Exergia from Greece, with BTG (NL), BEST (AT), Wageningen University (NL), E3Modelling (GR) and Politecnico di Torino (IT) as consortium partners.
The overall aim of this study is to analyse the means which are needed to achieve the necessary industrial growth for advanced biofuels contribution to meeting the new targets for 2030 and 2050 under the European Green Deal by collecting industrial input directly from industrial associations operating in the alternative and renewable transport fuels sector, analysing the needs, assessing the resources and calculating the potential.
The reviewed chapter was about the analysis of the capacity potential for the industrial supply ofdrop-in advanced biofuels. The analysis was conducted by one of the consortium members (BEST) through the analysis of existinginfrastructure, technical knowledge and stakeholder capacities for existing and emergingvalue chains. Real data was collected from industries and industry associations active in technology development, biofuel production and distribution. The analysis covered the following biofuel production technologies, which are at different Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and from different regions within the EU:
- Anaerobic digestion and upgrading of biogas to biomethane – TRL 9
- Transesterification – TRL 9
- Hydrotreatment – TRL 9
- Lignin depolymerisation (Annex IX A feedstock) – TRL 8
- Conventional ethanol – TRL 9
- Fermentation of lignocellulosic feedstock – TRL 8
- Alcohol to Jet /Methanol to Jet – TRL 8
- Gasification and methanol synthesis – TRL 9
- Gasification and methanation – TRL 8
- Gasification and FT synthesis – TRL 7
- Pyrolysis – TRL 9
- Hydrothermal liquefaction – TRL 8
During a Brussels workshop end of September 2023 all consortium partners presented the main findings of their specific chapters, after whihc the expert reviewers provided their feedback that will be taken on board in the final report.
The final report is not yet published by the client, CINEA.