Innovative Actions for Delivering Sustainable Energy

The TO-SYN-FUEL consortium is delighted to introduce its first newsletter edition. In this edition, the consortium present news about market needs in terms of biofuels, about renewable liquid fuels from waste biomass and more about how to deliver sustainable energy in Europe.

Urgent need to bring innovative biofuels from sustainable raw materials to the market

In December 2016 the European Commission has released its proposal for the RED II, the Renewable Energy Directive for the post 2020 period. This proposal introduces a gradual phase-out of conventional biofuels and sets a minimum target for advanced biofuels (produced from non food/feed sources) for transport.

Imagine technologies integrated in a plant that could take waste biomass and convert it into liquids indistinguishable from fossil fuel diesel and fossil fuel petrol. Imagine if this conversion was achieved in hours instead of aeons. The TO-SYN-FUEL project is designed to demonstrate a process than can achieve exactly this, thus meeting the European Commission’s call to action. The TO-SYN-FUEL consortium, composed of 12 SME, industrial, and scientific partners and co-ordinated by Fraunhofer UMSICHT, will together build up, operate and demonstrate the production of Synthetic Fuels and Green Hydrogen from waste biomass.

Building and extending from previous framework funding, the project is designed to set the benchmark for future sustainable development and growth within Europe and will provide a real example to the rest of the world of how sustainable energy, economic, social and environmental needs can successfully be addressed.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Hornung, Director of Fraunhofer UMSICHT in Sulzbach-Rosenberg and Chair of the Project Board: “We are happy to start this project which will be a major change for the behaviour in the future use of green fuels and sustainable fuels. With its integrated demonstrator plant, the project will show how simple it is to generate green fuels from biogenic residues and wastes, and also to deliver hydrogen and syngas for future synthesis.

TCR produces renewable liquid fuels from waste biomass

The TO-SYN-FUEL process is built around thermo-catalytic reforming (TCR) technology developed by Fraunhofer UMSICHT. TCR produces renewable liquid fuels from waste biomass such as sewage sludge. The TCR technology will be implemented in a new integrated process to convert a broad range of residual biomass into three main products: H2-rich synthesis gas, biochar and liquid bio-oil. By integrating high pressure hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) and conventional refining processes, the bio-oil can be upgraded to green fuels that are ready to be used directly in internal combustion engines. These fuels comply with European standards for gasoline and diesel EN228 and EN590, and have already been demonstrated at pilot scale.

More information on the project’s website.