The Context

Advancing Sustainable Biofuels with Innovative, Cost-Efficient Solutions

Biomass-derived liquid transportation fuels offer a promising solution to mitigate climate change, and many countries are supporting this with incentives to boost bioenergy use. However, the current reliance on food-related sources for most biofuels is negatively impacting food production. In addition, the development of cost effective solutions that utilise non-food based feedstocks, minimise carbon waste and inhibit biogenic effluent gas emissions in sustainable biofuel production processes are still in their early stages.

Flexby aims to change this by developing advanced biofuels through innovative, cost-efficient processes and cutting-edge digitalisation tools, paving the way for more sustainable biofuel production and making significant steps towards minimising carbon waste and reducing biogenic effluent gas emissions.

Flexby is an EU funded project under the topic HORIZON-CL5-2023-D3-02-07 - Development of next generation advanced biofuel technologies.

The Project

Algae in test tubes in a research laboratory.

Flexby addresses the critical need for sustainable energy solutions by converting waste materials into valuable biofuels.

Industrial waste feedstocks and microalgae cultivated in domestic wastewater will undergo microwave-assisted pyrolysis to produce three distinct fractions: solid, liquid, and gas.

The hydrogen-free hydrodeoxygenation process will convert the liquid fraction into heavy transport biofuels without the use of hydrogen, leveraging water from the feedstock for significant process advantages.

The gaseous fraction will be directly valorised to produce bio-hydrogen, contributing to the project's commitment to circular economy principles and low-carbon emissions.

The solid fraction will be transformed into biochar fertiliser and used as activated carbon to support the catalysis process.

These biofuels will then be utilised to generate electricity in fuel cells.

Flexby includes a strong digitalisation component. Artificial intelligence will be employed in data processing to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and move closer to a near-zero carbon emission process.

Flexby aims to achieve a comprehensive sustainability assessment. A series of LCA analyses will be conducted to establish an inventory of Flexby flows and their impacts, considering environmental and socioeconomic factors and scrutinising the carbon neutrality of the process.

Innovation

The Flexby project will develop several innovative concepts to advance the technology level of advanced biofuel production.

Microalgae Cultivation

Flexby will develop and test new operational procedures for process intensification to advance microalgae cultivation in wastewater.

Microwave Fast / Flash Pyrolysis

Flexby will surpass current methodologies by producing the first microwave pyrolysis demonstrator at technology readiness level (TRL) 5 to use cultivated microalgae and industrial waste feedstocks.

Hydrogen-Free Hydrodeoxygenation

Flexby will develop a novel hydrogen-free hydrodeoxygenation approach which eliminates the dewatering step and uses carbon-based multifunctional catalysts which could pave the way for a safer, more energy efficient and cost-effective production of bio-oil.

Pyrogas Processing for Bio-hydrogen Production

The gaseous fraction will be used to produce bio-hydrogen facilitated by investigating more realistic gaseous blends appropriate for microwave-assisted pyrolysis and employing optimal catalytic formulations.

Innovative biogenic carbon storage and utilisation

CO₂ will be used to create syngas and converted into valuable products through a gas-phase process. Biochar produced will enhance soil carbon content and functionality. Physical carbon activation will boost liquid biofuel production, while microalgae cultivation will capture carbon to reduce global CO₂ emissions.

Impact

More cost-efficient process

In combination with artificial intelligence, the project integrates advanced technologies such as hydrogen-free hydrodeoxygenation, completely avoiding fossil hydrogen production; fast pyrolysis supported by advanced optimisation techniques; and the recycling of by-products will achieve a highly integrated and near-zero discharge process.

Flexible and versatile technology

The technology allows flexible biofuel production for different end uses including heavy transport and fuel cell-powered devices. Such versatility is achieved via the custom designed catalytic processes for hydrogen-free hydrodeoxygenation and pyro-gas processing.

Negative carbon emissions

Flexby removes emissions related to hydrogen production, uses renewable energy to power the process, utilises microalgae biomass with the capability to sequester CO₂, and produces biochar which can be used in agriculture to increase crop efficiency along with sequestering the soil-related CO₂.

Net-zero by-product uses

All the pyrolysis solid, liquid and gaseous fractions will be reused as biofuels, or as a catalytic support material to be used within the process. The bio-char product can also be used as fertiliser and soil carbon sequestrator, minimising landfill biogenic emissions.

Numbers

Months

3,9

Millions €

Countries

Partners

Project Workpackages

Project Progress

15%

WP1

Project Management

Leader: IDENER
Month: 1-48

15%

WP2

Flexby Requirements

Leader: Algae4future
Month: 1-10

70%

WP3

Microwave Pyrolysis Design & Testing

Leader: CSIC-INCAR
Month: 8-31

WP4

Advanced Biofuel Production

Leader: Universidad de Sevilla
Month: 8-36

WP5

Optimisation & Upscaling

Leader: Politecnico di Milano
Month: 28-41

WP6

Flexby at TRL 5

Leader: IDENER
Month: 25-48

WP7

Sustainability Assessment

Leader: GreenDelta
Month: 1-48

15%

WP8

Exploitation, Dissemination & Communication

Leader: KNEIA
Month: 1 - 48

15%