BioTheRoS Project aims at developing a holistic methodology that will boost the scale-up of sustainable biofuels via thermochemical conversion technologies. These are pyrolysis upgrading through hydrodeoxygenation and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis from biomass gasification. The project will bring together key actors at a both European and International level, such as technological and social experts, renewable energy-oriented associations along with industrial experts that will bring and exchange their knowledge in order to reach the project targets. Within the project, several non-food biomass feedstock will be analyzed and optimized across their entire value chain. Barriers linked with the selected feedstocks supply and pretreatment will be identified. Furthermore, AI-based predictive models will be developed, in order to be adapted to the scale-up cases. Then, the most promising biomass feedstock will be tested experimentally in the studied thermochemical reactors. At this point of the project, technical constraints and opportunities for the scale-up of the sustainable biofuels thermochemical processes will be identified. Possible synergies of blending pyrolysis oil and gasification based advanced biofuels will be investigated by a potential end-user (petroleum company). The selected data will be used as an input for advanced modelling tools, including process modelling, CFD tools and LCA/LCC/sLCA tools results of which will feed a multi-criteria analysis to derive generalized up-scaling rules and guidelines of the produced biofuels. The engagement of several stakeholders in the planning of the scaling-up of sustainable biofuels production will be crucial at this point, since they will review the project results and assess if a biofuel production technology can be delivered from the lab/pilot to a larger-scale, by taking into account operational difficulties, plant cost and plant capacity limitations (technological barriers).

EPHYRA will demonstrate the integration of a first-of-its-kind renewable hydrogen production facility at industrial scale in South-eastern Europe by employing an improved electrolysis technology, at a scale of 30 MW. The large-scale electrolysis will be integrated with industrial operations within MOH’s Corinth Refinery, one of the top refineries in Europe and the largest privately-owned industrial complex in Greece. It will be operated for at least 2 years under commercial conditions and will supply renewable hydrogen to the refinery’s processes and external end-users. The industrially integrated renewable hydrogen production will be developed around a circular economy, industrial symbiotic approach, as the electrolyser will be coupled with (i) renewable electricity production, (ii) renewable electricity storage, (iii) an innovative waste heat harvesting technology, (iv) water use environmental optimisation, (v) valorisation of produced oxygen in current MOH Refinery operations, (vi) a digital twin and (vii) a dedicated energy management system. EPHYRA will contribute to all electrolysis technology KPIs as detailed in Clean Hydrogen Partnership SRIA objectives. Therefore, the project will demonstrate its reliability for green hydrogen production at the lowest possible cost thus enabling the EU renewable hydrogen economy, industry decarbonisation and zero-emission fuels uptake. EPHYRA will be implemented by a strong consortium with robust research, innovation and industrial capabilities, able to successfully deliver the project within time, budget and detail objectives. The aim of EPHYRA is to enhance European synergies on the globally expanding hydrogen market and build a unique value proposition on industrial symbiotic renewable hydrogen production.

SAFeCRAFT’s overall goal is to develop and demonstrate the safety and viability and accelerate the adoption of Sustainable Alternative Fuels (SAFs) in waterborne transport. It demonstrates four technologies, acting as SAF enablers for different types of oceangoing and short sea shipping vessels, both newbuilding and retrofits. SAFs used during handling, storage, and for main propulsion include liquid & compressed green H2, and two green H2 carriers, LOHCs and ammonia. SAFs used will be demonstrated on a bulk carrier and assessed and validated through detailed desktop studies for four other types of vessels typical in EU ports. For the demo vessel, H2 will be used as the primary fuel source for a Generator Set providing power to a shaft motor (Power-Take-In) in parallel with the M/E, thus covering part of ship’s propulsion needs. The desktop studies feature the aforementioned SAFs that lead into three powertrain options for each vessel, 1) fuel cell stacks & marine-type battery packs, 2) internal combustion M/E (for newbuildings), 3) internal combustion PTI generator similar to the demo. These SAF enabling power train systems will be analyzed in-depth, using specific KPIs for safety, energy efficiency, environmental impact and technoeconomic feasibility. SAFeCRAFT A-Z approach in utilizing SAFs, including bunkering, storage, handling and fuel consumption onboard, and the issuance of Approval in Principle for the engineering and design processes, will accelerate their implementation. Three societal objectives will be served: 1) facilitating the creation of highly skilled jobs, 2) economic growth in the EU by development of new technologies and regulatory standards for waterborne transport, 3) reduction of the environmental footprint and acceleration of the transition to SAFs. The core consortium members of the current proposal are also the core team of the NH3CRAFT and LH2CRAFT projects, while the well-balanced consortium consists of 11 partners from 6 countries.

Rapid up-scaling and deployment of more cost-efficient and sustainable carbon capture solutions is needed to reduce the emissions of CO2-intensive industries. Solvent-based carbon capture is an important technology that can be readily adopted to many emission sources. Such technology can achieve high capture rates and deliver CO2 at high purity with a relatively low energy demand. In AURORA the open and non-proprietary CESAR1 solvent technology will be optimised and qualified for commercial deployment. The technology will be demonstrated at TRL7-8 for three CO2 intensive industries: refining, cement, and materials recycling, for which there are few other options to achieve climate neutrality. The partners will demonstrate negligible environmental impact (emissions being a potential issue for solvent technology), capture rates at 98%, and capture costs reduced by at least 47% compared to a benchmark process with the MEA solvent. This will be achieved due to the following innovations: 1) Holistic optimisation of solvent composition, process design, emission monitoring and control, and solvent management, 2) Validated models for use in commercial process simulators 3) enhanced waste heat integration with carbon capture for reduced external heat demand and operational costs 4) Improved and integrated advanced control system for reduced OPEX and optimised performances. These innovations will be integrated in four optimised capture processes and various aspects will be demonstrated in pilots of various size and complexity. The partners will ensure transferability of results to other CO2 intensive industries thanks to the large variations in CO2 source and developed clusters addressed in the project and a strong stakeholder participation. The project will also do full CCUS chain assessments for its end-users. It is noteworthy that the end-users are situated in two different regions of Europe offering different conditions for the implementation of CCUS value chains.

PHOENIX aims at changing the role of buildings from unorganised energy consumers to active agents orchestrating and optimising their energy consumption, production and storage, with the goal of increasing energy performance, maximising occupants’ benefit, and facilitating grid operation. The project will design a portfolio of ICT solutions covering all aspects from hardware and software upgrades needed in legacy equipment and optimal deployment of sensors, to data analytics and services for both building users and energy utilities. PHOENIX will take advantage of artificial intelligence technologies, as well as edge/cloud computing methods, to provide the highest level of smartness to existing buildings. The tools that will result from the different work packages will offer the possibility of establishing a new framework that will enable the optimisation of the energy use and infrastructure exploitation, while at the same time facilitate the creation of new SMEs and Start-Up ideas to exploit new revenue streams and business opportunities. To achieve this ambitious goal, PHOENIX relies on a consortium which has the technological knowledge and expertise to understand the social and technical requirements and translate them into ICT innovations (i.e. IoT, AI and Data Analytics) for the integration and smartness upgrading of existing buildings with legacy equipment and systems. To demonstrate the real impact and replicability, the proposed solution with ICT innovations and cost-effective services will be validated in 5 different pilots at European level (i.e. Ireland, Greece, Sweden and Spain). Moreover, the consortia have high expertise and business capacities to disseminate and exploit the PHOENIX results. PHOENIX will provide a portfolio of ICT solutions to increase the smartness of legacy systems and appliances in existing buildings which will increase the SRI of existing buildings. These improvements will translate in human-centric new services.