Project description
Turning sunlight into sustainable fuels
With rising concerns over climate change and fossil fuel dependency, there is an increasing need for sustainable fuel alternatives. In this context, the EU-funded ALGAESOL project is exploring ways to convert sunlight into renewable fuels. Specifically, it aims to harness micro-algae and cutting-edge solar technologies to transform CO2 and organic waste into methanol, methane, and bio-oils, suitable for aviation and shipping. The project promises to cut production costs by a quarter and boost conversion efficiency. Through advanced systems, smart reactor designs, and a circular bio-economy approach, ALGAESOL will not only enhance fuel sustainability but also align with the European Green Deal. This initiative is expected to reduce environmental impact by 20 % and strengthen Europe’s leadership in green technology.
Objective
ALGAESOL will develop and evaluate several solutions for the sustainable conversion of sunlight into fuels. The project will advance current state-of-the-art by creating and consolidating new value chains for shipping and aviation fuels based on micro-algae and direct solar renewable fuel technologies. ALGAESOL will reduce production costs by 25%and improve efficiency of converting solar energy, carbon dioxide (CO2) and organic wastes into renewable methanol (CH3OH), methane (CH4) and biooils, forming the basis for aviation and shipping fuels. Various systems (biologic, photoelectrochemical, electrochemical and bioelectrochemical) will be evaluated and smart reactor design will be combined with process improvements. Targeted are microbial contamination control strategies, the increase solar to chemical energy conversion efficiencies, and improved algal strains to generate lipid superproducers will facilitate extraction, followed by innovative purification and hydro-processing technology to deliver the fuels. Enhanced sustainability of the developed fuels, is also based on a circular bio economy approach by using waste streams and about 80% of residual biomass generate in the ALGAESOL value chain will be re-circulated as input for the conversion process. The economic and environmental, as well as social sustainability will guide the design and scale-up at process level and for the whole value chain in alignment with the European Green Deal priorities. Used will be computational modelling and process simulations, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Life Cycle Costs (LCC), and Social Life Cycle Analysis (S-LCA) as well as practical engineering approaches. Through this approach is the overall reduction of the environmental impact when producing biofuels expected to be about 20% relative to today's processes. The project will reinforce the European scientific basis, technology leadership and competitiveness through international collaborations.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energysolar energy
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsbioeconomy
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterialsbiofuels
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsenergy conversion
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
5838 Bergen
Norway