Descrizione del progetto
Trasformare la luce solare in combustibili sostenibili
Con le crescenti preoccupazioni per i cambiamenti climatici e la dipendenza dai combustibili fossili, aumenta la necessità di alternative sostenibili. In questo contesto, il progetto ALGAESOL, finanziato dall’UE, sta esplorando i modi per convertire la luce solare in combustibili rinnovabili. In particolare, mira a sfruttare le microalghe e le tecnologie solari all’avanguardia per trasformare la CO2 e i rifiuti organici in metanolo, metano e bio-oli, adatti per l’aviazione e la navigazione. Il progetto promette di ridurre di un quarto i costi di produzione e di aumentare l’efficienza della conversione. Grazie a sistemi avanzati, progetti di reattori intelligenti e un approccio di bioeconomia circolare, ALGAESOL non solo migliorerà la sostenibilità dei combustibili, ma si allineerà anche al Green Deal europeo. Questa iniziativa dovrebbe ridurre l’impatto ambientale del 20 % e rafforzare la leadership europea nella tecnologia verde.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.
CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.
- 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
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinatore
5838 Bergen
Norvegia