Project description
A safe, affordable hydrogen resource to produce biofuels
The transition to low-carbon fuels is critical for a sustainable future. Despite their potential, current biomass-to-biofuel technologies mainly rely on high-pressure hydrogen – an expensive resource and difficult to handle. The ERC-funded CLEVER-FUEL project plans to develop a novel process to produce deoxygenated hydrocarbons – important biofuel components – using water as the hydrogen source instead of high-pressure hydrogen. The proposed approach will combine advanced multifunctional catalysts that can simultaneously reduce water and remove oxygen from biocompounds in a single reactor under mild conditions. By eliminating the need for external hydrogen supply, CLEVER-FUEL should help simplify the process, reduce costs and boost safety.
Objective
CLEVER-FUEL proposes a revolutionary approach for low-carbon fuels production paving the way for a direct “waste to biofuels” conversion strategy. The project will develop a completely novel route to produce deoxygenated hydrocarbons – highly important chemical compounds in the biofuel and biochemical industries - via designing of advanced catalysts for the H2-free hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) process. This ground-breaking route take the edge over current biomass upgrading approaches which rely on high-pressure hydrogen – an expensive resource whose manipulation, transport and storage imposes serious limitations and represent a bottleneck to the commercial deployment of this technology. CLEVER-FUEL will create new chemistry and reaction engineering concepts to circumvent this handicap by using the cheapest and safest possible hydrogen source: water. The overriding goal is to create a new conversion pathway by using water as hydrogen donor and advanced multifunctional catalysts able to catalyse water reduction and hydrodeoxygenation simultaneously yielding oxygen-free biofuels. Such multifunctionality resolves the problem of oxygen-rich bio-compounds upgrading in a single reactor under mild conditions and avoiding the external supply of high-pressure hydrogen thus opening a completely new research avenue for biomass conversion technologies. CLEVER-FUEL will combine unique multifunctional catalysts with advanced operando characterisation techniques to provide a rational strategy for catalysts design. In addition, novel reactor concepts based on microchannel catalytic systems will be implemented to facilitate process intensification.
CLEVER-FUEL represents a forward-thinking concept in catalysis and reaction engineering and it is conceived to open new horizons in bioenergy research unlocking the potential of biofuels and offering catalytic solutions to big society challenges in the pursuit of a low-carbon future.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy hydrogen energy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
41004 Sevilla
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.