Biofuels Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge II

Project Information

BRISK II

Grant agreement ID: 731101

DOI

10.3030/731101

Project closed

EC signature date 28 April 2017

Start date 1 May 2017

End date 31 October 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Research Infrastructures

Total cost

€ 9 977 271,01

EU contribution

€ 9 968 144,00

Coordinated by

KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLAN
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - BRISK II (Biofuels Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge II)

Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2022-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The vision of BRISK II is to establish a center of excellence in the field of 2nd and 3rd-generation biofuels via the uniting of leading European research infrastructures. Building upon the success of its FP7 predecessor, BRISK II Networking Activities will consolidate knowledge in the field, reaching out to a wide set of stakeholders and potential users. Databases generated within the project will serve as a valuable resource for academia and industry. The business plan will boost momentum beyond H2020 so that the research infrastructures can be utilised between framework programmes or even independently. Joint Research Activities will yield a manifold improvement in the characterisation of feedstocks for thermochemical and biochemical conversion processes, tying micro-scale and macro-scale phenomena in novel ways. Enhanced measurement techniques will lead to significant gains in process flexibility and reliability. New biorefining approaches are intended to explore novel process combinations, ones that cannot be tested without a concerted effort between project partners. Assimilated data and knowledge will be input into simulation tools for use in a broad spectrum of analyses. Transnational Access supports the biofuels research community through the availability of high-quality installations within a well-structured framework.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Project-wide objectives along with work carried out during the entire project encompass the following:
- Consolidation and outreach to stakeholders and potential users by further improvements to the public website content and user interface. Dissemination largely shifted to fully digital media considering the ongoing pandemic (e.g. electronic newsletters and social media channels). After a long delay due to restrictions, BRISK II was involved in at PYRO2022 event with posters and presentations.
- Establishing and populating databases: the publicly available Phyllis-2 database was upgraded to allow new data entries, procedures were established for assimilating data from all work packages to this database in accordance with procedures established; a separate database for BRISK II publications was is established to ensure their availability to the public beyond the lifetime of the project, a total of 69 publications were added to the database with open access.
- Joint Research Activities: specific feedstocks have been identified, tested and analysed troughout the project on in micro-scale and macro-scale settings; enhanced measurement techniques focused on novel sampling methods for various producer gases, incorporating tar analysis along with high-pressure and high-temperature operation; based on the performed studies and experiments, suggestions to upgrade/modify pretreatment and fractionation process as well as biobased intermediates conversion processes were made; the protocols for biochemical and thermochemical conversion were established while tar protocols were improved; based on the performed studies and experiments, suggestions were made in terms of suitable pretreatment and fractionation processes; nw measurement techniques were tested for biochemical and thermochemical conversion, accompanied by the development of related protocols; experiments were conducted in unit operations for downstream processing in advanced biorefineries; technoeconomic data was compiled and integrated for modeling of selected case studies; experiments were conducted in form of two joint gasification campaigns carried out along with analysis round robin; additional feedstocks have been identified and tested; new measurement techniques were tested for biochemical and thermochemical conversion, accompanied by the development of related protocols.
- Virtual biorefinery was developed and its performance was demonstrated for different scenarios and target products, which allows preliminary benchmarking of potential biorefinery strategies.
- Transnational Access (TA): several call rounds of TA applications were implemented and continued until the 15th of Sep 2022 (M65). 225 applications from different countries were submitted out of which all 198 were approved or conditionally approved. The promotion of TA campaigns was held mostly in digital formats due to COVID restrictions during the last few years.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

BRISK II has fulfilled the overall goal of establishing a center of excellence in biofuels, building upon the success of its FP7 predecessor. Shortly after the project start-up, attention was focused on Networking Activities with the purpose of reaching out to the EU and international research communities for soliciting potential users for transnational access. These initiatives led to a high level of interest. To exemplify, from the beginning of the project, 225 Transnational Access applications were submitted, 198 applications were approved or conditionally approved and 171 transnational access projects were accomplished at hosts. While the majority of applicants were affiliated with universities, 17 were from public research organizations, and 6 were linked to a small-to-medium enterprise. Furthermore, the majority of applicants originated from the EU or H2020-associated states (89%), with the remainder from international organizations (mainly in South America). The division between gender was 40% female/60% male, exhibiting a good balance. In addition, the majority of applicants (51%) have a Ph.D. degree.

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