ENI – the main industrial partner of the project, produced commercial-scale volumes of sustainable SAF from residual lipids (1,000 metric tons), fully compliant with ASTM standards and regulations on aviation fuels. ENI also managed to increase the production capacity of SAF, by building a supplementary process pathway through HVO-Naphta and by refurbishing a previously unused distillation column, that is now used for sustainable renewable fuels production. The SAF was then delivered to Schiphol airport and used for commercial flights with business-as-usual, conventional logistics, through the join collaboration of SKYNRG and KLM.
New industrial capacity, and a new HEFA production chain, has thus been implemented and demonstrated at full commercial scale.
This work was complemented by a dedicated market analysis of residual lipids in the EU and globally. The effect of disruptive market conditions due to pandemic and energy crisis indeed impacted in the analysis, which however identified a constant growth in UCO prices, slightly reducing in the latest months.
The main groundbreaking results of BIO4A research was the demonstration at pilot scale that Carbon-negative HEFA production is possible when Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is permanently increased through the addition of biochar amendment from lignocellulosic residues. This brings the aviation biofuel value chain beyond the Net Zero target.
BIO4A explored for the first time the application of the new REDII Implementing Regulation 2022/996, which introduced the “Esca” factor in its Annex V: this factor considers the variation of Carbon stock in soil. The EU implementing regulation recognises the use of biochar as a sustainable agronomic practice, the one with the highest potential for Carbon sequestration (threshold set at 45 gCO2eq/MJ).
Within BIO4A, pilot cultivations in Spain and Italy were performed by Camelina Company España and RE-CORD, and the potential benefits in terms of GHG reduction were calculated by CENER under experimental and optimised conditions, in a larger scale approach and using the REDII-IR formula.
The GHG savings can be as high as 107%-128% under optimal conditions. This result also offers to farmers and stakeholders an opportunity to expand the feedstock base for Sustainable Aviation Fuel production.
New types of lysimeters were also designed, built, and operated in brand new climatic chambers, to replicate environmental conditions and assess mass, water and nutrient balances in very controlled conditions.
Different Camelina varieties were studied, to select the most performing ones for the given harsh conditions.
Finally, EC JRC assessed the potential application of the BIO4A solution to the EU MED region, where more than 8.5 Mha are under marginalization and desertification. JRC concluded that a significant production potential exists in Spain, Italy and Greece.
