Project description
Converting municipal waste into jet fuel
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is critical to reducing emissions from the aviation sector. The European Commission Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the legislative initiative ReFuelEU Aviation set ambitious targets on the path to net-zero emissions for the aviation industry. The EU-funded FLITE project consortium plans to build the first-of-its-kind alcohol-to-jet facility in Europe. The 30 000 tonnes per annum pre-commercial scale facility will convert waste-based ethanol to SAF. Led by SkyNRG, a global market leader for SAF solutions, the project considers ethanol the ideal SAF feedstock since it can be produced from diverse and abundant resources (including residues from agriculture, forestry, industry and even municipal waste).
Objective
The most recent IPCC report paints a stark picture of our changing climate and the urgency of action to reduce emissions in every sector of the economy. While light-duty road transport can decarbonize through electrification, aviation will continue to require energy dense liquid fuels for the foreseeable future. If we are to decarbonize aviation, it must be through low-carbon fuels that can be made from abundant, sustainable sources that do not increase pressure on land or food.
The Fuel via Low Carbon Integrated Technology from Ethanol (FLITE) consortium (LanzaTech, SkyNRG, E4tech, RSB, and Fraunhofer) proposes to expand the supply of low carbon jet fuel in Europe by designing, building, and demonstrating an innovative ethanol-based Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology in an ATJ Advanced Production Unit (ATJ-APU). The ATJ-APU will produce jet blendstocks from non-food/non-feed ethanol with over 70% GHG reductions relative to conventional jet. The Project will demonstrate >1000 hours of operations and production of >30,000 metric tonnes of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, and supports the European Advanced Biofuel Flightpath objectives of getting SAFs to the market faster and using 2 million tonnes of aviation biofuels by 2020.
Ethanol is the ideal SAF feedstock as it can be produced from diverse and abundant resources, including residues from agriculture, forestry, and industry – and even from municipal waste. More low carbon ethanol technologies are being developed in Europe and elsewhere, while at the same time greater electric vehicle penetration reduces ethanol demand. Ethanol-based SAF offers an opportunity to divert sustainable carbon from road transport – which can be electrified – to aviation, which cannot. This strategy will expand the ethanol market and meet aviation’s low carbon fuel needs. The diversity of ethanol sources offers the potential to produce cost-competitive SAF, accelerating uptake by commercial airlines and paving the way for implementation.
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 liquid fuels
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy
- social sciences social geography transport electric vehicles
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries forestry
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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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H2020-EU.3.3. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3.3.3. - Alternative fuels and mobile energy sources
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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.
IA - Innovation action
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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) H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020
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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.
1093 NJ Amsterdam
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
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.