GLycerol to Aviation and Marine prOducts with sUstainable Recycling

Project Information

GLAMOUR

Grant agreement ID: 884197

DOI

10.3030/884197

Project closed

EC signature date 7 April 2020

Start date 1 May 2020

End date 31 October 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 4 993 130,00

EU contribution

€ 4 989 126,25

Coordinated by

THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GLAMOUR (GLycerol to Aviation and Marine prOducts with sUstainable Recycling)

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

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Aviation and shipping sectors rely on fossil fuel-based technologies and represent nowadays 5% of the total anthropogenic CO2 emissions worldwide, and 3.4% of the total GHG emissions in the EU.
This enormous CO2 footprint of the aviation and marine sector must be reduced by 50% by 2050 undermining the objectives of the Paris Agreement. To achieve this target, promising bio-based processes must be developed and validated to identify the optimal integrated solutions with mini-mum socio-economic and environmental impacts.
The overall objective of the GLAMOUR project is the design, scale-up and validation of an integrated process that converts the waste bio-based feedstock such as crude glycerol into aviation and marine diesel fuels. The focus of the project will be a combination of high pressure, auto-thermal reforming/gasification using chemical looping to produce syngas and the integration of a Fischer-Tropsch compact reactor integrated with 3D-printed structured catalyst. The GLAMOUR process would increase the overall revenue of existing 2nd generation bio-diesel plants reducing the cost for large scale biomass-to-liquid production processes up to 35% and the CO2 emissions up to 70%.
In the long term, GLAMOUR could unlock low-cost feedstock with a cost decrease of 65%, increase the production of biofuel to achieve the overall bio-jet fuel production to move 19% of the EU passengers reducing the CO2 emissions up to 27 Mt/year and generating a scalable business up to 11 bln/years.

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

The main achievements of the project so far can be summarized in:
Glycerol purification. A comprehensive campaign has been completed by Argent Energy and The University of Manchester using glycerol samples provided by Argent Energy plants across Europe representative of low-quality crude glycerol with <50% glycerol content, organic fraction and ash content >10%). A combination of physio-chemical treatments using acid, solvent and active carbon purification has been implemented with a final purity of almost 90 % wt. with ash removals of 84% and glycerol recoveries of 40%. The process is currently under scale up to 5 litres volume to increase the glycerol recovery. To achieve high purity, electrodialysis separation is being tested in Manchester.
Syngas generation: C&CS has synthesised different formulations of Ni-based oxygen carrier changing the shape and support content aiming at increasing the oxygen carrier capacity and the reactivity in presence of glycerol reforming. The efforts have already generated a patent application. C&CS is scaling up the new formulation to 1 kg scale to be tested at TRL4 at the University of Manchester so that the technology can be validated at relevant conditions (>7 bar and 1000°C). CSIC and the University of Manchester have developed and validated particle and reactor models to simulate the performance of the developed material and reactors.

Fuel Synthesis: VITO has prepared several samples of 3D-printed monoliths with different shapes to be tested in the TNO laboratory at relevant conditions in terms of temperature and pressure. The experimental campaign has been focused on the performance of new catalysts and reactor in terms of CO conversion wax yield and the heat management of the reactor. The material testing has been supported by a 3D model to assess the temperature behaviour of the reactor in presence of different designs and interaction catalyst-reactor walls. INERATEC has tested industrial catalysts to assess the relevance of the syngas composition in the CO conversion and syncrude yield.
Demonstration. C&CS and VITO have assessed the scale-up procedures for the delivery of the materials required for the demonstration at TRL5. In the meantime, TUE has received >90% of the items needed for the TRL5 demonstration plant and built the plant which is expected to be ready in the first half of 2023
Process Assessment: The University of Manchester has completed the first version of the glycerol to liquid fuels process for large-scale applications and assessed the technical KPIs. The new processes have been simulated with the developed models. Currently, the process optimisation is ongoing. The University of Manchester has also identified the bottlenecks of the LCA for glycerol purification and glycerol-to-liquid fuel units. the literature review on regulations and legislation has been carried out to identify potential drivers and barriers for the deployment of the GLAMOUR technology. Finally, the data collection for the social assessment of the GLAMOUR with relevant indicators has been conducted.
Exploitation and Dissemination: the project is linked with 11 EU and national projects across Europe dealing with biofuels and related topics, where actions with 7 projects are being periodically performed. CIAOTECH has finalised the market analysis and stakeholders report consisting of an original and holistic combination of market outlook and technology intelligence addressing the topic of advanced biofuels for the aviation and maritime sectors.

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)

The GLAMOUR project has currently progressed the existing state-of-the-art in glycerol purification, chemical looping-based syngas generation, and 3D-printed Fischer-Tropsch reactors.
From a technical point of view, GLAMOUR is expected to achieve a TRL5 demonstration of the integrated plant.
In terms of economic impact, we will reduce the cost of production for biomass-to-liquid biofuels by 70% paving the way to the development and exploitation of competitive technology for sustainable aviation and marine fuels. Being the technology proposed very flexible in terms of feedstock and products, GLAMOUR results will have an impact also in other sectors such as net-zero hydrogen production, waste recovery, carbon capture and storage, and sustainable chemical industries.
From a social perspective, the successful demonstration of a renewable-based process will reduce the existing footprint of the oil&gas industry, and provide new job opportunities in green technology in Europe bringing valuable know-how, and technical and managerial skills to the European industry, including SME and large players.

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