BioFuel Fab | Biogas production from non-food lignocellulosic biomass waste.

Summary
THE PROBLEM.
In June 2018 the EU institutions agreed on a new Renewable Energy Directive for the next decade, including a legally-binding EU-wide target of 32% for renewable energy by 2030 and indicating a biogas production of 50 billion m3 per year as a crucial milestone in achieving this goal. But, yearly biogas production growth rate is on a steady decline, due to the stringent regulations imposed by EU that fix thresholds in the use of energy crops and food-derived biomasses as feedstock for biogas generation plants (mainly Anaerobic Digestion - AD). On the other side, lignocellulosic materials are still not properly exploited since woody wastes are largely unaffected by digestion, as most anaerobic microorganisms are unable to break down lignin. As a consequence, biogas operators cannot use the most available no-food derived raw material in their plants.

THE TECHNOLOGY.
Finrenes has developed BioFuel Fab, an energy self-sustainable and versatile solution able to make biogas production from lignocellulosic wastes economically profitable and environmentally sustainable. This is achieved thanks to a proprietary high-temperature and high-pressure pretreatment process that makes woody waste suitable for anaerobic digestion. Performances are disruptive: the digestion process speed is increased up to 75%, empowering the AD plant capacity by 3 times. The innovation allows to reach a profitability of biogas production from lignocellulosic waste material to be comparable with energy crops and makes convenient to convert the existing biogas plants using energy crops as feedstock to a BioFuel Fab fed by woody wastes, with a payback for the investment of 2.5 years.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/882510
Start date: 01-12-2019
End date: 31-05-2020
Total budget - Public funding: 71 429,00 Euro - 50 000,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

THE PROBLEM.
In June 2018 the EU institutions agreed on a new Renewable Energy Directive for the next decade, including a legally-binding EU-wide target of 32% for renewable energy by 2030 and indicating a biogas production of 50 billion m3 per year as a crucial milestone in achieving this goal. But, yearly biogas production growth rate is on a steady decline, due to the stringent regulations imposed by EU that fix thresholds in the use of energy crops and food-derived biomasses as feedstock for biogas generation plants (mainly Anaerobic Digestion - AD). On the other side, lignocellulosic materials are still not properly exploited since woody wastes are largely unaffected by digestion, as most anaerobic microorganisms are unable to break down lignin. As a consequence, biogas operators cannot use the most available no-food derived raw material in their plants.

THE TECHNOLOGY.
Finrenes has developed BioFuel Fab, an energy self-sustainable and versatile solution able to make biogas production from lignocellulosic wastes economically profitable and environmentally sustainable. This is achieved thanks to a proprietary high-temperature and high-pressure pretreatment process that makes woody waste suitable for anaerobic digestion. Performances are disruptive: the digestion process speed is increased up to 75%, empowering the AD plant capacity by 3 times. The innovation allows to reach a profitability of biogas production from lignocellulosic waste material to be comparable with energy crops and makes convenient to convert the existing biogas plants using energy crops as feedstock to a BioFuel Fab fed by woody wastes, with a payback for the investment of 2.5 years.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

Update Date

27-10-2022
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.2. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP
H2020-EU.2.1. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
H2020-EU.2.1.0. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Cross-cutting calls
H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
H2020-EU.2.3. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
H2020-EU.2.3.0. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs - Cross-cutting calls
H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
H2020-EU.3. SOCIETAL CHALLENGES
H2020-EU.3.0. Cross-cutting call topics
H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1