SUSTAINABLE JET FUELS FROM CO2 BY MICRO-ALGAL CELL FACTORIES IN A ZERO WASTE APPROACH

ALFAFUELS proposes a novel Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) production technology that can play a major role in the decarbonisation of the aviation sector by replacing conventional fossil fuels in mid and long-term. ALFAFUELS contributes to climate change mitigation, energy transition, and on the establishment of a circular bio-based economy by providing a direct capture and utilisation of CO2, by developing cost-effective and sustainable technological solutions in all process steps, and by providing integration possibilities with other sectors. The project’s aim is to tackle the key challenges preventing SAF technologies to reach technological maturity and commercialisation such as the high current production cost, sustainability issues associated with their production, technological constraints (yields and efficiencies). To that end, ALFAFUELS includes targeted technological breakthroughs, such as the microbial production of a volatile fuel precursor from CO2, the upgrade to kerosene-type jet fuel molecules in ambient conditions using solar light-driven photochemistry, and the valorisation of all cell components in a biorefinery approach to co-produce starch and H2 (indirectly from CO2) as an important intermediate. The proposed technological novelties are combined with modelling approaches to maximize efficiencies, to optimize the overall process regarding cost and energy consumption and to evaluate the process with combined techno-economic and life cycle assessments. The project lifts the production technologies at TRL5, by including the design of novel cost-efficient bioreactors, pilot scale trials on real, industrially relevant CO2 streams and evaluation of the produced molecules against ASTM standards. To further accelerate the upscaling of ALFAFUELS, we analyse the systemic barriers and opportunities for the implementation of SAF technologies in Europe, using modelling tools and capitalizing from the participation of industrial end-users in the consortium.