The overall objective of WEDISTRICT is to demonstrate DHC as an integrated solution that exploits the combination of RES, thermal storage and waste heat recycling technologies to satisfy 100% of the heating and cooling energy demand in new DHC and up to 60-100% in retrofitted DHC. For this purpose, the focus of WEDISTRICT is large-scale replication of best practice: better valorisation of local resources, like renewable and waste heat by making District Heating and Cooling networks more efficient in relation to the use of new resources. In parallel, systems will evolve to provide even more flexible solutions by the integration of innovative molten-salts based thermal storage, the interaction with other energy networks (electricity and gas) and the involvement of end-users (operators and consumers) through ICT-based control and decision making. Finally, to enable significant expansion, cost-effectiveness will be enhanced by transitioning from handicraft to more industrialised solutions that integrate LEAN methodologies to optimise processes and lower costs.

Among solutions to reach an EU net zero emissions economy by 2050, advanced biofuels have the potential to save several gigatons of CO2 emission per year. However, their development is hampered by a complex feedstock to be processed, the massive investments needed for each new refinery unit, the lack of certification for market adoption and above all, social acceptance of the biofuel production itself. REFOLUTION will tackle these limitations by delivering a cost-effective production (reduction of CAPEX by 50% and OPEX by 45%) of advanced biofuels for the aviation and marine sectors via a process that can be implemented in existing European refineries. REFOLUTION will demonstrate the transformation of bio-oils produced from fast pyrolysis (FP) into advanced biofuels, through intermediate process steps (stabilisation, fractionation) combined with downstream co-processing technologies at different levels of severities (temperature, hydrogen consumption, carbon yield) for targeting different applications: Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) co-processing for aviation (TRL7) and marine sectors, and hydrotreating for marine (TRL6). REFOLUTION is gathering 14 leading EU entities covering the full biofuel value chain to deploy risk-mitigation pathways for successful implementation into existing refineries. The project will deliver a comprehensive toolbox of models, standards, social assessment and exploitation pathways for interfacing with current refinery models and available documentation for further replication in other existing refineries, from a dozen in 2030 several hundred pyrolysis units delivering bio-feedstocks to the 90+ refineries in 2050.

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are the only short-term alternative to fossil fuels in aviation. Considering the increased number of passengers forecasted in the near future, a massive increased in SAF production has been estimated in the years to come. To fulfill this increase in demand, the combination of existing and new renewable production chains is needed. Current SAF-producing pathways are at different levels of maturity, implementation or even commercialization. However, lowering the cost and supply chain development are key challenges for commercial-scale SAF deployment. Using biowastes as feedstock for SAF is challenging but necessary to make SAF competitive with fossil fuels. In this context, yeasts may be key players to generate economically-viable SAF intermediates (terpenes or fatty acids (FA)) in an environmentally-friendly way from biowaste. This SAF production by biological means is very new and presents a lot of remaining challenges and training gaps that have to be addressed. YAF research programme aims at; i) producing carbon sources from biowastes, ii) developing new yeast cell factories to produce SAF, iii) designing new bifunctional catalysts, iv) achieving efficient strategies for FA/terpenes extraction, and v) creating robust framework tailored to the scaling-up methodologies and life-cycle sustainability assessment of different SAF producing routes, which will support decision-making. To achieve this, the right integration of biology, biotechnology, chemical engineering and environmental sciences will be required. Thus, the prime training/networking aim of YAF is to train the next generation of researchers in a highly interdisciplinary and intersectorial research environment such that they can soundly address upcoming challenges concerning production yeast-based SAF. YAF has been designed to strengthen European research and innovation, enhancing research visibility and generating a critical mass to address European (and global) challenges

In the past there have been a number of semi-industrial trials and even commercial processes to obtain on-purpose petrochemical feedstocks from methane and/or propane (more generally, C1-C4 hydrocarbons). However, their commercial success has been limited due to several reasons: from technical drawbacks (low conversions and selectivity) to economics (high capital investment and high operation costs are often obtained). Furthermore there is a need for lowering the carbon footprint of gas and oil industry, i.e. refining industry, contributing to an evolving scenario of sustainable economy in such field. BIZEOLCAT is addressing the use of light alkanes as raw material for specialty chemical industry and not as feedstock for fuels in the current oil refining process, becoming part of this transition. BIZEOLCAT will aim developing 4 new processes of light alkanes (methane, propane and butane) conversion to olefins (propylene, butadiene) and to aromatics demonstrating higher performance, cost efficiency and environmental sustainability, using innovative methodologies for catalysts preparation and membrane reactor design. A refining company, TUPRAS, will run the pilot unit experiments. One large companies, CEPSA will validate propylene and benzene as part of TR5 validation. sLCA have demonstrated that the expected reduction in the greenhouse emissions related to the manufacturing of propane dehydrogenation developed within the project and also the Aromatization process in comparison to current Oleflex® and benzene production from a reformate plant is far over the target value of 20%. A joint venture creation is part of BIZEOLCAT exploitation plan. The BIZEOLCAT consortium comprises 12 partners: 2 technology centres, 2 research institutes, 2 universities, 1 Standardization body, 1 international association and finally 3 large industries and 1 SME from 8 countries (6 EU members, 2 associated countries to H2020)