Population growth drives up local demand for food and energy resources and induce a negative impact on the ecosystems due to waste accumulation and greenhouse gas emissions. Slaughterhouses produce large amounts of solid and liquid waste, containing a high organic load, which constitutes a threat to ecosystems and a risk to human health. Their management is even more challenging as it is complicated by the overconsumption of water. The blood, stomach contents, urine and faeces of the animals and possibly other organic constituents are drained with the cleaning water to the sewage system. Because the slaughterhouse waste (SHW) contains large amounts of fats, proteins, lipids, and organic matter, it becomes a potential source for producing biogas (methane), biohydrogen and other value-added products. The bioenergy produced can support addressing rural population energy needs in rural areas, and energy self-sufficiency for slaughterhouses. In this context, an integrated approach will be developed to overcome these environmental and socio-economic problems and to develop effective strategies to recover and valorize effluent streams for applications mainly in energy production. The BIOTHEREP project which is mainly within topic 1 and 5 of the call, aims to develop an integrated strategy to produce bioenergy from slaughterhouses wastes, and to implement solutions responding concretely to the global and regional objectives of sustainable development in a circular economy aspect. The BIOTHEREP approach combines biochemical (BCC) and thermochemical conversion (TCC) (pyrolysis, gasification) processes to produce renewable energies. The obtained solid digestate from BCC will be processed by a TCC to produce biochar by pyrolysis, and syngas by gasification. The biochar will be used as a precursor for improving CH4 and H2 production, and for in-situ CO2 removal. Syngas (mainly H2 and CO) could be used as a fuel to produce thermal energy. This hybrid system outputs are contributing to the bioenergy production, and they are good local and regional alternatives to imported activated carbons and conventional energy sources. The use of the proposed approach will be justified in the context of ensuring economically and environmentally sustainable development both at the regional and international levels. The mechanism for such an assessment will be based on an integrated approach, including a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the internal and external sustainability of the proposed project. The integrated approach will be developed in collaboration between the eleven R&D institutions from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, Italy, Germany and France, including two private companies from Germany and South Africa. It will be implemented under eight Work Packages (WP) for 24 months. Each partner will be responsible for its own WP or task and could be involved in other WPs led by other partners to ensure synergy between the teams.

Biomass is the primary energy source in African countries, used mostly as wood fuel and charcoal for home cooking, lighting and heating. Liquid fuels (e.g., ethanol, biodiesel, and straight vegetable oil) account for a small share of total energy supplies, but have been used for almost three dec-ades, and production is increasing. Biofuels offer the prospect of increased employment, a new cash crop for farmers, reduced fuel import costs, and increased foreign exchange earnings. Rapid increase in the biofuels’ global demand over the next decade or more will provide opportunities for African exporters, as neither the EU nor the US are expected to be able to meet their consumption completely from domestic production. African countries are well placed to benefit from the in-creased biofuels demand, as many have large areas of land suitable for producing biofuels, as well as abundant labour. The domestic biofuels market is also expected to be attractive in many African countries due to high fuel prices and rapid demand growth, and offers better opportunities for smallholder participation in producing biofuel crops. Biomass pyrolysis is a thermal process con-verting solid biomass, in absence of air/oxygen, at elevated temperatures, into a gaseous stream, a liquid stream (biooil) and a solid product (biochar). Although subject to significant research in the recent years, the biofuels production from biomass pyrolysis is not yet fully developed with respect to its commercial applications. PyroBioFuel aims, thus, to create a unique knowledge infrastructure that supports decentralised, sustainable, and cost-efficient conversion of biomass to sustainable fuels, and is relevant to both Europe and Africa. The consortium involves five partners from Africa (Egypt, Morocco, South Africa) and Europe (Germany, France). The project targets development of new technologies that overcome technological barriers, increase process efficiency, and reduce marginal costs in the biomass to fuel conversion process. The proposed project focuses on the sustainable biomass waste conversion into useful liquid fuels and biochar through pyrolysis. The biomass feedstock varies according to participating countries and season, ranging from virgin biomass, waste biomass and energy crops, e.g., agricultural waste, sugarcane bagasse, corn stover, wheat husks, wood wastes, rice straws, sawmill, paper mill dis-cards, etc. Fast pyrolysis optimisation, development of processes to convert pyrolysis’ products to fuels, and model-based decision-making tools to support process development and performance validation are representing the main objectives of the proposal. This will be achieved through robust pyrolysis technologies delivering constant product quality, and unique catalytic units based on integrated Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) and hydrocracking reactor (HCR) microreactors (MCRs) that can be flexibly implemented for compact and efficient biofuel processing. Process modelling will be per-formed to fully understand the chemical kinetics, flow dynamics along with heat and mass transfer throughout the process. This will be followed by process optimisation and integration to achieve the highest process efficiency. Profitability of the integrated process will be assessed, and the envi-ronmental impact will be evaluated. The programme involves 5 working packages (WPs) integrated together to enhance the biomass to fuel conversion pathway using novel conversion technologies and innovative digital tools. They include pyrolysis and pyrolysis product conditioning, upgrading and valorisation of pyrolysis prod-ucts, mathematical modelling, optimisation, and analysis of the pyrolysis to fuel conversion pro-cess, techno-economic and environmental (LCA) studies, and a validation demonstrator.