Decarbonising & reducing aviation dependence on fossil fuel requires biofuels. BIO4A will produce at least kt of sustainable biojet for its use in aviation at commercial scale for accelerating its deployment within the aviation sector, increasing their attractiveness and contributing to the achievement of the EU targets. BIO4A targets HEFA pathway from wastes, aiming to move the full value chain from TLR 6 to 7. BIO4A will demonstrate the full value chain, enabling a production capacity of 2-300 kt/y of biojet in a First Of A Kind new biorefinery in France. The fuel will be distributed using the existing infrastructures and conventional aircraft fuelling systems for commercial flights. Special attention will be directed to the supply of sustainable feedstock, focusing on waste streams (UCO). In parallel, long-term R&D work will address marginal land in EU MED (low ILUC biofuels). Relevant environmental (inc. GHG and energy balance), economic and social data (inc. health and safety issues, impacts and benefits) will be assessed against targets. Since the current main barrier to the commercial production of biojet is the price gap, BIO4A will explicitly address performance and cost targets vs. relevant key performance indicators. The final goal is to prove the business case, identifying potential issues of public acceptance, market or regulatory risks and barriers (feedstock, technological, business, process) along the entire value chain, taking advantage of previous projects and proposing potential mitigation solutions. Offtake agreements have been signed with KLM and Airfrance. Additional off-take agreements could also be signed to open the participation to more airlines. Regulatory framework is also limiting today the development of the sector and an additional goal is recommendations to policies makers. The proposal will be defined at EU/National level, involving the major sector stakeholders and opening with a profitable dialogue with Member States and the EC.

The main objective of the BECOOL (EU) and BioVALUE (Brazil) projects is to strengthen EU-Brazil cooperation on advanced lignocellulosic biofuels. Information alignment, knowledge synchronization, and synergistic activities on lignocellulosic biomass production logistics and conversion technologies are key targets of both projects and will bring mutual benefits. Both projects are structured in 3 main pillars covering in a balanced way the whole range of activities of the biofuels value chain (biomass production, logistics, conversion and exploitation). The BECOOL consortium is composed by 14 partners from universities, research institutes, large industries/SMEs, from 7 EU countries. Together with improved logistics, the establishment of the BECOOL innovative cropping systems will enable to increase biomass feedstock availability by at least 50% without negatively impacting food production, soil quality, and customary land uses. The improvements in gasification process efficiency of new feedstocks will allow to achieve an optimal gas quality from non-conventional sources (e.g. lignocellulosic crops and residues). The use of energy carrier in gasification will allow to overcome a major logistics barriers for low-energy density feedstock, while the valorization of lignin-rich residues will dramatically improve the energy efficiency of the overall value chain. Technological breakthroughs on pre-treatment, hydrolysis and enzymatic saccharification and fermentation steps will increase the competitiveness of biochemical advanced ethanol. The cross-project model benchmarking, carried out between EU and Brazil, will decrease present limitations on growth, logistics and process academic models, making them more reliable, opening opportunities for business, new jobs, reduced land pressure, and enhanced environmental benefits in EU and Brazil.

Biomethane is expected to contribute towards the decarbonisation of the EU energy system as a renewable gas. Its contribution strongly depends on the market & policy environment & on societal acceptance. Member State policies are often inadequate and not tailored to market needs. The objective of GreenMeUp is facilitating the wider market uptake of biomethane in the European energy and transport sectors by strengthening the market in countries with slow development rates. The work is structured in 6 WP. In WP1 framework conditions and market dynamics for bioCH4 will be analysed in the top 10 advanced European countries and in selected 5 MI countries. The analysis will address all production routes, feedstocks and end-uses. The technological developments for bioCH4 production and use, and feedstock availability will be addressed. Similar work will be carried out at national level for 7 selected European target countries (Greece, Spain, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, and a region in Danube) with low developments in WP2. As a result, comprehensive overviews of the existing market situation and future market trends in Europe and in each of the selected countries will be produced. In WP3, stakeholders engagement and societal acceptance will be assured, with the involvement of relevant actors representing all stages of the bioCH4 value chains through science-based evidence and tools. In WP4, market uptake policy measures and financial frameworks will be designed, that will allow the bioCH4 markets to operate efficiently in the advanced and target countries where results could be replicated. The interaction of work from all WPs will steer the development of more informed and targeted policies in the target countries and support them in building a robust, incentive-compatible bioCH4 market, in their final energy consumption by 2030 and beyond. In WP5, dissemination & communication will target all key policy &decision makers & market actors. WP6 aims at management.