- Fundación Valenciaport is involved in this initiative, that has a budget of around 10 million euros co-financed by the Horizon Europe programme
- During the project, fuels will be created from organic waste
Valencia, September 24th 2024. – The kick-off meeting of the renewable energy project SEAFAIRER, ‘Sustainable Energy and Alternative Fuels from Advanced Intermediate Renewable Energy carrieR technology’, has taken place this week in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The initiative, led by the Technical University of Denmark and in which Fundación Valenciaport is actively participating, has a budget of nearly 10 million euros, co-financed by the Horizon Europe programme of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).
Broadly speaking, the main objective of the project is to create sustainable fuels for use in maritime transport from organic waste.
These new fuels will help to reduce pollutant emissions in maritime transport, while complying with environmental regulations and allowing them to be blended with existing fuels or to replace them in the future.
To achieve this, three types of waste biomass will be used: rice husks from Valencia, bio-waste screening material from Bavaria and agave bagasse from southern Mexico. This biomass will be converted into biochar, crude oil (intermediate biofuel) and syngas through intermediate and post-reforming pyrolysis.
The high quality biochar will be certified as a carbon sink and will play a key role in maritime transport climate goals.
In the case of the biofuel intermediate, this will branch into two market entry routes, depending on whether it meets the needs of the industrial shipping sector immediately or in the medium to long term.
To meet the needs of the sector in the short term, direct blends (B10 to B30) of biofuel intermediates will be produced together with Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO).
To meet medium and long term demands, the biofuel will be upgraded by hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) in order to reach a pure drop-in fuel quality (B50 to B100), on par with marine gasoil.
Fundación Valenciaport will be responsible for a practical demonstration of the use of the intermediate biofuel together with low sulphur fuel oil in a test vessel in the Port of Valencia, as well as its monitoring; the feasibility study of the bunkering system and the establishment of a roadmap that will contribute to the scaling up of the solution, among others.
The SEAFAIRER Consortium
In addition to the Technical University of Denmark and Fundación Valenciaport, another 8 entities participate in SEAFAIRER: Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (UABIO), ETA-Florence Renewable Energies, Forschungszentrum für Verbrennungsmotoren und Thermodynamik Rostock GmbH (FVTR), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, KPMG & Associados, Petrogal, Tergy Sagava and Centro Mario Molina.
