Sustainable drop-in transport fuels from hydrothermal liquefaction of low value urban feedstocks-nextgenroadfuels project

The NextGenRoadFuels Horizon 2020 project, started in November 2018, will prove the Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) pathway as an efficient route to produce high-volume, cost-competitive drop-in synthetic gasoline and diesel fuels as well as other hydrocarbon compounds.In NextGenRoadFuels, biogenic urban resources such as sewage sludge from treated wastewater, food waste and construction wood waste, will be co-processed into single hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) facilities. The feedstock flexibility of advanced HTL technology and state-of-the-art upgrading techniques will be applied to this low-value urban waste, in order to obtain cost-competitive, high volume, sustainable drop-in quality synthetic gasoline and diesel fuels. The project will support the SET Plan Key Action 8 on renewable fuels, contributing to the renewable-energy-in-transport target and to the GHG emissions reduction objectives, in line with the Renewable Energy Directives (RED II) and the European Energy Roadmap 2050. The produced diesel will be compatible with EN 590; the same for gasoline with EN 228. The GHG reduction is expected to be higher than 70% compared to fossil equivalents by efficient supercritical HTL and upgrading by in-situ electrocatalytic H2 generation. © 2019 ETA-Florence Renewable Energies.