SUREWAVE will develop and test an innovative concept of Floating Photo-Voltaic (FPV) system consisting of an external floating breakwater structure acting as a protection against severe wave-wind-current loads on the FPV modules, allowing increased operational availability and energy output, thus unlocking the massive deployment of Offshore FPV. It will be focused on the research for securing optimal behaviour at aero & hydrodynamic and structural integrity level of the external breakwater, the internal FPV modular structure, the connections, the mooring and anchoring and the whole FPV system, complying with mechanical, electrical (maximizing energy output) and cost-efficiency requirements, ensuring high lifetime of critical components, high reliability of the system and easy, quick and cost-efficient, construction, installation and O&M of the whole system. This will require: 1) the development of novel circular concrete material solutions for the breakwater, cost-effective, easy to produce and with high mechanical, physical and durability properties and low CO2 footprint. 2) the development of an advanced predictive computational modelling and simulation framework: coupled aero & hydrodynamic modelling, Structural integrity modelling, material properties modelling and Structural Health Management to reduce CAPEX and OPEX; 3) the design and implementation of an optimal testing and validation methodology for offshore FPV system to achieve TRL5, including lab testing, basin-model testing and marine environment testing of critical components assuring high resilience to corrosion and biofouling. Maximum advantage of existing expertise will be taken from experts in: offshore wind floating structures, material and phenomena modelling (SINTEF, MARIN, CEIT), design and installation of FPV in calm waters (SIS), floating solutions (CLEMENT), circular structural and non-structural materials (ACC) and in social, environmental and economic assessment (IFEU).

The aim of the SEEMLA project is the reliable and sustainable exploitation of biomass from marginal lands (MagL), which are used neither for food nor feed production and are not posing an environmental threat. The main target groups are regional authorities and public or private owners of MagLs, who can provide knowledge on land availability and are responsible for managing these. Furthermore foresters, farmers and the civil society affected by transformation of MagL into energy crop plantations are important cooperation partners for the project’s success. The initial challenge of the project is to define MagL. In order to achieve high yields on the MagL the goal is to develop and optimize cropping systems for special sites. The project focuses both on existing plantations of energy crops on MagL and on the establishment of new plantations on MagLs. General guidelines and manuals shall attract and help relevant stakeholders as well as piloting shall prove the feasibility of SEEMLA results. The first scenario will enable the assessment of good practice and the refinement of current practices, making them more sustainable (environmental, economic, social). The second approach will transfer good practices to underused MagL. The project will focus on three main objectives: the promotion of re-conversion of MagLs for the production of bioenergy through the direct involvement of farmers and foresters, the strengthening of local small scale supply chains and the promotion of plantations of bioenergy plants on MagLs. Moreover the expected impacts are: Increasing the production of bioenergy, farmers’ incomes, investments in new technologies and the design of new policy measures. The project team is balanced between scientific and technical partners as well as national and regional organisations. By including partners from South-East, Eastern and Central Europe the knowledge transfer between regions of different climatic and political backgrounds can be established.

The EU targets at replacing 10% of all transport fossil fuels with biofuels by 2020 to reduce the dependence on petroleum through the use of nationally, regionally or locally produced biofuels, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the EU is concerned with the questionable sustainability of the conventional biofuels and the unattractive production costs of second and third generation biofuels. The BioMates project aspires to contribute to the drastic increase of non-food/feed biomass utilisation for the production of greener transportation fuels via an effective and sustainable new production pathway. The project will validate the proposed innovative technology which has the potential of over 49 million tons CO2-eq savings, at least 7% crude oil imports reduction which corresponds to over 7 billion € savings for EU, while indicating its socio-economic, environmental and health expected benefits. The main premise of the BioMates project is the cost-effective and decentralized valorization of residual (straw) and nonfood (Miscanthus) biomass for the production of bio-based products of over 99% bioenergy content. The bio-based products’ targeted market is the EU refining sector, utilizing them as a bio-based co-feed of reliable, standardizable properties for underlying conversion units, yielding high bio-content hybrid fuels which are compatible with conventional combustion systems. The BioMates approach is based on innovative non-food/feed biomass conversion technologies, including ablative fast pyrolysis and mild catalytic hydrotreating, while incorporating state-of-the-art renewable H2-production technology as well as optimal energy integration. The proposed pathway for decarbonizing the transportation fuels will be demonstrated via TRL5 units, allowing the development of an integrated, sustainability-driven business case encompassing commercial and social exploitation strategy.

HIGFLY will develop the next generation of technologies for the production of advanced bio jet fuels from abundant and sustainable biomass feedstocks. In a nutshell, HIGFLY: 1. Utilises abundant and sustainable feedstocks (e.g. second-generation biomass and macroalgae), focusing on feedstock flexibility and synergies across the bioenergy sector. 2. Develops innovative, highly-efficient and scalable reactor and separation technologies to produce advanced bio jet fuels in a resource, energy and cost-effective manner. 3. Develops new and robust catalytic materials and sustainable solvents for the renewable energy sector. 4. Advances the knowledge of its innovative technologies by evaluation of the entire value chain (from feedstock(s) to bio jet fuel) to demonstrate the environmental, social and techno-economic performance of HIGFLY technologies and the prospect of regulatory compliance of HIGFLY’s bio jet fuel. HIGFLY will develop and demonstrate in a step-wise approach and under industrially relevant conditions (at TRL3-4) innovative and highly efficient conversion technologies and integrative approaches to valorise abundant and sustainable feedstocks in a resource-, energy- and cost-effective manner. This has the unique potential to increase the total share of advanced biofuels in the EU jet fuel market. In this way, HIGFLY addresses EU priorities for decarbonizing the transport sector through the key actions of the EU SET Plan, specifically: i) by sustaining technological leadership through development of highly performant renewable technologies and their integration in the EU energy system; ii) by reducing the cost of key technologies through maximizing resource and energy efficiency; and iii) by strengthening market uptake through intensive early-stage cooperation between key end-users, policy advisors and technology developers. The HIGFLY consortium combines experts along the entire value chain, from research to end users, to accelerate market uptake.