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Writing / Irene Vega
The BIOCTANE project aims to develop and optimize an innovative process in the manufacture of biofuels for aviation. The challenge is to convert organic waste materials with a high water content, such as food waste or organic material from the food processing industry, into market-ready, low-carbon footprint jet fuels.
The main novelty of this project is that it involves hybrid processes and multifunctional catalysts, helping to implement renewable, sustainable, safe and competitive energy technologies in Europe. In addition, thanks to BIOCTANE, the use of advanced biofuels will be promoted and will have a direct impact on strategic areas such as air transport. “Our purpose in the BIOCTANE project is to make aviation more sustainable by using organic waste as a resource. The whole team is highly motivated and eager to work hard to obtain new and insightful results”, explains Patricia Pizarro de Oro, project coordinator.
The Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) is one of the six associated research institutions to develop this new way of producing sustainable aviation fuels (SAF, for its acronym in English). Sustainable Aviation Fuel). The BIOCTANE consortium is coordinated by the IMDEA Energy Foundation and the project is also part of the National Research Institute for Agriculture, L'Alimentation Et L'Environment (INRAE) of France, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) of Switzerland, the Institutes for Technological Microbiology and for Environmental Technology and Energy Economics at the Technical University of Hamburg, and the Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany. Specifically, the URJC Chemical and Environmental Engineering group, in collaboration with researchers from the IMDEA Energy Foundation, will be in charge of developing multifunctional catalysts for the transformation of chemical compounds obtained in previous biotechnological processes into a mixture of hydrocarbons for be employed in aviation.
The BIOCTANE project, whose full name is "Synergistic integration of biotechnological, catalytic and thermochemical processes for the cascade conversion of organic waste into aviation fuels", is funded by the program Horizon europe from the European Union with a grant of almost 3 million euros.