CLEVER-FUEL · Advanced CataLysts for H2-free hydrodeoxygenation - a rEVolutionary approach Enabling pRactical biomass upgrading to bioFUEL

CLEVER-FUEL proposes a revolutionary approach for low-carbon fuels production paving the way for a direct “waste to biofuels” conversion strategy. The project will develop a completely novel route to produce deoxygenated hydrocarbons – highly important chemical compounds in the biofuel and biochemical industries - via designing of advanced catalysts for the H2-free hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) process. This ground-breaking route take the edge over current biomass upgrading approaches which rely on high-pressure hydrogen – an expensive resource whose manipulation, transport and storage imposes serious limitations and represent a bottleneck to the commercial deployment of this technology. CLEVER-FUEL will create new chemistry and reaction engineering concepts to circumvent this handicap by using the cheapest and safest possible hydrogen source: water. The overriding goal is to create a new conversion pathway by using water as hydrogen donor and advanced multifunctional catalysts able to catalyse water reduction and hydrodeoxygenation simultaneously yielding oxygen-free biofuels. Such multifunctionality resolves the problem of oxygen-rich bio-compounds upgrading in a single reactor under mild conditions and avoiding the external supply of high-pressure hydrogen thus opening a completely new research avenue for biomass conversion technologies. CLEVER-FUEL will combine unique multifunctional catalysts with advanced operando characterisation techniques to provide a rational strategy for catalysts design. In addition, novel reactor concepts based on microchannel catalytic systems will be implemented to facilitate process intensification.CLEVER-FUEL represents a forward-thinking concept in catalysis and reaction engineering and it is conceived to open new horizons in bioenergy research unlocking the potential of biofuels and offering catalytic solutions to big society challenges in the pursuit of a low-carbon future.