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  • F-CUBED
    Future Feedstock Flexible Carbon Upgrading to Bio Energy Dispatchable carriers
  • F-CUBED
    “Modifying the perception of biogenic residues from burdens to valuable bioenergy resources”
  • F-CUBED
    “Contributing to increase the flexibility of the energy system through the production of bioenergy
    from biogenic residues that are not interfering with food or feed products.”

f-CUBED project

The objective is to develop an advanced process concept for the hydrothermal conversion of a broad range of low quality biogenic residues to superior intermediate bioenergy carriers (IEC) with fuel characteristics suitable for balancing the power grid, and to produce transportation and heavy industry fuels.

 

F-CUBED approach enables the overall validation of a feedstock flexible process, able to deal with variable feed characteristics, such as size, composition and pumpability.

 

The core technology will be scaled up from lab (TRL 3) to pilot scale (TRL 5).

Hydrothermal conversion of a broad range of low quality biogenic residues

Three types of biogenic residues will be treated: Paper Sludge from cardboard production, fruit & vegetables processing wastes from baby food production, and waste olive pomace from olive oil extraction.

Generally, biomass conversion technologies are developed for specific streams treatment and applications, being consequently limited in their feedstock flexibility and potential for dispatchable distributed power generation. The F-CUBED process has been designed to handle a wide range of biomasses, albeit all wet and difficult to dewater mechanically, and balance the features of different unit operations, in order to meet the requirements of a feedstock flexible conversion technology.

Furthermore, F-CUBED goes beyond current thermochemical upgrading, through the integration of thermochemical biomass conversion with N-P-K recovery, liquid internal circulation anaerobic treatment and advanced dewatering of hydrothermal slurries.

What are the main targets of the research?

Performance

Increasing energy density (at least to 5.5 GJ/m3) and fuel characteristics (complying with ISO/TS 17225‐8:2016-TA3 specifications) of biogenic residues through hydrothermal processing with an energy yield of 50%.

Scaling-up

Making and using a minimum of 100 kg (dry matter) of IEC in a relevant industrial environment, for power generation and syngas production for biomass-to-liquids conversion processes.

Recovery

Validating the parallel recovery of specific value-added products for each industrial case (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, terpenes and olive pomace oil recovery).

Efficiency

Showing at least a 30% improvement on residue processing costs, while obtaining GHG emission savings of at least 60% in using the IEC for heat and power generation.

Heterogeneous streams

Validating experimentally the core process by using continuous hydrothermal reactor (20 kg/hr) and dewatering pilots, in a relevant industrial environment on 3 representative side streams, at Smurfit Kappa Pitea (Sweden, paper sludge), Go Delafruit (Spain, fruit and vegetable wastes) and APPO (Italy, waste olive pomace).

Let’s explore our sinergies

We seek collaboration with other EU projects, platforms and initiatives in order to organize events, share information and boost the dissemination of our results. Let’s explore our synergies.

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F-CUBED is a research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, under the topic LC-SC3-RES-16-2019 “Development of solutions based on renewable sources that provide flexibility to the energy system” of the call H2020-LC-SC3-2019-NZE-RES-CC.

F-CUBED main objective is to validate the flexible conversion of biogenic residue to intermediate bioenergy carriers, at TRL5. It will evaluate the use of these intermediate bioenergy carriers as a feedstock to increase the flexibility of the power grid, and to produce transportation and heavy industry fuels. It will target residues that do not compete with land that is applicable to food or feed production. This overall objective will be achieved by meeting specific objectives in the technological, economic and sustainability domains.

The project, through a systemic and multidisciplinary approach, will develop and validate, in an industrial environment, methods to increase the efficiency of bio-based value chains and to establish new supply and value chains in the bio-based economy. The project will involve actors covering the whole value and supply chains in order to promote a better management of resources, increase the added value of agro/food and paper by-products and waste streams ultimately improving the cascading use of bio-based resources.

Our ambition is to validate a game-changing biomass thermochemical process technology, to enable the production of intermediate bioenergy carriers with superior and uniform fuel properties from biogenic residues, without using higher quality fuels heating.

F-CUBED process will suppose and advancement in the state of the art on hydrothermal treatment of lignocellulosic and biological residues, mechanical dewatering of biogenic suspensions, N-P-K recovery via acid leaching and precipitation, anaerobic treatment of organic effluents, pelleting for combustion and gasification and briquetting for ironmaking.

We look for professionals interested in taking advantage of F-CUBED technology at industrial level. We look for researchers and professionals interested in exploring the possibilities of the project results for further research or industrial applications. Also, the joint organization of dissemination events seem a very efficient option to us. Let’s give us the opportunity to take the best advantage of the research effort, talking about our synergies.

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