On 13th of April, the Maison Irène et Frédéric Joliot Curie in Brussels hosted an in-person event organized by CEA titled “Sustainable and low carbon fuels and chemicals – Time for take-off”.

Sustainable and low carbon fuels will play an essential role in achieving the European Union’s ambitious energy transition objectives and reaching net zero by 2050. In particular, they will allow the defossilisation of industry sectors where electrification alone will not be sufficient.

Speakers and representatives from the European Commission and European organizations, from more than 10 Member States, from industry and from the research community joined the event to discuss around the currently hot topic of sustainable low carbon fuels and chemicals and the challenges ahead.

There was a great interest in attending the event, with more than 110 registrations. Approximately 60 individuals were invited to attend the event in person.

After an introductory speech by Mr. Cyril Piquemal, Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the European Union, the event was organized in three sessions covering the following aspects:

𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟭: 
The role of sustainable fuels and chemicals in the climate and energy transition, with talks by Bernd Kuepker (EC-DG ENER) and Tudy Bernier (CO2 Value Europe);

𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟮: 
Technology options and perspectives, with talks by Maria Georgiadou (EC-DG RTD), Thibault Cantat (CEA), Jack Legrand (CNRS), Jurriaan Boon (TNO) and Fleischer Maximilian (Siemens Energy);

𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟯:
Towards a synthetic fuels and chemicals value chain with talks by Nicolas JEULAND (Safran), Caterina Cobino (FINCANTIERI S.p.A.), Ivan Souček (Svaz chemického průmyslu ČR, z. s. – Association of the Chemical Industry in Czech Republic), Horzenberger Franz (ArcelorMittal) and Heidi Bergman (Renewable hydrogen, Neste Corporation).

Several speakers and attendees are directly involved or related to SUNERGY and SUNER-C, including Tudy Bernier (CO2 Value Europe), Fleischer Maximilian (Siemens Energy), Ivan Souček (Association of the Chemical Industry in Czech Republic) and Frederic Chandezon as co-organizer of the event and chair of session 2.

𝗔𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲-𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁:
Sustainable fuels and chemicals will be necessary to reach the EU’s energy and climate objectives;

Considering the huge electricity amounts required to produce them, there is a need for prioritization of the use of such fuels and chemicals in hard-to-abate sectors, like the chemical industry, the aviation and maritime transport sectors;

Technology alone will not allow the Union to reach its energy and climate objectives and it needs to be complemented by energy efficiency and sustainability as core objectives.

Photo Credit: MIFJC/CEA

Feb 8, 2023 | News, SUNER-C

Prof. Bert Weckhuysen from the Utrecht Univeristy, SUNER-C coordinator talks about circular chemistry

This morning, Professor Bert Weckhuysen was interviewed by Business AM Belgium on circular chemistry and how we are going to achieve this. 

“If we can use CO2 waste to make our materials, that’s the future”

You can listen to the full interview in dutch following this link.

The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) was published by the European Commission on 14 October 2020 as EU’s zero pollution ambition within the EU Green Deal. The EU already has sophisticated chemicals laws in place, but global chemicals production is expected to double by 2030. In this context, the CSS announces a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda in 2022, from which a Strategic Research and Innovation Plan (SRIP) has been delivered.

The SRIP highlights current research and innovation areas crucial for accelerating the transition to chemicals and materials that are safe and sustainable, from production to (re)use, disposal and pollution remediation. This document is the result of extensive consultations with expert groups. The aim is to guide R&I stakeholders in their decisions on investments across the EU, national and private funding programmes and inviting them to contribute to its implementation. In addition, the SRIP will be used in Horizon Europe overarching strategy.

Prof. Weckhuysen from the Utrecht Univeristy, SUNER-C coordinator talks about artificial photosynthesis in this interview

14th October 2022

Artificial photosynthesis: ‘The next step for sustainable energy’

Prof. Weckhuysen explains that the supply and demand of renewable energy often do not match – for example, there is not enough power from the solar panels in the winter, while the heat pumps, stoves and infrared heaters have to run then. Artificial photosynthesis offers an alternative, by directly storing the energy from sunlight in known fuels such as methane, petrol and kerosene, of which the emitted carbon dioxide can be reused. Weckhuysen calls it ‘the refinery of the future’.

He also describes recent discoveries and the field and talks about the EU recently launched CSA ‘SUNER-C‘, a 4 million euro project bringing together European companies, governments and researchers.

You can read the full interview in dutch following this link. Enjoy the reading!

The ‘black box’ of the Utrecht chemist Bert Weckhuysen: water, carbon dioxide and light go in, fuel comes out.

SUNER-C takes off heading to a fossil-free paradigm

The kick-off meeting of SUNER-C (EU-funded project) gathered actors from industry, academia and society to draw a European strategy on solar fuels and chemicals

6th October 2022

How can we achieve the EU’s goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050? Last 27th and 28th of September, 30 different EU partners gathered together to kick off SUNER-C, the EU-funded project (4M € over 3 years) on the next generation of energy carriers to replace fossil-fuels. The main objective is to build an ecosystem of companies, researchers, societal actors and policymakers, to accelerate the transition of technologies for the generation of solar fuels and chemicals, from the laboratory to large-scale industrial applications.

The European Union is clear to stay on a steady path to climate neutrality through its plan against greenhouse emissions, the ‘Fit for 55’ package, with the EU Green Deal as a blueprint. Unless deep cuts are made in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions, it will be very challenging to reach that goal. Renewable energy based on photovoltaics and wind energy needs to be supplemented with energy carriers to supply fuels to sectors and processes difficult to electrify and to create non-fossil carbon feedstock for the chemical industry. These so-called solar fuels and chemicals are most often analogous to their fossil counterparts and can be incorporated into the existing energy value chains with minimal adjustments to the existing infrastructure. These fuels are based on the transformation of abundant compounds, such as carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen, into synthetic fuels, chemicals and materials by using renewable energy.

The deputy coordinator of the project, Dr. Frédéric Chandezon, European policy officer at IRIG institute (CEA Grenoble), stated:

​“The SUNER-C European project will be the cornerstone to implement and validate the concept of an action coordinated at a European scale to accelerate the development of solar fuels and chemicals as a ramp-up phase from 2022 to 2025, and prepare the path to a large scale R&I initiative after 2025. As the contribution of the community is essential, many actions of the project will be done together with all stakeholders and with the European Commission and the Member States during the 3 years that the project will last.”

The SUNER-C consortium is a unique and balanced eco-system of 31 organisations, consisting of 13 academic partners, 13 industrial companies, 4 network federations, and 1 Non-Governmental Organisation. All representatives met last 27th and 28th of September in Brussels for the official launch of SUNER-C, which started on 1st June 2022. The aim of the kick-off meeting was the review, implementation, and update of the work plan set. Besides, it was a great opportunity for all partners to meet in person, network with colleagues, and work together to maximize the impact of the project. During the first day, SUNER-C work plan was reviewed through the presentation of each work package, guided by the leader and co-leaders of the working groups. Essentially, the SUNER-C consortium will work on the development of a strategic roadmap towards the broad implementation of solar fuels and chemicals, and supporting strategies for innovation and exploitation, with a firm focus on cross-cutting and socio-technical aspects. As Prof. Maximilian Fleischer, Chief Key Expert at Siemens Energy, commented:

​“Research is the transformation of money to knowledge, on the other hand, Innovation is the transformation of knowledge to money. Research is necessary but not a sufficient condition for innovation, thus our endeavor must lead to R&I in scalable technologies that are accepted by society and by investors, creating economic and environmental value”

On the second day, all the stakeholders were grouped in breakout sessions to discuss on the vision and timeline of each work package, how to implement it and to brain storm in new ideas. Furthermore, the roundtables facilitated communication at national/regional and expertise/sector levels. Through a holistic approach, SUNER-C will contribute to a circular economy by replacing fossil-derived fuels and chemicals with renewables and carbon recycling as a key element toward the EU net-zero emissions target by 2050.

​Would you like to grasp more about the SUNER-C KoM? Check all the information of this event:

• Agenda

• Twitter wrap-up

First steps towards a roadmap on renewable fuels and chemicals from solar energy

 The SUNERGY community [1], the European Innovation Council (EIC) and EU’s DG for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), joint forces last 14th and 15th of June to start working on a roadmap on solar fuels and chemicals.

The workshop involved keynote speakers, among our industrial and academic partners, along with representatives from the DG RTD. Besides, successful projects on solar fuel technologies were presented in innovation and industrial pitches chaired by the EIC members. Furthermore, fruitful debates were held in the form of roundtables discussing about the model of exploitation of solar conversion technologies. And most important, all the attendees had the chance to participate in the first design of a Strategic Roadmap on production of solar fuels and chemicals in the EU! All the participants were divided into working groups and think tanks so to pinpoint the main problems, state of the art and solutions offered by the different technologies.

Working groups with rolled up sleeves to work on the Strategic Roadmap

This workshop is the first of its kind under the SUNER-C programme, which is funded by the European Commission under Horizon Europe, to fulfill the objectives of SUNERGY’s community. The overarching objective of the SUNER-C project is to create an inclusive innovation community and ecosystem that builds on the current SUNERGY network and includes new stakeholders across Europe. This new action will be key for bringing together fundamental and applied knowledge from various sectors of the society, as well as often unique resources, on the road to prepare a large-scale European joint action. The goal is to overcome scientific, technological, organizational and socio-economic challenges, accelerate innovation in solar fuels and chemicals, and enable the transition of existing and future technologies from laboratory and demonstrator level to industrial-scale application.

Last but not least, THANK YOU!

We would like to thank all the participants who joined us for the Roadmapping Workshop! These enriching discussions are a solid first step towards shaping a Strategic Roadmap for the future of solar fuels and chemicals within the EU.

Would you like to grasp more about the Roadmapping Workshop? Check all the information of this event:

• Agenda

• Working groups

• Participating projects

• Twitter wrap-up

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​​[1] To date, this community gathers over 300 supporting organisations across and beyond Europe from academia, industry, civil society and governmental authorities. Information about SUNERGY can be found at: https://www.sunergy-initiative.eu

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