HIGFLY Feedstock Workshop

On February 3rd 2022, the HIGFLY consortium members gathered together for a Feedstock Workshop led by Susanne Köppen from work package 5 leaders IFEU.

The objectives of the workshop were to discuss feedstock availability and pre-treatment processes, biorefinery concepts and provide a comprehensive overview of feedstock suitability and performance.

All discussions were within the context of the technical, economic and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) suitability. In other words, which feedstocks, technical processes and biorefinery concepts are technically, economically and environmentally viable and sustainable in order to ensure that the potential HIGFLY products adhere to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) suitability criteria, EU environmental and sustainability regulations but will also be competitive within the biofuels market.

Obviously, these are not straightforward questions to answer as, for example, the most economical, abundant feedstock may not perform well during testing or may not meet sustainability criteria etc. Therefore, the major challenge going forward for the HIGFLY project is for the partners to communicate and collaborate effectively, map out all the possible scenarios and discern the pathways with the greatest potential to improve process efficiency by reducing energy consumption whilst simultaneously meeting all SAF and EU criteria and regulations.

It is for these reasons that workshops like this are so vital in projects like HIGFLY where external stakeholders, products and regulators can have a significant impact on the process. It reinforces the need that every member of the project is aware of these scenarios and can adjust and manage accordingly.

Again, a special thanks to IFEU for organising and leading the workshop and ensuring that it was an informative and productive one.