CRONUS: Developing innovative processes for biofuel generation in Europe

On 12 & 13 December 2022, CRONUS project kick off was held in Athens. CRONUS is an HORIZON Europe project that aims to accelerate on the path to sustainable bioenergy and play an important and constructive role in achieving the UN SDGs by incorporating in the biofuels value chain carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CUS) techniques promoting the decarbonisation of the EU economy in accordance to European Green Deal goals. A wide spectrum of biogenic gases CUS technologies (enzymatic capture of CO2, autotrophic algae cultivation, biological CO2 hydrogenation, syngas biomethanation, in-situ biomethanation, biogenic carbon storage by biochar production and soil application). Evaluation of the technical, economic, environmental and social sustainability of the project solutions and services will be performed by exploitation of the latest up-to-date tools, with special emphasis on the sustainability and circularity of the project. A roadmap to market the technologies and services with a strategy to address market segmentation, penetration barriers and opportunities will be drawn. Public and scientific awareness of the project will be raised and all relevant stakeholders will be actively involved in the co-design, co-development and co-implementation of the possible pathways for biogenic effluent gases capture and utilization within the biofuels value chain. CRONUS’ impactful exploitation plan will facilitate the strategic planning of net-negative biofuel production supply chains considering the integration of CRONUS technologies and the results of the sustainability assessment, emphasizing the CO2 footprint, cost-efficiency, and scalability