In 2020, global biofuel production levels reached 1,677,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day with a growth rate per annum of 38.3% (2009-2020). The global biofuels market is expected to reach a market size of 153.8 billion U.S. dollars by 2024. This growth has largely been driven by policies that encourage the use and production of biofuels due to the perception that it could provide energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in relevant sectors. Nevertheless, as the biofuel production rises steadily, biogenic emissions increase annually as well. By the end of 2021, cumulative biogenic emissions had reached 8.8*108 metric tons CO2e. The main routes of producing carbon waste, as biogenic effluent gases within the biofuel production are anaerobic digestion, ethanolic fermentation and thermochemical processes. To this end, CRONUS aims to accelerate on the path to sustainable bioenergy and can play an important and constructive role in achieving the UN SDGs (7,8,9,11,12 and 13) by incorporating in the biofuels production lines carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CUS) techniques promoting the concept of Bioenergy and Carbon capture, utilisation and storage. The latter can stand as a solution to meet the 2021 Glasgow agreement on climate change’s aim of less than 1,5οC and contributes to the phase-out of fossil fuels and the decarbonisation of the EU economy in accordance to European Green Deal goals.
Ambition
The overall ambition of the CRONUS project is to significantly advance the current state of the art in the area of biofuels production and the utilisation of biogenic effluent gases. CRONUS will introduce effective technologies with high-potential innovations (techno-economic feasible solutions), thus accelerating the green transition and associated transformation of our economy, industry and society with a view to achieving climate neutrality in Europe by 2050.
