The National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain (CENER), one of the 11 project partners of NextGenRoadFuels, develops applied research in renewable energies, and provides technological support to companies and energy institutions in six areas: wind, solar thermal and photovoltaic solar energy, biomass, smart and efficient buildings and districts, and grid integration of energy.
CENER Biomass Department performs applied research activities in the field of biomass, providing R&D services and technical assistance to all agents of the sector. The department is focused on the development & optimization of production processes of bioproducts, solid biofuels, advanced liquid or gaseous biofuels, as well as biorefinery concepts. Its main pillars are focused on solid biofuels, bioprocesses and comprehensive sustainability assessment.
In the framework of NextGenRoadFuels project, CENER focuses on the reduction of organic nitrogen content in sewage sludge prior to the HTL process. This activity is being implemented, on one hand, by pretreating sewage sludge at mild conditions by employing enzymes as catalysts for proteins removal and, on the other, by studying the best mixture (in terms of total solid content of sewage sludge with other urban wastes) for the HTL process.