Last November 19th, 2019 more than 90 participants from academies and industries gathered together at the Expert Workshop on “Potential of Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) routes for biofuel production” in Brussels.

The workshop is the great result of a synergic cooperation among five Horizon 2020-funded projects –  . HyFlexFuel, WASTE2ROAD, 4refinery, NextGenRoadFuels, Heat to Fuel – and one research centre, the Norwegian National Centre Bio4Fuels, all counting on HTL as one among or the key conversion technologies that, within a virtuous circular economy pattern, can guarantee the production of novel, cost-effective biofuels.

IEA Bioenergy Task 33 featured the event on its latest newsletter underlying the purpose of the event to bring together research, commercialization and policy communities on HTL, and to set a benchmark for the current state-of-the-art, the major and most pertinent challenges to implementation, and the future potential of the technology.

Some of the major challenges for commercialization and implementations identified and discussed during the workshop included the aqueous phase and its safe/efficient handling, efficient process implementations and corrosion-resistive materials as well as the common theme of a need for an effective carbon pricing scheme.

Read IEA Bioenergy Task 33 newsletter here