A global approach for recovery of arable land through improved phytoremediation coupled with advanced liquid biofuel production and climate friendly copper smelting process

Phy2Climate will validate 5 phytoremediation pilots in Spain (South Europe), Serbia (Balkan region), Lithuania (Baltic region), Argentina (South America) and India (South Asia) at TRL-5. The selected contaminated sites represent the most common soil contaminants worldwide. The phytoremediation pilots will produce energy crops with none indirect Land Use Change (iLUC) issues.

The energy crops will feed a pilot biorefinery in Germany that combines cutting edge biomass processing technologies to produce 4 types of clean drop-in biofuels for the road and shipping transport sectors at TRL-5: EN 14214 biodiesel, ISO 8217 marine fuels, EN 590 diesel and EN 228 gasoline. Additionally, bio-coke will be also produced as substitution of petroleum coke in the metallurgical industry.

A significant cost reduction in factor >5 for phytoremediation compared with common remediation techniques is target together with conversion costs of drop-in biofuel production <0,45 €/l. The global biofuel production potential of the Phy2Climate approach is estimated up to 137 million m3 per year.

Furthermore, estimated specific Greenhouse Gas (GHG) mitigation of the produced drop-in biofuels is 149% compared with the fossil equivalents, resulting in a total saving potential of 500 Mega-tones CO2eq per year.

The work programme is divided in 7 work packages that are specifically designed to achieve the objectives of the project as well as to contribute to the Mission Innovation Challenge 4 and to 16 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Phy2Climate consortium unites 17 partners from 10 different countries with strong interdisciplinary expertise in the fields of project management, soil remediation & phytoremediation, advanced biofuel technologies, environmental and social sustainability, legal analysis, business development and communication &dissemination.

Additionally 11 stakeholders from 8 countries and at EU level have already expressed their interest in the project by a letter of support.