Waste MANAGEment and organic WASTE valorisation to advanced biofuels

ManageWaste is a project that receives "Supplementary funding for Norwegian Participants in Horizon 2020 Projects". It is linked to a H2020 project, WASTE2ROAD, Biofuels from WASTE TO ROAD transport (W2R). The purpose of the NFR's supplementary funding is to increase the impact of Norway's participation in Horizon 2020 projects on society, including Norwegian municipalities and other public bodies, businesses, special interest organisations, Norwegian universities, university colleges and research institutes. Specifically, the funding covers targeted dissemination of WASTE2ROAD's project findings through activities, such as newsletters, workshops, participation at conferences, etc. WASTE2ROAD is a 4-year project which aims to develop advanced biofuels from selected low-cost, widely available and diverse biogenic wastes. The project has an ambitious scope covering the whole value chain from waste management and pre-treatment strategies in local regions, to bio-conversion (liquefaction) and co-refining, through to validation of the biofuels' end-use compatibility in engines and transport vehicles. One of the most important stages of the value chain is strategies and information on waste sorting and pre-treatment, looking at a wide variety of biogenic feedstocks (such as contaminated wood, food residues, and black liquor). The Waste2Road project has brought the conversion and upgrading technologies from today's TRL3-4 up to TRL5, through validation in relevant refinery environment. The project has established correlations between biofuel properties, the quality and properties of diverse renewable biogenic waste fractions and the relevant process parameters along the whole value chain, including sustainable hydrogen production. The study of these combinations will allow a unique understanding, correlating the influence of the nature and diversity of feedstock, and conditioning processes on the final products quality. This understanding will provide insight into synergetic effects, to permit a robust and reliable sustainability assessment of the environmental (in terms of GHG performance), economic and social benefits with respect to current technologies. The WASTE2ROAD activities in management and sorting strategies of various types of waste fractions for further upgrading is a valuable competence and experience that can be transferred to relevant actors in Norway, established through collaboration with waste management agencies in Norwegian municipalities and other interested stakeholders. The ManageWaste project has concentrated its resources on building networks and strong relationships with companies through direct contact, webinars, workshops, and events like Arendalsuka. This effort has not only created a robust network but also generated ideas that have evolved into projects and proposals. Two new EU projects, Refolution (started January 2023) and FUEL-UP (started January 2024), have already been funded and are directly related to Waste2Road. These initiatives demonstrate that the research on organic waste management and biofuels production conducted in collaboration with Norwegian actors extends beyond the project's primary collaborators, mainly SINTEF and EGE (now REG). Resources have also been allocated to promote and communicate SINTEF's expertise in municipal waste management and biofuels upgrading through newsletters and a promotional video. The results from WASTE2ROAD will continue to be disseminated through new centers and projects, as the findings are highly relevant to the ongoing green transition.

The ManageWaste project aims to unite key stakeholders in the fields of waste treatment and circular economy. By fostering robust networks, the project seeks to enhance business opportunities through cutting-edge research and the development of impactful collaboration projects. The project has already led to the initiation of two directly related EU projects; Refolution (started January 2023) and FUEL-UP (started January 2024). Other initiatives are the EU application for 3DLite, this has currently not receive funding, and the submitted SFI application called SUSFUELS (Norwegian Centre for Research and Development for Deployment of Sustainable Transport Fuels) All of these projects highlights the proactive approach that are currently being made within waste treatment and Norway's commitment to the green energy transition.

WASTE2ROAD is a 4-year project which aims to develop advanced biofuels from selected low-cost, widely available and diverse biogenic wastes. The project has an ambitious scope covering the whole value chain from waste management and pre-treatment strategies in local regions, to bio-conversion (liquefaction) and co-refining, through to validation of the biofuels' end-use compatibility in engines and transport vehicles. One of the most important stages of the value chain is strategies and information on waste sorting and pre-treatment, looking at a wide variety of feedstocks. Based on experience from WASTE2ROAD, valorisation of waste is associated with special challenges, including variable and inhomogeneous composition of waste, reduction of contaminants to acceptable limits for further processing, fast deterioration of the waste during storage and transport, stabilization, and logistics. The WASTE2ROAD activities in management and sorting strategies of various types of waste fractions for further upgrading is a valuable competence and experience that can be transferred to relevant actors in Norway, established through collaboration with waste management agencies in Norwegian municipalities and other interested stakeholders. In Norway, the largest biofuel network bringing together the leading Norwegian research institutions, universities, key national and international partners, major forestry resources owners and regional authority is the FME centre, BIO4FUELS. The focus of BIO4FUELS is on the biomass from the forestry sector as well as the downstream processing from bio-conversion to co-processing. The role of the supplementary funding project (MANAGEWASTE) will be addressing the specific challenges related to the use of municipal waste fractions, focusing mainly on urban organic waste (defined as source separated waste from private households, food waste from retail, organic waste from food processing and food waste from catering), and contaminated wood.