INTERVIEW WITH CHARILAOS XIROS – RISE

“By producing Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) from CO2 as the only carbon source, the project reduces feedstock costs, improves resource efficiency, and implements a scalable, zero-waste production process”. Our project coordinator Charilaos Xiros, Senior Researcher at RISE speaks in this interview about the main advantages of developing Sustainable Aviation Fuels as well as how the ALFAFUELS project will contribute environmentally to Europe.

Q: RISE is the coordinator of the ALFAFUELS project, an initiative focused on developing Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) technology. Could you explain the current barriers and opportunities to SAF technologies?

A: There are various barriers: political and legal ones, financial and market-related, technical and social ones. To mention the most important of them, I would refer to the lack of clear goals and targets for a SAF market, the lack of well-defined sustainability criteria for certain categories of fuels like RFNBOs (currently aligned with the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), the low profitability which makes upscaling and commercialization difficult, and finally the Industrial reluctance to deploy new technology, which of course is associated with all the previous barriers.

But of course, there are opportunities here for the European Industry. The economic feasibility of SAF production processes can be increased by creating synergies with other sectors. Many efforts (including ALFAFUELS) are making steps towards this direction. Technological innovations can create new economic chances. The current expensive and energy-consuming downstream steps (harvesting, drying, extraction and chemical upgrade in current microalgae technologies) for SAF production must be substantially improved or replaced. The production of a volatile fuel precursor in ALFAFUELS is an important milestone.

Q: Could you explain the overall project process to obtain SAF as well as the challenges and how you plan to overcome them?

A: ALFAFUELS presents a unique approach and includes technological breakthroughs to tackle specific challenges related to upscaling and sustainability of algal renewable fuels. We apply a technologically complete solution to produce SAF from CO2. Our production system is based on photosynthetic cyanobacteria converting CO2 to isoprene, a volatile C5 hydrocarbon, which is readily captured and photochemically dimerized into C10 molecules. The resulting alkenes are hydrogenated with hydrogen – sustainably produced in ALFAFUELS by green microalgae – to form ready-to-use jet fuel. By utilizing the remnants of cyanobacterial and microalgal cultivations as substrates for H2 and starch co-production, we create cross-sectoral collaboration possibilities, we apply a zero-waste circular approach and we increase resource efficiency, leading to overall economic feasibility and environmental sustainability.

Q: How the ALFAFUELS project will contribute environmentally to Europe?

A: ALFAFUELS tackles systemic barriers in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), such as high costs, inefficiency, and scalability challenges. By producing SAF from CO2 as the only carbon source, the project reduces feedstock costs, improves resource efficiency, and implements a scalable, zero-waste production process. The project links SAF production with other sectors (e.g. FOOD) increasing the industrial integration and cross-sectoral collaboration possibilities, and therefore, increasing the economic feasibility of SAF production. These achievements are important milestones towards the decarbonization of aviation