MILESTONE ACHIEVED: KEY PRETREATMENT ROUTE IDENTIFIED FOR BIOMASS PROCESSING

ALFAFUELS has successfully completed Milestone 2.1, achieving the selection of a preferred pretreatment route to enable efficient processing of microalgal biomass within the project’s biorefinery concept. This milestone establishes a clear direction for preparing biomass prior to downstream valorisation, supporting the project’s zero-waste strategy and its ambition to maximise resource efficiency.

The milestone is important because pretreatment plays a critical role in unlocking valuable components from microbial cells. By identifying a suitable approach at this stage, ALFAFUELS reduces uncertainty for subsequent processing steps and strengthens the technical coherence of the overall conversion chain from CO₂ to sustainable aviation fuel precursors and co-products.

Beyond its immediate technical relevance, this achievement provides a robust basis for integration across work packages. The outcome supports future scale-up decisions and helps ensure that biomass processing choices are aligned with performance, sustainability, and circularity objectives, while safeguarding sensitive operational details and project know-how.