Sustainable aviation fuel from thermocatalytic refining of lignin and lignin-derivatives: development of biorefinery catalysts and reaction systems

This project proposes an efficient technology for transforming lignin into sustainable aviation fuels as an alternative to current fossil-based technologies.

For this, a multistep process is applied, including hydroprocessing, in which lignin-containing feedstock is converted into fuels using a catalyst and hydrogen. The project demonstrates the successful transformation of various lignin feedstocks using non-noble-metal catalysts.

The underlying technology steps were scaled up to pilot scale and combined to demonstrate the feasibility of the whole process chain up to a final aviation fuel product. This way, ca. 40 kg of lignin feedstocks were processed successfully.

These results lay the foundation for the development and scale-up of potential lignin-to-fuel routes and serve as an important stepping stone for future efforts to decarbonise the aviation sector.