We would like to gladly inform that Institute of Biological Sciences has gained funds for their research under Horizon 2020 Programme.
The achievement is all the more pleasing as it is the result of the activities of one of the professors employed at our university as part of the Research in Lublin programme, prof. Vangronsveld. The project entitled “Bridging the gap between phytoremediation solutions on growing energy crops on contaminated lands and clean biofuel production” will be implemented by at the Institute of Biological Sciences and coordinated by prof. Jaco Vangronsveld and prof. Małgorzata Wójcik.
Project aims to produce clean low Indirect Land Use Change biofuels by growing selected high-yielding lignocellulosic crops on contaminated land, and, in long-term, to return the polluted lands back to the agricultural production.
First, the optimization of selected high-yielding lignocellulosic energy crops (miscanthus, switchgrass, biomass sorghum and industrial hemp) for phytoremediation purposes will be addressed. Pilot small-scale field trials will be established having dual-fold purposes: the application of the best-performing management practices for phytoremediation, and the feedstock production that will feed the conversion processes. Two thermochemical conversion routes will accomplish the biofuel production. In the first route, the contaminated feedstock will be pre-treated and gasified at high temperatures securing the ash heavy metals in a condensed vitrified slag. The produced syngas, after cleaning, will subsequently be fermented to final liquid biofuels.
The second route consists of a pyrolysis-based solution with the subsequent upgrade of the pyrolysis products to refinery compatible intermediates and Fisher-Tropsch-fuels. Finally, an integrated sustainability assessment will be carried out and a specific model will be developed for selected value-chains, so as to bridge the gap between phytoremediation strategies and clean biofuel production.
UMCS will be a partner of a project coordinated by CRES – Center For Renewable Energy Sources and Saving Fondation from Greece.
The project will be implemented in a large consortium of 20 institutions from following countries: Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, China, Italy, France, Portugal, Great Britain, India and Canada. Thanks to participation in this initiative, our university will get an unique opportunity to exchange research experiences with top units from around the world.
The project budget for UMCS is almost EUR 183 thousand (nearly PLN 830 thousand). The project will last 4 years, and the implementation of activities is planned to start in spring / summer 2021.
Congratulations on your success and we wish you successful implementation of your project activities!
