Abstract: Efforts in decarbonizing the global economy are contributing to accelerating the expansion of sustainable energy solutions. Particularly worrisome is the transportation sector, as it plays a key role in the increase of energy demand all over the world, being today responsible for around 25% of the energy-related carbon emissions. In this field, a relevant challenge is the development of a sustainable alternative for powering the fast-growing aviation sector, where electric or hydrogen-based technologies are not as mature as in ground or maritime sectors. The so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) are proposed as the solution to ameliorate the carbon footprint of the aviation sector in the coming decades. As a leading milestone, the ambitious European Union’s Refuel Aviation regulation (approved in 2023) obliges to gradually increase the blending of SAF components in commercial jet-fuel from 2 % in 2025 up to 70 % in 2050. However, the availability of sustainable biomass as feedstock for the production of SAFS remains a limiting factor for a large-scale deployment of this solution. Current technologies allow to produce bio-jet fuels from different raw materials such as oleaginous and lignocellulosic biomass residues. However, unlike oleaginous feedstock, lignocellulosic biomass benefits from low cost and a much higher worldwide availability. Its conversion into liquid fuels has been extensively studied through different routes: biotechnological, hydrothermal, thermochemical (gasification, pyrolysis) and catalytic.
The presentation will discuss the most recent research being developed at ITPS-URJC regarding the use of a combination of biotechnological and catalytic processes to obtain advanced drop-in biofuels completely compatible with current kerosene and aircraft infrastructures.
Biograhy: Dr. Gabriel Morales, full professor of Chemical Engineering at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC, Madrid, Spain). He obtained BSc and MSc degrees in Chemical Engineering at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1995-2000) and received his PhD in 2005 at URJC working on the synthesis, characterization and application of sulfonic acid-functionalized mesostructured materials. He has been visiting researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara (USA) in 2004 and 2006, under the supervision of Prof. Brad Chmelka; and at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow) in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Peter Cormack. His main research lines have been focused on the synthesis, characterization and catalytic application of zeolites and mesoporous materials, especially organically functionalized mesostructured materials, enzyme immobilization, valorization of glycerol to obtain oxygenated additives for fuel applications, production of biodiesel over heterogeneous acid catalysts, and, during the last 15 years, the catalytic valorization of lignocellulosic biomass. He is founding member of the High-Performance Chemical and Environmental Engineering Research Group at URJC. His recent scientific achievements have been focused on the design of catalysts with enhanced properties and their application in the development of sustainable chemical processes for the valorization of biomass towards the production of biofuels and added-value bio-products. During all his research career, he has published around 90 JCR-indexed documents with high impact in the field of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Moreover, he has published 7 book chapters and edited one book (related with biomass valorization). Regarding the participation in scientific conferences, he has been involved in over 125 contributions, most of them in high-impact international events. To support this scientific career, he has participated with a prominent role in a high number of R&D projects with public competitive national and European funding (20 projects). Also, he has been involved in 20 research and service contracts with companies.
He is currently director of the URJC laboratory specialized in the preparation of catalysts (LABCAT) at URJC. Director of the Industrial Engineering Master at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos since 2021. Member of the Engineering & Architecture Commission at URJC. Academic Director of Innovation and Technology Transfer in 2018-2021, with responsibilities in the relationship with external companies and firms, and the development of public-private research and service contracts. Responsibilities in the Energy Sustainability program at URJC, collaborating with the Unit of Energy Efficiency in several projects applied to URJC buildings and campuses. Co-director of Smart-E2 institutional Chair at URJC, dedicated to the integration of Smart City solutions to enhance energy efficiency in buildings, with contracts with multiple companies (like Alai Secure, Signify, Getronics, Schneider Electric, IBM, etc.). Member of the EURACE Label Committee in the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE) in 2023-24.
Pr. Gabriel Morales
