BAC-TO-FUEL project held a consortium meeting in Wageningen, The Netherlands, on December 10, 2019.

Consortium members reviewed the project’s progresses and advances during this first year of activities.

This second meeting was organized by the University of Wageningen.

Meeting was hosted by Wageningen University in their own premises. All consortium members, led by Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, shared their significant advances as a result of the works carried out in the different work packages.

The main objective was to review the status of each of the parts of the project at a technical level, check the existing risks and modifications that have been done so far, and debate about the actions to be taken to achieve the objectives of the project. 

Actions according the CE’s recommendations provided at the first 6 month review meeting were also analyzed. As a conclusion, it was agreed that the project schedule is being fulfilled according to the project needs and deliverables deadlines.

The meeting reviewed three fundamental aspects for the project:

• Photocatalytic H2 production process. Definition of variables to improve reaction performance. Absorption of AQC from sunlight. Experimentation. Results Performance.

• Bioelectrocatalytic process / Fermentative process: Study of the different configurations. Next steps. State of experimentation. Design of CO2 and H2 dispersion equipment for mixing in the reactor

• Coupling of both processes. Scalability Preliminary ASD. Comparison with other processes. Proposal Value

Finally, the consortium worked on the tech-to-market plan, elaborated in the last gate review that was held at the DG for R&I in Brussels, as part of the MI-DICE project, in which BAC-TO-FUEL is involved. In this parallel, market-oriented project, BAC-TO-FUEL is persistently audited, in order to accelerate its commercial success. Taking into account the suggestions given by the EC, the modifications presented by NANOGAP (as a part responsible for the innovation management of BAC-TO-FUEL) were agreed by all members, 

The actions and tasks completed so far will be presented during the next review meeting which is expected to be held in Brussels during March 2020, as will the next steps that were agreed.

Last but not least, another relevant objective of this kind of meetings is to bring all parts of the consortium closer, to foster mutual knowledge and exchange of knowledge, as well as to improve the scientific and social relations between the group members. This was thoroughly achieved during the group dinner, held on a rather nice venue in the beautiful town of Wageningen.