The SEAFAIRER consortium convened for its second meeting on October 9, 2025, in Florence, hosted by the project’s communication and dissemination partner, ETA Florence.
This gathering marked a key milestone to review progress from the project’s first year and outline the next steps ahead of the upcoming Review Meeting in May 2026, when partners will reunite in Germany, hosted by Fraunhofer UMSICHT and welcome the Project Officer and reviewers to attend.
Progress highlights – from pilot to demo
Almost 6 months ahead of schedule – the pilot unit scale-up to demo unit is completed. The unit, which stands at the industrial facilities of Fraunhofer UMSICHT, will be fully operational in January/February 2026. In parallel, Fraunhofer colleagues have completed several campaigns on the pilot unit with selected biogenic feedstocks, such as e.g., biomass sieving material. These trials were essential for understanding the feedstock’s properties and product qualities. Work on the value chain simulation tool is now focused on developing an optimized transport analytics method, supported by a Digital Twin model to simulate and predict logistics performance across the biomass-to-fuel value chain.
FVTR is coordinating the work on biofuel and biofuel blend validation. This is the key step before engaging in sea trials with shipping companies and a steppingstone to enter the biofuel market. More specifically, FVTR is validating blends in different ratios with several kinds of marine fossil fuels.
At the same time, Galp is carrying out trials in its Hydrocracker Pilot Unit at the Galp Innovation Lab (“Id.Lab”) in Sines, Portugal. These experiments are assessing the performance of the bio-oil for the project’s Pathway B, for integration in existing refinery infrastructure.
Communities of Practice expanding the project’s reach
Fundación Valenciaport colleagues shared insights from the first Community of Practice (CoP) meeting, held online on June 19, 2025. Participants, including Avebiom, Boluda, Asociación Naviera Valenciana, Deloitte, DNV, LRQA, and Bureau Veritas, discussed project scale, supplier engagement, timelines, scalability, vessel and engine selection for testing, and competitiveness compared to synthetic fuels.
In the coming weeks, SEAFAIRER will be represented at a series of events, including the Nordic Innovation event together with Copenhagen Malmö Port, Corolab, and Greenport North, as well as attending the Kraftstoffe der Zukunft (“Fuels of the Future”) conference in Berlin early next year.
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