After four years of intensive collaboration between the European Union and Japan, the LAURELIN project concluded its research journey with a high-level Final Conference titled “Advancing e-fuel production innovation for sustainable transport.” Coordinated by AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Centre, the project brought together leading universities, research institutions, and SMEs from six countries to explore innovative technologies for converting CO2 into methanol.
Image Credit: AIMPLAS
The conference showcased the project’s most significant scientific achievements, including the development of advanced reactor technologies - Microwave-assisted Fixed-bed, Magnetic Induction, and non-thermal Plasma reactors - for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. Attendees also learned about novel characterization techniques and the broader potential of LAURELIN’s innovations in the context of global decarbonization efforts.
A central feature of the event was a roundtable discussion titled “Renewable fuels production as a key to further decarbonizing the transport sector,” where experts from academia and industry emphasized the critical role of e-fuels in the energy transition. They called for streamlined procedures and deeper international cooperation to accelerate scientific progress. Speakers included Prof. Dr. Joris Thybaut (Ghent University), Dr. Pascual Oña Burgos (ITQ), Ms. Marlene Hermfisse (eFuel Alliance), and Ms. Felicia Mester (The Methanol Institute).
In his opening remarks, H.E. Kazutoshi Aikawa, Ambassador of Japan to the European Union, praised the project’s success: “I am delighted and honoured today to witness LAURELIN’s achievements over the last five years. The collaboration between Japanese and European teams has strengthened significantly, allowing research to progress productively. Through joint efforts between universities and research institutions, Japan and the EU play an important role in addressing global challenges. I look forward to further collaboration in this field.”
H.E. Jean-Eric Paquet, Ambassador of the European Union to Japan, echoed these sentiments in a video message from Tokyo: “The LAURELIN project truly embodies the technological, scientific, and economic relationship between Japan and the EU. It supports our research capacity through excellence and complementarity. I hope the project’s outcomes will feed into industrial ambitions around renewable e-fuels, and that a follow-up can be envisaged as we make progress on Japan’s association to Horizon Europe.”
Image Credit: AIMPLAS
Looking ahead, Mr. Kazuki Miura, Deputy Director of the Paris Office of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), expressed optimism about the future of EU–Japan research cooperation: “JST highly values the collaboration within the LAURELIN consortium, where Japanese and EU institutions worked closely together. We expect the networks nurtured through this project to continue developing, including fostering the next generation of research talent.”
“Renewable methanol has an impressive potential to help decarbonising the transport sector. It can cut CO2 emissions by up to 95 %, reduce NOx emissions by up to 80 %, and completely eliminate SOx and particulate matter emissions. It is a promising technology that can play an important role in making Europe the first climate-neutral continent” explained Adolfo Benedito Borrás, LAURELIN Technical Coordinator and researcher on Decarbonization at AIMPLAS.
LAURELIN was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program and JST under the SICORP initiative. The consortium included partners from Belgium, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Methanol, the project’s target fuel, offers significant environmental benefits - when produced from captured CO2 and green hydrogen, it can reduce carbon emissions by up to 95 % compared to conventional fuels.