Spain's national fuel logistics operator, contributing industrial infrastructure to EU research on fuel system integrity and sustainable biofuel value chains.
CLH is Spain's primary fuel logistics operator, managing a national network of pipelines, storage terminals, and liquid fuel distribution infrastructure. In EU research, they participate as an industrial end-user and real-world testbed — contributing operational environments that academic and SME partners cannot replicate, from testing microbial contamination in active fuel systems to evaluating next-generation biofuel feedstocks. Their funding volumes are modest relative to their size, which is typical of large industrial companies joining research consortia for technology scouting and strategic positioning rather than income. Their participation in both aviation fuel integrity (Clean Sky 2) and biofuel production research reflects the dual challenge of maintaining existing hydrocarbon infrastructure while preparing for the energy transition.
Both MICTEST and Phy2Climate draw on CLH's role as an industrial operator of fuel storage, pipelines, and distribution systems, providing the real-world context that anchors both projects.
MICTEST (2019–2022, €181,151) directly addressed biocontamination and MIC exposure testing in fuel transport systems within the Clean Sky 2 Joint Technology Initiative.
Phy2Climate (2021–2025) engages CLH in phytoremediation-to-biofuel pathways, including thermo-catalytic reforming of bio-coke and no-ILUC energy crops.
Phy2Climate involves soil contamination remediation using phytoremediation, a topic directly relevant to industrial operators managing legacy contaminated sites.
CLH's earliest H2020 engagement (MICTEST, 2019) was squarely focused on protecting operational integrity — specifically detecting and assessing microbial contamination in fuel systems, a critical concern for aviation fuel quality and pipeline longevity. By 2021, their focus had pivoted markedly toward sustainability: the Phy2Climate project introduced an entirely new keyword cluster spanning phytoremediation, biofuels, energy crops, bio-coke, and thermo-catalytic reforming. This is not incremental drift — it reflects a strategic repositioning by a large hydrocarbon logistics company toward sustainable fuel supply chains, likely driven by EU energy transition policy and CLH's need to understand what replaces conventional fuels in their infrastructure.
CLH is moving from defending conventional hydrocarbon asset integrity toward positioning itself in sustainable fuel supply chains — making them increasingly relevant as an industrial partner for biofuel, biomass, and contaminated land projects seeking a credible end-user with national-scale distribution infrastructure.
CLH participates exclusively as a consortium partner — they have never coordinated an H2020 project — which is the typical posture of a large industrial company joining EU research to access emerging technology rather than to drive it. Despite only two projects, they have engaged 16 different partners across 10 countries, suggesting membership in large, multi-actor consortia rather than tight bilateral partnerships. Working with them likely means access to industrial validation environments and a well-connected national infrastructure operator, in exchange for relatively light project management commitment on their part.
With 16 unique consortium partners across 10 countries drawn from just 2 projects, CLH has been embedded in broad, internationally diverse consortia. Their network spans both the aviation/transport research community (via Clean Sky 2) and the European energy and environmental research space.
CLH occupies a rare position in EU research consortia: they are one of the few national-scale fuel logistics operators willing to contribute operational infrastructure as a live testing and validation environment for research projects. For MIC detection or sustainable fuel compatibility studies, this means experiments can be grounded in real pipelines and storage terminals rather than laboratory proxies. For consortia building a biofuel value chain project, CLH represents a credible industrial off-taker with the distribution network to eventually scale what the research produces.
