Imagine taking the sewage sludge that water treatment plants currently struggle to dispose of, and cooking it in a special reactor that breaks it down into gasoline, diesel, and hydrogen — all meeting the same fuel standards your car already uses. That's exactly what this project built and tested at a real facility in Germany. The process chains three technologies together: one heats the sludge, another separates out pure hydrogen, and a third upgrades the remaining oil into proper fuel. It's like turning a waste disposal headache into a fuel pump.
Wastewater treatment plants produce millions of tonnes of sewage sludge every year, and getting rid of it is expensive, regulated, and environmentally damaging whether you landfill or incinerate it. At the same time, transport companies and fuel distributors face mounting pressure to decarbonize with renewable fuels that actually work in existing vehicles. There is a gap between a costly waste stream and an unmet demand for drop-in green fuels.
A fully integrated demonstration plant at Hohenburg, Germany, combining three technologies — Thermo-Catalytic Reforming (TCR), Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA), and Hydro Deoxygenation (HDO) — that converts dried sewage sludge into EN228/EN590-compliant gasoline and diesel substitutes plus green hydrogen. The plant was fabricated, assembled, safety-tested through cold and hot commissioning, operated at steady state with validated mass and energy balances, and ultimately decommissioned after demonstration.
If you are a wastewater treatment operator paying to landfill or incinerate dried sewage sludge — this project demonstrated a plant that processes up to 2,100 tonnes per year of that sludge into 210,000 litres of biofuels and 30,000 kg of green hydrogen. Instead of a disposal cost, your waste becomes a revenue-generating fuel product compliant with EN228 and EN590 European Standards.
If you are a fuel distributor or fleet operator under pressure to add renewable fuels to your mix — this project produced gasoline and diesel substitutes that meet EN228 and EN590 standards, meaning they drop straight into existing infrastructure. The fuels come from organic waste rather than crops, avoiding the food-vs-fuel debate. A scale-up of 100 plants could convert up to 32 million tonnes per year of organic waste into sustainable biofuels.
If you are a hydrogen supplier looking for decentralized green hydrogen production — this project demonstrated a process that extracts hydrogen directly from organic waste conversion, producing up to 30,000 kg per year from a single plant. The hydrogen is separated using pressure swing adsorption, a well-understood industrial process. This gives you a local hydrogen source tied to waste processing rather than electrolysis.
The project data does not disclose capital costs or licensing fees. However, the plant was designed as a pre-commercial demonstration processing 2,100 tonnes per year of dried sewage sludge, which gives a baseline for economic modeling. Contact the coordinator (Fraunhofer) for commercial terms.
The demonstrated plant processes 2,100 tonnes per year of dried sewage sludge. The project explicitly modeled scale-up: 100 such plants across Europe could convert up to 32 million tonnes per year of organic waste into biofuels, contributing 35 million tonnes of greenhouse gas savings. The technology was designed as a platform for subsequent commercial-scale facilities.
The core TCR technology is developed by Fraunhofer, one of Europe's largest applied research organizations. The project involved 13 partners across 5 countries with 8 industrial partners, so IP is likely shared across the consortium. Licensing inquiries should go through Fraunhofer as coordinator.
Yes. The biofuels produced are compliant with EN228 (gasoline) and EN590 (diesel) European Standards. This means they are drop-in replacements that work in existing engines and fuel infrastructure without modification.
The project ran from May 2017 to September 2022 and is now closed. A fully operational integrated plant was demonstrated at Hohenburg, Germany, using locally sourced feedstocks. The project was explicitly designed as a platform for deployment of a subsequent commercial-scale facility.
The demonstrated feedstock is dried sewage sludge, which is widely available from any municipal wastewater treatment plant. The project refers broadly to organic waste biomass and organic industrial wastes, suggesting potential for other feedstock types, though sewage sludge was the validated input.
Three products: liquid biofuels (210,000 litres per year of gasoline and diesel substitute), green hydrogen (up to 30,000 kg per year), and biochar as a byproduct of the thermal conversion process. The fuels meet European transport fuel standards.
The TO-SYN-FUEL consortium is heavily industry-weighted at 62% (8 out of 13 partners), with 5 SMEs involved — a strong signal that this technology was built with commercial deployment in mind, not just academic research. Fraunhofer, one of Europe's most commercially active research organizations, leads the project from Germany, supported by partners across 5 countries (DE, ES, IT, NL, UK). The presence of only 2 universities versus 8 industrial partners and 2 research organizations confirms this was an engineering and demonstration effort, not a lab experiment. For a business looking to adopt or license this technology, the consortium composition suggests mature supply chains and industrial know-how are already in place.
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (DE) — Europe's largest applied research organization. Contact their technology transfer office for licensing inquiries.
Want to explore how this waste-to-fuel technology fits your operations? SciTransfer can connect you directly with the project team and provide a tailored briefing for your sector.
