The IMDEA Energy Institute held three industrial sessions within the framework of the International Energy and Environment Fair GENERA 2023 on February 21st, with the participation of prominent speakers from the business, academic and association environments that, together with those from IMDEA Energy, completed the Value chains:

  • The Madrid+Circular Hub seed of technologies to valorize waste into products, which addresses an ambitious research program to create and develop a Circular Economy Hub, favoring the culture of cooperation between different agents of the science-technology-business system to generate and share knowledge about new technologies that facilitate the valorization of waste through its incorporation in industrial processes for the production of materials and fuels with a low carbon footprint, some of which require the incorporation of renewable hydrogen. Speakers from the companies Repsol, Ariema and EvoEnzime also participated.
  • Sustainable fuels from digestion and fermentation waste integrating thermochemical, catalytic and biotechnological processes, in which it was discussed the integration of different innovative processes for the recovery of waste generated in the anaerobic digestion of different biodegradable materials (digestates) and the production of advanced bioethanol by alcoholic fermentation of non-food biomass (stillages) for its transformation into different types of sustainable fuels (bio-methane, bio-oils, bio-hydrogen and bio-coals) and other products of interest (fatty acids) reducing the volume of waste from biogas and bioethanol production. Speakers from Rey Juan Carlos University, Repsol, and Ingelia also participated.
  • Present and future of decarbonization with concentrated solar termal energy in Spain, discussing the role to be played by concentrated solar thermal energy in the decarbonisation objectives in the different industrial sectors. Speakers from Protermosolar, Engie and Plataforma Solar de Almería, CIEMAT also participated.

Attendees exceeded one hundred, filling the room, some having to remain standing. The questions raised by the attendees and the debates provoked make it clear that the technologies covered are a hot topic of interest for specialists and the general public and a subject for further research and development projects.

The International Renewable Energy Conference, SPIREC, co-hosted by a national government and REN21, was held this year in Spain within the framework of Genera, with a technical visit to IMDEA Energy on February 23rd, in which the solar field of heliostats, the pyrolysis and hydrodeoxygenation pilot plant and the SEIL grid emulation laboratory were shown. The visit was a success considering the interest aroused by the IMDEA Energy facilities and the lines of research, as well as the words and messages of the attendees.