Last 14 and 15 of June, LICROX representatives attended the joint Roadmapping Workshop on the future of solar fuels and chemicals, held in Brussels.

The workshop, which gathered around 100 stakeholders to bring together diverse realities, counted with several key talks and also industrial and innovation pitches, presenting industrial and European collaborative projects working on the field of solar fuels and chemicals. In addition, roundtables also served to discuss the main challenges, advances and bottlenecks on the future of solar fuels and chemicals.

Within the workshop, the LICROX project chaired a Symposium on How to engage with society to predict future costs and environmental impact and the importance of standardized assessment. The project coordinator, Prof. Antoni Llobet, introduced the project and speakers, including three talks on the “Current status of techno-economic assessment methodology and its importance for industry and EU R&I projects” by Dr. Miet Van Dael, VITO; “Life cycle assessment as a tool to evaluate emerging technologies” by Dr. Ivan Muñoz, 2.0 LCA consultants; and “Involving the public in technology assessment” by Mr. Aske Palsberg, Danish Board of Technology.

In addition, the workshop included working groups and think tanks to discuss about the main problems, state of the art and solutions offered by the different technologies. Our LICROX partners, the Danish Board of Technology led a think tank on “Social acceptability & the societal contract” where participants deliberated about the societal impacts and barriers of the new technologies and their deployment and also how to engage, when and at what level different societal groups, from politicians to citizens. In addition, LICROX representatives also participated in discussions on the CO₂ electrochemical conversion and direct PEC conversion working groups.

The conclusions of these first roadmapping exercises from the working groups and think tanks will be the basis of a living document, open to further review and input from following workshops, to define a strategic research and innovation agenda.

Check all the event’s details, including the participating projects, here.