BIOMETHAVERSE (Demonstrating and Connecting Production Innovations in the BIOMETHAne uniVERSE) aims to diversify the technology basis for biomethane production in Europe, to increase its cost-effectiveness, and to contribute both to the uptake of biomethane technologies and to the priorities of the SET Plan Action 8. To this aim five innovative biomethane production pathways will be demonstrated in five European countries: France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and Ukraine. The project is based on the following founding pillars: Demonstration of innovative biomethane pathways; Technology optimisation and upscaling by technoeconomic flowsheeting; Environmental and social sustainability assessment; Replicability, market penetration, support to planning decisions of other investors and project developers, policy recommendations to policy makers; Dissemination, exploitation and communication of project results. BIOMETHAVERSE relates, within the Work Program 2021-2022 on Climate, Energy and Mobility, to the Call “Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply”, specifically to the topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D3-03-16: Innovative biomethane production as an energy carrier and a fuel. The project production routes cover one or a combination of the following production pathways: thermochemical, biochemical, electrochemical, and biological. As a starting point, four demonstration plants use conventional anaerobic digestion (AD), and one uses conventional gasification. In the BIOMETHAVERSE demonstrators, CO2 effluents from AD or gasification and other intermediate products are combined with renewable hydrogen or renewable electricity directly to increase the overall biomethane yield. All demonstrated production routes go beyond conventional technologies, with a circular approach for energy and material, while aiming at reducing the overall biomethane production costs and increasing the biomethane production. The demonstrated technologies will reach TRL 6-7 at the end of the project.

UPSTREAM addresses the targets of the Mission by overcoming challenges related to the monitoring, prevention, elimination, and valorisation of litter (L), plastics (P), and microplastics (MP). Demonstrating a suite of 14 solutions addressing pollution at every step in the water system, connected to 7 rivers in 5 countries, will enable the co-creation of an extensive database of knowledge and sustainable business models with a focus on making information as widely accessible as possible. The involvement of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) owners, industrial partners with existing supply chains, innovative SMEs, and a water cluster association will ensure exploitation of the project solutions, while €500k in cascade funding will enhance replication across Europe. The UPSTREAM consortium will thus establish circular value chains with the potential to decrease plastic litter by 50% and MP pollution by 30%. The advances in UPSTREAM are based on best-in-world innovations, including: • Standardised, rapid monitoring techniques able to detect MP down to sizes >25 μm • Bio-based, biodegradable plastics the stop the formation of MP in consumer products and WWTPs themselves • Elimination of more than 90% MP within WWTPs from both sludge and effluent streams • Innovative floating platforms capable of removing >83% of L, P, and MP directly from rivers at both the surface and riverbed, without creating noise pollution or harming ecosystems • Production of relevant monomers from recovered plastics through both advanced fractionation and depolymerisation and biotransformation UPSTREAM represents a pan-European consortium with 5 demo sites across Europe, including 4 WWTPs (UK, ES, DE, IT), plus a testing area on the Danube in Serbia. The consortium is strengthened by top European RTOs, the world leader in sustainable bioplastics development, Novamont, and completed by partners dedicated to creating a digital knowledge sharing platform and engaging with citizens and stakeholders.

BIORECER aims to ensure the environmental performance and traceability of the biological feedstock used by the bio-based industries, deploying guidelines to strengthen the current certification schemes. Within this approach, the added value, the use, as well as social acceptance of bioproducts will be increased. To fulfill this goal, BIORECER is structured in three main technological pillars: 1) to develop a multidimensional assessment framework for an aggregated analysis on the biological feedstocks and their associated supply chains; 2) to create a BIORECER Innovation ecosystem living-lab with a multi-agent approach, testing the framework in 4 bio-based systems supply chain cases of study, and 3) to use all this knowledge to complement current certification schemes including new criteria for certifying biological resources’ sustainability, origin, and traceability, and ensure applicability at EU and global scale. The transition to a bio-based economy is expected to deliver substantial environmental and economic benefits. Specifically, BIORECER will assess the impact of current and adapted certification schemes on consumers and bio-based industries stakeholders’ WTP along with industries and consumers’ acceptance of new bio-value chains from biological feedstocks, including residual feedstock and waste. The project proposes first to design and develop a multidimensional framework to analyze and define the assessment of the environmental performance of biological resources and traceability that will be subsequently validated in 4 full bio-based systems and applicable to a wide range of bio-based value chains. This approach will be unfolded by the joint creation of two levels of interaction: a physical one through the creation of a BioResources Stakeholders Platform (BRSP) and a “digital” one through a BIORECER ICT tool (BIT) to amplify the “scope” of the project.

AWARD recognises the urgency of action due to water scarcity and climate change impacts as well as the need to engage simultaneously the society, the science and the policy into the development of knowledge and strategic water planning. Therefore, AWARD will provide evidence-based solutions to consider AWRs into water supply strategic plans, based on socio-political engagement. The 4 Demo Cases of AWARD are already implementing AWRs (storm water, rainwater and aquifer recharge in Bucharest in Romania as well as in Milano in Italy; water reuse in Cyprus, storm water and rainwater in an industrial park in Santiago di Compostel in Spain). Through the project activities, Demo Cases will consider scaling up their actions taking in account a broader range of AWRs together with conventional water resources for planning future water supply systems at local or regional level using AWARD instruments (Local Water Fora, Digital Platform for decision making, training and guidance). They will address similar issues in a harmonised and coordinated way. Societal awareness to support the decision process on AWRs supply solutions will lead to the recommendations for further use of AWRs encompassing the 4 dimensions of social innovation (Technological, Capacity development, Governance & Policy, Economics & assessment). The AWARD AWRs catalogue will gather the project results and additional solutions which will be benchmarked. The digital platform provided by AWARD will support the exploration of resilient scenarios that will be promoted beyond the scope of the project thanks to dedicated networking activities. AWARD general objective is to provide evidence-based knowledge and lessons learnt on how to effectively integrate affordable, acceptable and reliable AWRs solutions into water supply strategic planning and implementation considering the effect of global changes.