The valorisation of industrial CO2 emissions is a cornerstone in EU strategies for climate change and circular economy. Bio-based Industries (BIs) are perfect candidates to apply this CO2 valorisation, since they could to turn their biorefineries’ emissions into feedstock and close the carbon loop. Nevertheless, there is still a strong need of reliable and cost-efficient CO2 conversion technologies to make it possible. VIVALDI proposes an integrated solution allowing the conversion of biogenic CO2 into added-value organic acids, powered by ground-breaking advances in CO2 purification, electrochemical catalysis, microbiology, synthetic biology, and bioprocess engineering. The solution comprises 4 main steps: 1. CO2 purification/enrichment from industrial streams and electrochemical reduction to formic acid (FA) and methanol (MeOH) using electrochemical reactors and gas diffusion electrodes. 2. Nutrient recovery (NH4+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+) from industrial wastewaters using bioelectrochemical systems. 3. Bioproduction of target organic acids using a microbial platform based on specific engineered yeast strains (P. Pastoris), using as feedstock MeOH/FA/CO2 from step 1 and nutrients from step 2. 4. Industrial validation of the bioproduced organic acids (i.e. efficient downstream processing and on-site industrial validation). VIVALDI will use real gas emissions from 4 key BIs and will focus on the bioproduction of 4 industrially relevant organic acids with different applications and market penetration (LA,SA,IA,3-HP). These acids can re-enter the production process flowchart of biorefineries, thus enhancing the sustainability of their current products or even opening new business possibilities. Moreover, VIVALDI’s feasibility will be confirmed also through an integral sustainability assessment (technical, environmental and socio-economic) to ensure that the proposed solution can be adopted and integrated in any biorefinery.

CO2 from the flue gases of a rotary kiln in a cement industry (CO2: 25 vol%) will be used for the production of value-added chemicals (acid additives for cement formulations) and materials (CaCO3 nanoparticles to be used as concrete fillers). A circular-economy-approach is enabled: the CO2 produced by cement manufacturing is re-used in a significant part within the plant itself to produce better cement-related products entailing less energy intensity and related CO2 emissions by a quadratic effect. Ionic liquids (bare or amine-functionalised) will be the key technological playground for the efficient and cost-effective (20% accounting for direct and indirect means) and the good market potential of their products at a mass production scale. The first two years of the project will be focused on the development of key functional materials and process units at TRL 4-5, the third year on the assembly of single-process lines certified at TRL 5-6, and the fourth year on the assembly and testing at a cement manufacturing site (TITAN) of the TRL 6 integrated CO2 process.

SUNER-C CSA overarching objective is to aggregate fragmented knowledge and develop the framework conditions to overcome scientific, technological, organizational and socioeconomic challenges to accelerate innovation and enable the transition of technologies for solar fuels and chemicals from laboratory and demonstrator level to large-scale industrial and broad societal application. Through a holistic approach, SUNER-C will contribute to circular economy by replacing fossil-derived fuels and chemicals by renewables and carbon recycling as key element towards the EU net-zero emissions target by 2050. SUNER-C will build upon the work of SUNERGY, a pan-European initiative on fossil-free fuels and chemicals from renewable power and solar energy, with to date over 300 supporting organisations across and beyond Europe. SUNER-C specific outcomes during the CSA will be to: develop an inclusive pan-European innovation community and eco-system on solar fuels and chemicals with global outreach, linked to political and societal needs, gathering stakeholders from different fields, sectors and disciplines around a shared vision, and coordinating with existing initiatives to ensure complementarity; develop a roadmap and a blueprint to implement it, as main drivers to identify and tackle long-term research and innovation challenges to de-fossilize society with solar fuels and chemicals; prepare the foundations for a large-scale research and innovation initiative (LSRI), ready to be launched at the end of the CSA, through an instrument to be agreed upon with the European Commission and the Member States. The LSRI will continue developing the eco-system and supporting the implementation of the roadmap, speeding up industrial and societal uptake of technologies for solar fuels and chemicals in the EU and contributing to wider, longer-term impacts, including those on “Increased autonomy in key strategic value chains for resilient industry” outlined in the Horizon Europe Work Programme.

In 2017, EU GHG emissions, including emissions from international aviationEurope has successfully reduced its GHG emissions since 1990 levels. The pace of reducing CO2 emissions is positive, however it is projected to slow after 2020 resulting in difficulties to achieve EU’s reduction target of 55% by 2030 as planned in the European Green Deal. Additional measures and policies are foreseen in EU to forefront this situation. Negative emissions technologies, as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) ones are currently a priority to explore, especially in non-exploited industrial sectors such as the bio-based industry as they significantly contribute to CO2 emissions. CATCO2NVERS will contribute to reduce GHG emissions from the bio-based industries developing 5 innovative and integrated technologies based on 3 catalytic methods (electrochemical, enzymatic and thermochemical). It will transform waste-CO2 (up to 90%) and residual biomass from 2 bio-based industries into 5 added-value chemicals (glyoxylic acid, lactic acid, furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME), cyclic carbonated fatty acid methyl esters (CCFAMEs) with production yields between 70-90%. Methanol which will not have an energetic use but will be used in CATCO2NVERS own technologies. These target chemicals will be used as building blocks and monomers to obtain biopolymers of 100% bio-origin. Industrial partners will validate the application of the obtained chemical building blocks on the most relevant markets. In addition, the waste-CO2 stream will be conditioned by removing potential inhibitors for the catalysts. CATCO2NVERS will meet some of the principles in green chemistry (atom economy, use of renewable feedstocks, reduce derivatives and use of catalysts instead of stoichiometric reagents). CATCO2NVERS will explore an energy and resource efficient scenario following an industrial symbiosis model to ensure a biorefinery process along the CO2 valorization chain with zero or negative GHG emissions.

Fibre reinforced thermoset composites (FRTCs) are attractive materials for high demanding sectors, such as automotive or construction, due to their lightweight and excellent mechanical properties. However, the lack of reprocessability and difficulty for repairing and recycling significantly increases the overall material cost and causes grave environmental concerns. Additionally, the vast majority of polymer matrices and fibres used in their manufacturing are non-renewable fossil-derived materials or require high amounts of energy for their production. Aiming at addressing those limitations by involving the European bio-based industry, ECOXY will develop innovative bio-based epoxy resins and fibre reinforcements to produce new sustainable and techno-economically competitive FRTCs by targeting advanced functionalities: reparability, reprocessability and recyclability (3R). The 3R functionalities will be achieved by using new resin formulations replacing commonly used curing agents by dynamic hardeners, which under certain operational makes possible to: 1) repair fibre/matrix delamination and matrix micro-cracks, 2) reprocess cured laminates could be reprocessed to create new 3D parts (impossible with traditional FRTCs), 3) mechanical and chemical recycling. Thus, ECOXY will develop: 1) tailor-made bio-based epoxy monomers (including biorefinery products), 2) upgraded and functional bio-based fibres (natural and PLA), 3) specific formulations for FRTCs manufacturing processes (RTM, wet compression moulding and pultrusion) and 4) additional functionalities such as flame-retardancy for 3R resin and self healing for fibres. The selected prototypes will be validated for automotive and construction sectors using relevant standards and applicable certifications. Besides, an environmental (LCA) and socio-economic assessment of the results will be carried out. The well balanced composition of the consortium, 6 SME, 6 RTO and 1 academia gives ECOXY the maximum chance of succ