Two Carbon Valorisation Events in July

Carbon valorisation is clearly a hot topic with a number of reports published this month and two events on CO2 valorisation/ #useCO2/ CCU events are scheduled for July.

Club CO2

The first event is an International CO2 Utilisation Symposium organised by the Club CO2 in France on Monday 2 July 2018 in Paris. Entitled An “International overview of CO2 Utilisation”, the symposium will break out into two events. The first one will be a Forum on the “International status of CCU”, which has the objective to have a wide overview of CCU developments.  The second event will be a workshop tackling the question: “Which tools to enhance CCU?”

Club CO2 is pursuing its involvement in the promotion of CO2 utilisation (CCU) as a means of reducing the carbon footprint of the economy. Recycled CO2 can be used as a raw material in the manufacture of high added value products, materials or energy.

For the Symposium agenda, click here. And you can register here. For more information contact the Club CO2 secretariat.

CarbonNext

The second meeting is the final event of the SPIRE project CarbonNext that will be held on 17 July 2018 in Brussels.

CarbonNext has been evaluating the potential use of CO2/CO as carbon-feedstock for the process industry in Europe. After two years of intensive work, the project consortium will share the major outcomes and results of the project. The CarbonNext final conference will feature speakers from industry, academia as well as policy makers from the European Commission. The main results from CarbonNext will be accompanied by presentations from industrial representatives to show the relevance and transfer of scientific results and industrial needs and to discuss ecological challenges and the economic potential behind the identified opportunities.

Learn more about the whole carbon value chain – from mapping of CO/CO2 all over Europe, identified processes and products where alternative carbon sources can be used – and get in touch with an interdisciplinary network of CCU / #useCO2 stakeholders.

A link for registration can be found on the conference webpage and registration closes on 6 July 2018.

New Reports on Carbon Capture and Utilisation Technologies published

Can carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies contribute to mitigating climate change? And if so, how can we choose between the various competing technologies for investment? These are some of the issues explored in the fourth scientific opinion of the European Commission’s Group of Chief Scientific Advisers. The Scientific Opinion of the Scientific Advice Mechanism High Level Group (SAM HLG) on Novel Carbon Capture and Utilisation Technologies was published on 23 May.

CCU (aka #useCO2) technologies remove CO2 from the atmosphere and use sustainable chemistry and energy to convert it into various useful products such as fuel, building materials or plastics. The area is of intense interest to SusChem and in the subject of numerous initiatives including the recently launched Pheonix Initiative (see below). However, at present, there are no accurate, reliable methods to determine the climate mitigation potential of these technologies and this has hindered investment in and deployment of these technologies.

The opinion draws on the best available scientific and technical evidence from across Europe. The separate related Evidence Review Report prepared by SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) was also published on 23 May.

The Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) Group of Chief Scientific Advisers was established on 16 October 2015 to support the Commission with high quality, timely and independent scientific advice for its policy-making activities.

Low carbon, LCA
The advisers observe that for CCU technologies to contribute to climate change mitigation, the energy used in CO2 conversion must be of low carbon origin. In addition, and because the converted carbon may be held in the product for a variable amount of time and not always permanently, the assessment of the climate mitigation potential of the technologies also depends on a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach that takes into account the fate of carbon once released from the product.

Commenting on the opinion Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: “We need to be ready to take advantage of all possible proven innovative opportunities in the fight against climate change. The opinion will help policy-makers, in the EU and around the globe, to know if and how to make best use of these technologies.”

The opinion was drafted at the request of Miguel Arias Cañete, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy. He said: “We are determined to meet our commitments to curb climate change, and for that we have to explore every possible avenue. This scientific opinion provides a roadmap for specifying how carbon capture and utilisation can be part of this effort.”

Recommendations
The Scientific Advisers recommend:

• The development of a rigorous cross-sectorial and systemic methodology that includes a simplified Life Cycle Assessment to enable the calculation of the climate mitigation potential of various CCU technologies. This should be rolled out beyond the EU, for example through the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• The development and agreement of funding criteria for candidate CCU projects, requiring them to be feasible and green, to be superior to existing alternatives, to demonstrate additional benefits beyond climate mitigation, and to be ready to integrate with existing systems.
• That the EC develops a regulatory and investment framework to enable CCU deployment.
• As well as the SAPEA Evidence Review Report, the opinion drew on a comprehensive review of scientific literature, a wide-ranging consultation with relevant scientific experts and policy, industry and civil society stakeholders.

Mission Innovation
The opinion was published in the week of the third ministerial meeting of Mission Innovation in Malmö, Sweden. Countries and organisations participating in Mission Innovation, including the European Commission on behalf of the EU, have joined forces to accelerate the clean energy revolution.

The week of the meeting also saw the publication of a summary of the Mission Innovation Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) Expert’s Workshop held in late September 2017 in Houston, Texas. The Workshop brought together 260 of the world’s leading CCUS experts from academia and industry to evaluate the most promising R&D avenues for enhancing CCUS processes.
The goals of the Workshop were to assess current gaps in CCUS technologies and to identify the most promising directions for basic research (Priority Research Directions, or PRDs) that are needed to achieve long-term global carbon management.

The report, ‘Accelerating Breakthrough Innovation in Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage’ includes the 30 PRDs established by experts at the Workshop. These PRDs encompass opportunities for understanding and improving materials, chemical processes, and other scientific and technical areas required to develop the next-generation technologies needed for efficient, cost-effective management of carbon emissions. The PRDs were created from panel discussions covering four subcategories: Carbon Capture; Carbon Utilisation; Carbon Storage; and Cross-Cutting CCUS Topics.

Phoenix report
Finally, at the beginning of May a summary report on the first PHOENIX European Stakeholder workshop that took place on 22 March was published.

At the workshop, that was held in Frankfurt, participants discussed the future of CO2 valorisation in the European context with a strong focus on demonstration and subsequent implementation of technologies. The summary as well as the guiding questions for the workshop are now available to download from the Pheonix website.

Registration open for second RoadToBio Stakeholder Workshop

Registration is now open for the second RoadToBio stakeholder workshop on biobased opportunities for the chemical industry. The workshop is organised by the RoadToBio consortium and will take place on Tuesday 19 June 2018 - the day before the SusChem Annual Stakeholder event - in Brussels. The workshop will introduce and discuss the biobased opportunities identified within the project for the chemical industry to increase its biobased portfolio.

Over the past year, RoadToBio has identified opportunities to switch fossil process chains in the chemical industry to biobased alternative methods. For this purpose, the technical side was analysed and complemented with studies on public perception and regulatory barriers. In this way nine 'sweet spots' were identified, which are to be worked out in detail in a roadmap to show the possibilities for how biobased alternatives can be included in the portfolio of the European chemical industry.

The aim of the workshop is to invite participants to take a closer look at these sweet spots, the methods the project has used for their identification and to discuss what is important to develop a new process.

The workshop will take place on 19 June 2018 from 12h30 to 16h15 at Factory forty, Rue des anciens étangs, 40, 1190 Brussels, Belgium.

Register for this event before 08 June by sending an email to Lea Koening at Dechema.

More on RoadToBio

How can the chemical industry in Europe meet the challenges in global markets while becoming more sustainable at the same time? RoadToBio is a Horizon2020 project and funded via the Biobased Industries JU that aims to pave the way for the European chemical industry towards a higher biobased portfolio and competitive success based on the benefits offered by the bioeconomy. The Project will deliver a roadmap for the chemical industry that will specify benefits as well as barriers towards a biobased economy to meet societal needs in 2030.

Recently, many successful production and subsequent uses of biobased building blocks have started up. However, their production and applications are limited. Aside from technical and operational challenges, there is a plethora of hurdles in the fields of regulation and acceptance hindering the chemical industry to increase its biobased portfolio.

The roadmap developed in RoadToBio will contain two main components: first, an analysis of the most promising opportunities (‘sweet spots’) for the chemical industry to increase its biobased portfolio as well as the technological and commercial barriers and the hurdles in regulations and acceptance by society, governing bodies and the industry itself, and second, a strategy, action plan and engagement guide to overcome the existing and anticipated barriers and hurdles as mentioned above.

The roadmap for the chemicals industry to a bioeconomy will describe the actions that need to be done by all stakeholders to achieve the overarching objectives, set out over time, showing inter-dependencies between them. The overarching objectives are to achieve the full exploitation of the bioeconomy within the EU, specifically aiming for a 30% share of biobased products in the chemical industry by 2030.

First Open Call for ‘CloudiFacturing’ announced

The first open call for involvement with the 'CloudiFacturing' project in the European Commission’s I4MS Funding Programme has been announced. This great funding opportunity, especially focused on SME participation, is for: Testing and implementation of the latest high-performance computing and modelling technologies.

The European Union's initiative ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs (I4MS) connects SMEs, startups and mid-cap companies with European Digital Innovation Hubs, who can help companies to test and adopt the latest digital technologies.

CloudiFacturing - Cloudification of Production Engineering for Predictive Digital Manufacturing - is a European Innovation Action (IA) in the framework of Factories of the Future (FoF) PPP with the mission of optimising production processes and producibility, using Cloud/HPC-based modelling and simulation, and leveraging online factory data with advanced data analytics; thus, contributing to the competitiveness and resource efficiency of manufacturing companies, especially SMEs.

To pursue this mission, computationally demanding production engineering and simulation, as well as data analytics tools, are to be provided as Cloud services to ease accessibility and make their use more affordable. With the Open Call, I4MS is seeking innovative use cases in the context of the project’s mission.

Use case impact

The use cases should clearly state their industrial impact for the involved manufacturing companies, based on their expected benefit from exploiting computational engineering and production services and workflows powered by the CloudiFacturing technology.  

The call comprises:

1. simulations of manufacturing processes or manufacturing tools,
2. leveraging factory data to learn from it, and
3. optimising manufacturing processes and/or the manufacturability of goods

The use cases need to be driven by the ultimate end user, preferably SMEs. Seven or more Application Experiments are planned to be funded in this call which has an overall European Commission contribution of roughly EUR 700 000.

The call opening date is 1 July 2018 and the closing date will be 30 September 2018. The duration of the successful funded experiments will be 12 months from 1 January to 31 December 2019.

More information including how to access the call through regional Digital Innovation Hubs can be found in this download document and/ or via this web link.

Why Horizon Europe?

On 2 May 2018, the European Commission announced the proposed budget of EUR 100 billion and the name of the next EU Research & Innovation Framework Programme for 2021-2027: Horizon Europe. But why the name? European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, explained the rationale behind the new name in a recent blog.

Names are important and the name of the next Research and Innovation Framework Programme, provisionally titled FP9, will be Horizon Europe. Carlos Moedas explains the thinking behind the new brand:

“Horizon, because our brand means excellence. Over the past few years, the name "Horizon 2020" has sent a clear message across the globe: excellence. We have built a global reputation as a world leader in research and innovation programming, and it is for this reason that we believe the successor to Horizon 2020 should capitalise on this strong brand name. With Horizon Europe, we are enacting an evolution not a revolution. Building on the success of the past is putting our best foot forward for the future."

"Europe, because we are proud of our collective strength. In Europe, as we face a period of poly-crises – economic, political and social – EU added value is important, now more than ever. Individually as Member States we are strong, but together as 27 our research and innovation potential is untold. The name "Horizon Europe" also speaks to our pride, because our Union is something we should be infinitely proud of. Too often we focus on the negative at a time when we should be celebrating our achievements. But with this new name we usher in an era of shouting about the EU as a success story.”

Above all, by bestowing the name Horizon Europe on the next framework programme, we are bridging the past and the future of research and innovation in Europe.

Next steps
What are the next steps? The Commission is due to publish an official proposal for Horizon Europe, containing a full budget breakdown, on June 7. When this proposal has been adopted by the Commission, several months of tough negotiations with the Council and the European Parliament will commence before the adoption and launch of Horizon Europe on 1 January 2021.

SusChem will continue to contribute positively to the Horizon Europe process and discussion that has been a very collaborative and co-creative exercise so far.

That discussion will continue at the SusChem 2018 Stakeholder event on 20 June. Register now to make your voice heard!

Spotlight on Advanced Process Technologies at #SusChem2018

Join us at the 2018 SusChem Stakeholder Event - #SusChem2018 - your number one destination for innovation policy dialogue and debate this summer. The 2018 Stakeholder event takes place at the Thon Hotel City Centre in Brussels on 20 June 2018 and will give you the opportunity to voice your priorities and help define SusChem’s input into the next EU Framework Funding Programme: Horizon Europe.

This year’s theme is "The Future of Research & Innovation in Europe: Defining Technology Priorities for Sustainable Growth" and will bring together global audiences, senior players from the chemical industry, academia, research technology organisations (RTOs) and EU institutions to address common innovation challenges and debate priorities crucial to the sustainability of the European chemical and biotechnology sectors.

At the event Stakeholder input will be collected through two carefully designed parallel breakout sessions: one on Advanced Materials and the other on Advanced Process Technologies. Input from both sessions will contribute to our future strategic research and innovation agenda beyond 2020.

Spotlight on Advanced Process Technologies

Advanced Process Technology developments are crucial to the transition to a more circular, energy efficient, and carbon neutral industry and feature at #SusChem2018. Watch our social spotlight video 'MAKE' on Advanced Processes with Sophie Wilmet from the SusChem Management Team:

Watch out for future Social Spotlights on Advanced Materials (CREATE) and Digital Technologies (LEVERAGE).

All three of these SusChem Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) featured in SusChem’s recent white paper on the potential for KETs in Horizon Europe. The white paper outlined the major technology developments and initiatives needed to ‘create’ advanced materials, ‘develop’ advanced process technologies and ‘leverage’ digital technologies.

SusChem speakers

Our keynote speakers include: Signe Ratso, Deputy Director-General – Directorate Research and Innovation (RTD), EU Commission; Joanna Dupont-Inglis, Director of Industrial Biotechnology at EuropaBio, and SusChem Board Member; Markus Steilemann, Chief Commercial Officer & Member of Management Board, Covestro and Chair of the SusChem Board; and Marco Mensink, Director General of Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council.

Register today for a chance to define the technology priorities needed to shape Europe’s sustainable future. You can download a full list of speakers here.

KETs 4.0 in Horizon Europe

On 24 April 2018, the Commission’s High Level Group on Industrial Technologies released its Re-finding industry – Defining Innovation report, which makes recommendations on EU research and innovation priorities for industry in the next funding programme (FP9, now named Horizon Europe). A preliminary version of the report was released to coincide with EU Industry Days event in February 2018.

The European Commission appointed the High-level Strategy Group on Industrial Technologies to assess, discuss, and recommend support for research and innovation in the area of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) – and area of intense interest for SusChem.

The report proposes two new KETs: artificial intelligence, and security and connectivity. The group also advises that, while biotechnology should be broadened to “life sciences”, the EU has to continue to prioritise advanced manufacturing technologies, advanced materials and nanotechnologies, micro-/nano-electronics and photonics.

With the right level of ambition and investment, KETs will contribute to support growth and democracy through stronger citizens’ engagement, and prosperity through more equality and better jobs.

Industry innovation
Pierre Barthelemy, Cefic executive director for innovation said: “Cefic welcomes the recommendations of the HLG to have digitalisation integrated into the KETs, in order to advance processes technologies, materials development and new business model creation.”

In this report, the HLG acknowledges a strong EU economy requires a strong industry. Economic growth should be coupled with manufacturing and service. “If Europe wants to be strong in manufacturing, we will need innovation and a new industry policy that gives high priority to KETs,” concluded Barthelemy.

KETs enable cross-sectorial industrial application and are instrumental in addressing societal challenges. The HLG recommends – in view of the Digital transformation and upcoming Horizon Europe / FP9 Framework programme – the following changes for KETs:

KETs conference

KETs will be discussed at the upcoming conference on “The Role of Key Enabling Technologies for Europe’s Competitiveness” organised by , the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the European Union, the German chemical industry association (VCI) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI) on Tuesday, 15 May 2018, from 15:30 to 18:30.

The event will take place at the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the European Union, Rue Jacques de Lalaing 8-14, 1040 Brussels. Prior registration is compulsory for this event.

Commission proposes R&I Budget Boost for Horizon Europe (FP9)

On 2 May 2018 the European Commission published its proposal for the European Union’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) covering the period 2021-2027. You can find details of the proposed MFF here.

Despite the potential financial consequences of the departure of the UK from the EU, the Commission has proposed an increase in the budget for Research and Innovation activities to EUR 97.9 billion EUR for the next Research Framework Programme 2021-2027 provisionally named FP9 and now officially entitled ‘Horizon Europe’. Horizon Europe will be the EU’s biggest ever research and innovation funding programme.

The reasoning behind the naming of  'Horizon Europe' is explained by Commissioner Carlos Moedas here.

Funding for research and innovation and for the ERASMUS programme are the only budget lines being increased compared with the current MFF. This proposal will now be subject to extensive discussions within and between the Commission and the European Council and European Parliament.

Chemical Industry positive
The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) reacted positively to the proposal, commending the level of ambition and commitment for Research & Innovation in the European Commission’s proposal

Increasing the budget foreseen for Horizon Europe sends a clear message: Europe wants to continue to be one of the leading continents in a global innovation race.

Innovation is essential for the EU to grow a low carbon, circular and digital economy and to continue generating jobs and attracting investments. Cefic will be happy to work with the EU institutions to ensure that funding will be used to further strengthen Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) to develop high value-added products and processes.

Marco Mensink, Cefic Director General said: “This ambitious funding for research and innovation under the MFF is a good start. It shows that the European Commission is serious about making the EU a global innovation hub – a vision that we hope the Council and the European Parliament can only support”.

Sustainable KETs
In preparation for Horizon Europe, SusChem has outlined its position on what can be achieved by Key Enabling Technologies (KETs). In a White paper on KETs and FP9/ Horizon Europe published earlier this year the technology platform outlined the major technology developments and initiatives needed to:

• Create Advanced Materials for use in energy efficiency (e.g., light weight), renewable electricity production and energy storage (e.g., batteries elements), or smart functionalities responding to stimuli (e.g., self-repair),
• Develop Advanced Process Technologies, including Industrial Biotechnology, for more sustainable production including through utilisation of alternative carbon feedstock (waste, biomass, CO2) and alternative energy sources, and
• Leverage Digital Technologies for use in advanced process control and materials modelling, to enable disruptive business models and to create new customer experiences.

You can read the full paper here.