Six Model EU Regions to lead way towards Sustainable Chemical Industry

The European Commission has selected six 'model regions' to lead the way towards a sustainable EU chemical industry. The announcement (on 26 January 2016) of the selection of the six model regions in the field of sustainable chemicals production kicks off the European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service which met for the first time this week. And Cefic and SusChem will be helping to deliver support to the selected regions.

The six 'model demonstrator regions' in Europe are Andalusia (Spain), Groningen-Drenthe (The Netherlands), Kosice (Slovakia), Scotland (United Kingdom), South and Eastern Ireland (Ireland) and Wallonia (Belgium).

The regions have been selected from 28 applicants from EU regions, and will receive advisory support from the 'European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service' (ESCS) – a consortium led by the European Commission and CIRCE (the Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption). Cefic and SusChem will work with CIRCE and other partners to provide support to the six selected regions.

The aim of the initiative is to encourage investments in sustainable chemicals production in Europe that will contribute to the development of the circular economy, for example by taking advantage of domestically available feedstock such as biomass, waste or CO2.

Cefic and SusChem have been very supportive of collaboration within and between chemical regions based on concepts such as Industrial Symbiosis. This was demonstrated by Cefic-SusChem participation in the Chemical Regions for Resource Efficiency (R4R) FP7 project and expressed in the SusChem position paper on Circular Economy (see below). Participation in this tender continues and expands this support.

Call background
In a call for the expression of interest in September 2015, the Commission asked for applications from regional organisations interested in developing ambitious strategies to support sustainable chemicals in Europe. The final aim is to attract new investments in industrial projects in the chemicals sector, thereby also contributing to the industry policy objective of raising the GDP share of manufacturing in Europe. The call also intended to lead to further development of coherent policies, such as those related to the circular economy and low carbon economy, industrial symbiosis as well as removing investment bottlenecks.

The applications submitted clearly show the commitment of many regions in Europe to move towards circular economy and low carbon economy models, by using renewable resources for chemicals production. Experiences from the initiative will be shared with other interested European regions, to boost cooperation between the chemicals sector and other sectors, like agriculture, forestry, energy intensive industries, waste management and recycling.

SusChem and the circular economy

Since its inception in 2004 SusChem has inspired numerous research and innovation activities that address major European societal issues. SusChem’s solutions are based on sustainable enabling technologies developed by the chemical industry and its partners in academia, research and technology organisations, and other industrial players from a wide variety of different value-chains and sectors. Many of these technologies are essential to the implementation of a sustainable circular economy.

In October 2015 SusChem published a position paper on the Circular Economy. You can download the paper here.

The paper has three main messages:

A sustainability-based approach is needed
The integration of all aspects of sustainability is essential to the development of a circular economy in order to effectively ensure a positive impact on society while minimising environmental impact and maintaining economic growth.

Technology development is required for a sustainable circular economy
A circular economy cannot be achieved only through implementation of new regulations, services and business models.  Advanced technologies are essential to enable a better use of existing resources along the whole life cycle to develop new production and recycling paths – and the expertise of the chemical industry as a material supplier is highly valuable and important here. In particular SusChem believes that the principle technology developments should take place in the following three areas:

• Utilisation of sustainable alternative feedstock including  secondary raw materials, ligno-cellulosic biomass, waste or CO2 from industrial flue gases. 
• Design of sustainable materials enabling eco design of ‘products’ that are easy to recycle while maintaining or improving performance.
• Improved efficiency for production processes to maximise the use of all resources entering the system including primary and secondary raw materials, water, and energy.

These technologies are more fully described in the SusChem’s 2015 Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) and should be supported through the appropriate European funding instruments.

Coherence and stability over time for the policy framework is critical for European leadership
To contribute fully to a sustainable economy, the circular economy policy should be developed in coordination with other related policies such as the Energy Union Package. Policy coherence, as well as policy stability over time, is essential to establish a regulatory framework that enables investment in sustainable, resource efficient and innovative technologies in Europe and ensures European leadership in sustainable/clean technologies.

Innovation across Regions: Shaping Solutions for Resource Efficiency in Europe

To mark the end of the successful three-year SusChem-inspired FP7 project Chemical Regions for Resource Efficiency (R4R), the project team will be presenting its final findings and recommendations on 30 September in Nice, France. The R4R closing event will be part of the major ECCE10 + ECAB3 + EPIC5 conference.

The combined 10th European Congress of Chemical Engineering, 3rd European Congress of Applied Biotechnology and 5th European Process Intensification Conference is the perfect venue to present the R4R findings.

The R4R workshop will gather policymakers, regional experts, captains of industry and academia to hear the key learnings from the project and provides an excellent discussion forum to exchange and discuss ideas on how chemical and related industries along their various chemical value chains can be transformed into eco-efficient, high-technology solution providers – and a key enabling element of the circular economy.

At the R4R workshop you can:

• Learn about the role of regions in promoting resource efficiency
• Discuss with policy makers, industrial players, entrepreneurs and academia during our networking breaks
• Engage in discussions during dedicated panel debates with mentors from R4R's four flagship initiatives to implement recommendations for a resource efficient Europe
• Hear about resource efficiency success stories with keynote speeches from representatives from R4R's six European regions
• Explore our exhibition space
• Shape future prospects for the R4R flagship initiatives including topics such as industrial symbiosis, education and bio-based SMEs.

A complete overview of the workshop will be available soon, but the draft agenda is available now.

Register now!
To register for the R4R workshop you need to register for the entire ECCE 10 + ECAB 3 + EPIC 5 conference that takes place from 26 September to 1 October. A special Early-Bird rate is offered for the first 150 persons who register at this link! The discount code is: ECCE-CEFIC1

The full ECCE 10 + ECAB 3 + EPIC 5 conference programme can be accessed here.

For more information, please contact Jacques Komornicki, Cefic Innovation Manager. We look forward to seeing you in September in Nice!

About R4R
Under the Chemical Regions for Resource Efficiency (R4R) project, launched in late 2012, six complementary European chemical regions came together to overcome fragmentation and create a platform for international collaboration on resource efficiency. A Joint Action Plan was developed comprising tools and best practise to improve the triple helix collaboration between the participating regions involving industry, academia and public sector.  Find out more at the R4R website.

R4R Fuel Cell Conference in Szczecin

A conference on 'Fuel cells – energy and transportation – design, prototyping, implementation' is to be held in Szczecin, Poland on 22 April 2015. The event is supported by the SusChem inspired FP7 project Chemical Regions for Resource Efficiency (R4R) and will bring together all the important actors along the hydrogen and fuel cell value chain in Europe.


The conference will cover all aspects of the hydrogen and fuel cell value chain. Opening presentations will describe the development of hydrogen powered public transport in Szczecin and give an overview of the progress in fuel cells, before looking at the value chain in detail during the main morning session. After lunch the focus moves onto technical solutions.

The agenda for the conference can be downloaded here.

Currently over 60 attendees from six different countries will be joining the event. To book your place contact the conference organisers with your contact details (name, organization, email). The deadline for registration is 15 April 2015.

About R4R
Launched in late 2012, R4R is funded for three years under the European Commission’s FP7 Research and Innovation Framework Programme. The ‘Chemical Regions for Resource Efficiency (R4R)’ project aims to overcome fragmentation of European ambitious and innovative regions. Through its methodology, R4R could lead the path to a range of promising and positive impacts on resource efficiency.

R4R brings together six complementary EU Regions (Aragon in Spain, Göteborg in Sweden, North Rhine–Westphalia in Germany, the Port of Rotterdam and the South-West regions in the Netherlands, and West Pomerania in Poland), each with their own public and private research and innovation expertise. The R4R project aims to achieve a major step improvement in regional and transnational cooperation among its participating regions and will develop practices, tools and examples which can be easily disseminated to and adopted by multiple European regions to improve regional and cross-regional collaboration in general, and in the process industry on resource efficiency in particular.

R4R will create a platform for international collaboration on resource efficiency with clusters in third countries to improve and accelerate innovation and promote European eco-innovative technologies globally. To find out more visit the R4R website.