Hybrid article

The latest issue of Chemistry and Industry (C&I) magazine contains a comprehensive article on the joint SusChem - DPI Hybrid Materials Workshop held in Luxembourg in early March.

The Hybrid Workshop article by C&I deputy editor Cath O' Driscoll is directly accessible via the C&I website. The same issue of C&I also contains a leader column by editor Neil Eisberg that links the Hybrid Workshop with a presentation made by Wolfgang Plischke of Bayer and vice president of Cefic in April to the European Parliament's Industry Research and Energy (ITRE) committee that called for one-third of EU research funding to be allocated to innovation projects in FP8.

SusChem: the Value Chain Approach

SusChem's chairman Prof. Rodney Townsend was interviewed by Alex Scott from Chemical Week at the very successful 8th SusChem Stakeholder event in Lyon on 4 May. In the video interview Rodney explains SusChem's future plans and aspirations.

A related article on the Lyon event is available to Chemical Week subscribers on their website.

BEEM-UP to boost building energy efficiency

A FP7 project proposal involving the SusChem inspired Smart Energy Home partnership has received a positive evaluation and entered the negotiation phase with the European Commission.

The 'Building Energy Efficiency for Massive market UPtake' (BEEM-UP) project will be a four-year undertaking with 20 partners to collaborate on the development and demonstration of technologies to renovate existing residential multi-family buildings. The project hopes to demonstrate the economic, social and technical feasibility of retrofitting existing buildings to achieve drastically reduced energy consumption.

BEEM-UP would be implemented in three sites (France, the Netherlands and Sweden) using innovative materials to achieve a 75% reduction in space heat energy consumption, as well as reducing the energy need for hot water and lighting.

For more information visit the SEH website or contact the
SEH partnership.

BECOTEPS to discuss bio-economy opportunities at European Parliament

The opportunities for the European bio-economy will be discussed at a seminar organised by BECOTEPS at the European Parliament in Brussels on 5 May.

SusChem is one of nine European Technology Platforms that are party to the BECOTEPS (The Bio-Economy Technology Platforms join forces to address synergies and gaps between their Strategic Research Agendas) project.

The seminar will be hosted by four MEPs: Giles Chichester (UK), Teresa Riera Madurell (Spain), Paolo de Castro (Italy), and Romana Jordan Cizelj (Slovenia).

The meeting will be a key opportunity for a cross-section of stakeholders to consider challenges such as food security, energy, sustainability and smart bio-products and discuss new concepts developed jointly by the ETPs that can best address these challenges.

MEP Giles Chichester will welcome the participants. He will be followed by Karin Metzlaff from the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) who will outline the concept of the bio-economy and the various sectors this brings together. Then Maive Rute, European Commission Director for Biotechnologies, Agriculture, and Food Research, will present her vision of the bio-economy.

After these introductions, three experts will give presentations: Prof. Gerd Harzer from Kraft Foods with talk about ‘Sufficient and better Food’; Dr. Dirk Carrez of EuropaBio will describe ‘Smart Bioproducts’, and Ulrich Schurr from the Jülich Research Centre will present on ‘Stewardship for Natural Resources and Future Generations’.

These talks will initiate discussion not only on the specific issues presented, but also on the bio-economy at large and what various stakeholders can do in research, innovation, education and policy to make this a reality.

The meeting starts at 16:30 and will be followed by a reception in the early evening. Due to limited numbers participation is by invitation only. If you would like to participate please contact Dorothee Bongaerts at EPSO before 30 April.

BECOTEPS
The FP7 Specific Support Action (SSA) BECOTEPS was formally launched in March 2009 and is funded for two years. The project aims to increase coordination between its participating ETPs and develop recommendations for better interaction between stakeholders along product supply chains, promote sustainability, and address research synergies and knowledge gaps.
The project brings together the nine ETPs involved in the Knowledge-based Bio-Economy (KBBE) thematic area. In addition to SusChem these are:
- Plants for the Future
- Food for Life
- Farm Animal Breeding
- Global Animal Health
- Aquaculture
- Forest-Based Sector
- Biofuels; and
- Agricultural Engineering and technologies.

The European Feed Technology Center (EUFETEC) also participates in the project.

SusChem Flanders to launch at i-SUP 2010

On Wednesday, April 21 the Flanders' Strategic Initiative for Sustainable Chemistry (FISCH), initiated by essenscia flanders, is organising a special meeting during the i-SUP 2010 Conference. The event will introduce the FISCH initiative and its forthcoming position as a regional/ national platform within SusChem.

The meeting will be held in the Bach room of the ‘Oud Sint-Jan’ (Old Saint John’s Hospital) conference facility in the centre of the beautiful medieval town of Bruges and the event starts at 14:00.

Carl Van der Auwera from essenscia flanders will introduce the roadmap and business plan for FISCH and Ger Spork Innovation Manager at Cefic R&I will outline SusChem’s action plan at the European level.

Posters papers describing initiatives in sustainable chemistry are welcome and registration for the FISCH/ SusChem Flanders event is easy. Just send an e-mail to Luc Van Ginneken also indicating if you will present a poster or not.

i-Sup2010
Registration for the FISCH/SusChem Flanders event is free of charge, but is part of the larger i-SUP 2010 Conference that is taking place in Bruges from April 18 to 21.

i-SUP 2010 is a multi-level conference on sustainable production organised by VITO (the Flemish Institute for Technological Research).

A large part of the conference is devoted to sustainable chemistry including presentations from guest speakers including Sigurd Buchholz (Bayer Technology Services), Stephan Freyer (BASF), Jacco van Haveren (Wageningen University), Paul Watts (Hull University), Melvin Koch (University of Washington) and Evan Beach (Yale University).

In addition, more than 20 speakers will talk about the latest developments in bio-based chemistry, process intensification, and the European and US vision and strategy for sustainable chemistry.

For more information and registration visit the i-SUP 2010 Conference website.

F3 Factory features at CHISA/ECCE 2010

An overview of the F³ Factory aims, objectives and technical challenges will be presented during a session on European projects at the 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (CHISA) and 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE) 2010.

The European Projects session is one of eleven parallel events to be held during the joint CHISA/ECCE Congress in Prague, Czech Republic from 28 August to 1 September this year. The F³ Factory will feature alonside two complimentary FP7 funded pojects: COPIRIDE and PILLs.

A large number of papers will feature during the the F³ Factory session including:

- Sigurd Buchholz and Tobias Grömping of Bayer Technology Services (project co-ordinators) will present an overview of the aims/objectives and early stage developments of the F³ Factory project;

- Consortium partners, Britest and Procter & Gamble, will present a joint paper on the 'Methodology required for F³ Factory process design in large scale continuous plants';

- AstraZeneca, Britest, Newcastle University and the Technical University Denmark will present a joint paper on 'F³ Factory process design for fine chemical and pharmaceutical transformations';

- TU Dortmund University and Arkema will present a joint paper on 'Process intensification of n-butyl acrylate synthesis using catalytic distillation - a theoretical study';

- Ruhr-University Bochum, University of Paderborn, TU Dortmund University and Bayer Technology Services will present a joint paper on 'Intensified absorption and distillation devices for modular chemical production processes'.

In addition several industrial and academic partners in the consortium will present posters on their activity in the F³ Factory project.

The CHISA Congress is a major biennial event for the European chemical and process engineering community which brings together leading academics and key industrialists involved in the academic interface. It is therefore an ideal platform to showcase the key European projects that seek to address major transformational challenges in this sector as well as to engage with potential stakeholders from the wider European community.

For more information visit the F³ Factory website.

Rethinking Water: SusChem + WSSTP

Today on World Water Day, SusChem is pleased to announce its partnership with the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WSSTP).

The cooperation has set out a high-level roadmap for sustainable water use in an integrated water management system between the chemical industry, urban water and value chain partners.

The WHO ministerial meeting on Environment and Health that took place in Parme, Italy earlier in March identified a lack of clean water due to insufficient infrastructure and climate change as a serious threat to children’s health, one which it plans to address. The new SusChem approach to water management will mean water for public use and water used in industry would no longer need to compete for the same resources. The integrated water management system put forward by SusChem and the WSSTP will include water reuse, complementary water streams, and reduced water consumption.

Future materials and processes like renewable feedstocks and biotechnology which are water intensive will also be addressed by the project which aims to provide a new framework for water use. The overall collaboration has been very positively received by the European Commission and a project proposal, within the EU’s FP7 2010 programme for funding, has received a positive evaluation response. In the next stage, SusChem and WSSTP hope to be able to present a demonstration project.

“SusChem’s cooperation with the value chain shows how working in a complementary way is far superior to competing for resources. It reflects SusChem’s strategic agenda which is to harness innovation to respond to societal challenges” said Cefic Innovation Manager Ger Spork. “Rethinking the traditional [approach] will help industry tackle water use in a world where the resource is already under pressure and should be treated as a valuable raw material instead of a simple utility.”

SusChem’s value chain cooperation responds to the European Commission’s recommendations in the Expert Group on Technology Platforms published in October 2009 and the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Chemical Industry.

For more information email the SusChem secretariat.