The SusChem News Interview: Joanna Dupont-Inglis

SusChem was created with a mission to revitalise and inspire European chemistry and industrial biotechnology research, development and innovation in a sustainable way to respond to pressing societal challenges. Industrial biotechnology has always been a significant key enabling technology for SusChem and the Bioeconomy a priority policy area. And this continues as the platform works towards a new strategic innovation and research agenda for Horizon Europe.

EuropaBio was one of the founding partners of the platform. SusChem News recently caught up with Joanna Dupont-Inglis, Secretary-General of EuropaBio to get her views on SusChem’s achievements and what the future may hold for the platform.

Joanna has been a tremendous supporter of SusChem and its initiatives for many years and has recently stepped down from the SusChem board. Agnes Borg, EuropaBio's Director of Industrial Biotechnology, is now the organisation's representative on the SusChem management board.

Joanna has worked in Brussels for almost 20 years for a variety of industry groups, including CEFIC sector groups. A UK/Irish national with a background in Environmental Science and European Studies, she became directly involved with SusChem when she was appointed as Communications Manager with EuropaBio in 2009. Her role increased when she became Director of Industrial Biotech in April 2011. In 2016 Joanna was appointed as chair of the EU Bioeconomy Stakeholders Panel and since September 2018 Joanna has been EuropaBio’s Secretary General.

SN: How has SusChem been for you?

JDI: Being part of SusChem over the last ten years has been a great privilege, having given me the opportunity to work with experts, sometimes from quite different perspectives, who share a collective passion for the potential of chemistry and biotech.

The platform has grown and integrated a wider European community of industry, technology platforms and academia that is working to provide sustainable solutions to European challenges. SusChem successfully expanded the breadth and range of people involved in its work through its stakeholder engagement events encouraging cross-disciplinary work, helping to form consortia and reaching out along value chains to other organisations and initiatives. The network of SusChem National Technology Platforms, incorporating 17 countries across Europe, has been really significant  here too.

A big success for SusChem has also been its role to capture and articulate the benefits that sustainable chemistry and biotech to many of the major challenges facing our society and to global targets such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It has done this by boosting awareness and visibility of research and innovation initiatives in sustainable biotech and chemistry.

SN: What do you see as the main ‘concrete’ achievements of the ETP?

JDI: The establishment of the SPIRE Public Private Partnership (SPIRE) and the BioBased Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) are major achievements which SusChem helped work towards establishing. Many members of the SusChem board and the wider SusChem community were active and effective in advocating for the solutions and advantages that could be delivered via these two PPPs.

It’s really rewarding to see the hundreds of projects, focused on renewability, resource efficiency and climate change mitigation, that are now being delivered through these two initiatives and the valuable role of SusChem in helping to contribute to these two strategic research and innovation frameworks. The research and innovation outcomes from SPIRE and BBI are also demonstrating huge value-added potential for sustainable chemistry and industrial biotechnology by boosting jobs and growth in Europe while also ensuring environmental benefits.

The PPPs are helping Europe to remain at the cutting edge of technologies in these and other areas. They are bringing people together in new and novel partnerships and establishing links that continue beyond the projects themselves.

SN: How has SusChem influenced research and innovation activities in the EU working towards a functioning bioeconomy?

JDI: The impact and influence of SusChem’s research and innovation agendas are reflected throughout the European Commission’s Framework programmes FP7 and Horizon 2020.

SusChem’s research and innovation agendas have also been a major help here in laying the foundations of the bioeconomy by highlighting relevant technology priorities . SusChem has had a direct input through its own ‘SusChem inspired’ projects in FP7 and Horizon 2020 and also in its influence in supporting the agenda for the BBI’s work programme.

It’s work on sustainable chemistry applications, in topics such as renewable feedstock, holds great potential for benefiting rural and coastal communities through the development of their local and regional bioeconomy in terms of jobs and growth.

SusChem has also been impactful in advocating the link between resource efficiency and the bioeconomy, providing the basis for synergies with the circular economy.

SN: How do you see the platform’s role developing in Horizon Europe?

JDI: The new SusChem’s SIRA, to be published in light of Horizon Europe, will be really important here.  On a personal level, I’m excited to see how in the future SusChem will change the perception of CO2 and CH4 from being ‘’problem GHGs’’ to valuable feedstocks. Although the exact nature and functioning of Horizon Europe’s missions are still to be clarified, their raison d’etre is to use research and innovation to deliver tangible benefits that citizens are looking for to provide a healthier, more sustainable future for them and generations to come. Consumers are becoming more and more engaged in sustainability issues and, therefore, in what they buy and use. SusChem could have a role here through engaging with the public to showcase what can be achieved; demonstrating the options and impact that sustainable chemistry and industrial biotechnology can deliver.

The platform also has a role in encouraging academia to provide the courses and resources to ensure we are giving people the right skills and knowledge to enable a more sustainable society.

SusChem is very well placed, thanks to its collective expertise, to contribute to these missions. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how many of the proposed missions could succeed without input from biotech and sustainable chemistry. SusChem can deliver on these urgent needs and will continue to play a key role in the movement to ensure society uses our natural resources as sustainability as possible going forward for the benefit of everyone.

KETs Impact: Self-assembling polymers enable efficient semiconductor fab

The recent SusChem White paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’ included a number of success stories highlighting publicly funded innovation involving KETs and the SusChem News blog is featuring a selection of these fruitful 'SusChem inspired' initiatives.

KETs are technologies selected for their ability to address global challenges, support the development of new products, and stimulate economic growth.

Sustainable chemistry is essential to the technological advance of KETs including advanced materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, industrial biotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and photonics. SusChem's key enabling technologies provide the critical building blocks for the solutions needed to achieve a sustainable low carbon circular economy. You can find out more here.

Our ninth KETs success story highlights PLACYD, a FP7 project funded via the Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership (ECSEL) Joint Undertaking, and led by Arkema to establish a dedicated material manufacturing facility to produce block copolymers meeting the rigorous standards required for use in industry as nanolithographic templates for electronics and semiconductors. PLACYD brought together leading researchers and industries to allow for the first time the integration of synthesis through to wafer scale production and system/device characterisation developing an industrial solution including all key technologies including Materials, Metrology, Integration Processes, and Design tools.

Pilot Line for Self-Assembly Copolymers Delivery

A disruptive technology breakthrough strengthened EU leadership in semiconductors

Public funding aligned an eco-innovation system. Synergies enabled a breakthrough development

The semiconductor industry economy relies on geometrical scaling of transistors to insure performances improvement, power consumption reduction and cost per transistor reduction. Therefore, the well-known Moore’s law, relating to the reduction of devices’ critical dimensions by a factor of two every 18 months, has been driving the semiconductor roadmap. Up to now, devices scaling has been enabled by continuous improvements of optical lithography. Directed Self Assembly (DSA) lithography is a disruptive patterning technology that no longer relies on optics but on the polymer’s characteristics (composition and molecular weight). In DSA technology, the pattern is included within the material as the molecular weight defines the critical dimensions and the pitch the composition of the pattern.

How was the breakthrough innovation achieved? 

PLACYD project relied on a strong consortium gathering companies and academic laboratories that covered the full eco innovation system and all necessary skills from material to end-users including process and equipment manufacturers. The success of the project was established through synergies and complementarities of the partners along the value chain.

In DSA technology “the pitch is in the bottle”, the polymer and resists quality and reproducibility were key to the success of the technology. Therefore, specific efforts in developing new processes as well as new metrology techniques have been carried out leading to excellent performance and the state of the art in this sector. The metallic contamination of the resist is bellow 10ppb for all metals, the organic purity of the polymer is greater than 99.9% thanks to a unique proprietary technique that allows to discriminate homopolymers from copolymers and the copolymer dispersity has been reduced to less than 1.05.

On the patterning quality aspect, CEA-Leti developed new integration schemes that allows a wide range of configurations while insuring optimum pattern performances. 

Impact

• Increasing European leadership in microelectronics and more specifically in lithography both in terms of academic recognition (more than 60 papers and conferences), Intellectual Property position (i.e. more than 25 patent families were applied for within the project, half of them are already public) and in terms of industrial leadership.
• Commercial products have been launched based on PLACYD results. On the material side, ARKEMA launches its Nanostrength EO material suite that includes a full range of DSA resists for both lamellar and cylindrical patterns ranging from 20 nm to 50 nm pitches. On the design side, project partner MENTOR commercialises the DSA module within its EDA CALIBRE software suite. 

In summary, PLACYD allowed the development of a full DSA solution that covers all key axes of the technology (material, process, metrology and design) strengthening European leadership in semiconductor technology and demonstrating the compatibility of DSA with manufacturing requirements. Moreover, commercial products have been derived from PLACYD developments: the DSA material suite by ARKEMA and DSA software module by MENTOR.

More information

PLACYD - Pilot Line For Self Assembly Copolymer Delivery (FP7 / ECSEL JU GA 621277)

Read the SusChem White Paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’

KETs Impact: Optimising Resource Efficiency in Process Plants

The recent SusChem White paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’ included a number of success stories highlighting publicly funded innovation involving KETs and the SusChem News blog is featuring a selection of these fruitful 'SusChem inspired' initiatives.

KETs are technologies selected for their ability to address global challenges, support the development of new products, and stimulate economic growth.

Sustainable chemistry is essential to the technological advance of KETs including advanced materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, industrial biotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and photonics. SusChem's key enabling technologies provide the critical building blocks for the solutions needed to achieve a sustainable low carbon circular economy. You can find out more here.

Our seventh success story looks at the FP7 project MORE that sought to monitor resource efficiency during daily operations of large production plants to influence operational decisions and ensure that plant efficiency is optimised and environmental footprint is constantly minimised.

MORE – Real-time Monitoring and Optimisation of Resource Efficiency in Integrated Processing Plants 

Real-time data and online decision support systems enable IMPACT

MORE has brought the computation, visualisation and use of resource efficiency indicators to a new level by evaluating them online in daily operations, visualising them for operators and managers in a transparent fashion and using them in decision support and optimisation

MORE was a STREP (Small and medium scale focused research project) supported by the European Commission in the field of Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies (NMP) aiming at identifying resource efficiency indicators (REIs) that can support operational decisions in processing plants through the use of real-time data and the implementation of dedicated online decision support systems. MORE ran from November 2013 to February 2017.

How was the breakthrough innovation achieved? 

Within MORE, the academic and research partners Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain and VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland, the solutions providers LeiKon GmbH and S•PACT GmbH, Germany, the industrial partners PETROLEOS DEL NORTE SA (Petronor), Spain, BASF Personal Care and Nutrition GmbH, INEOS Köln GmbH, Germany and LENZING AG, Austria as well as the coordinating consultant inno TSD, France collaborated impressively to develop theoretical results, implement them in practice, publish and standardise them. 

Impact

As key results MORE defined principles for the definition of real-time Resource Efficiency Indicators (REIs) and proposed indicators for integrated chemical plants to be used in the daily operations of continuous and batch processes. They significantly extend available indicators as they cover resources overall and are based on the processing of real-time data that is available in the monitoring and control systems and from innovative analytical measurements. They form the basis for necessary steps from monitoring to improving resource efficiency through model-based real-time decision support provided to plant operators and plant managers.

Technical achievements were reported through the implementation in industrial cases. Two examples:

• At Petronor the MORE partners optimised the distribution of hydrogen. Petronor estimates an economic gain of between EUR one million to EUR five million per annum equivalent to 3-5% of cost savings and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 3.5%. 
• At Lenzing, the specific steam consumption together with the overall cycle cost of the evaporator system was optimised with an economic impact of EUR 575 000 to EUR 825 000 per annum coupled with a significant reduction of direct CO2 emissions from the site by about 0.3%. 

More information
MORE – ‘Real-time Monitoring and Optimization of Resource Efficiency in Integrated Processing Plants’ (FP7 GA 604068) 

Read the SusChem White Paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’.

KETs Impact: 3D-printing for on-demand production

The recent SusChem White paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’ included a number of success stories highlighting publicly funded innovation involving KETs and the SusChem News blog is featuring a selection of these fruitful 'SusChem inspired' initiatives.

KETs are technologies selected for their ability to address global challenges, support the development of new products, and stimulate economic growth.

Sustainable chemistry is essential to the technological advance of KETs including advanced materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, industrial biotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and photonics. SusChem's key enabling technologies provide the critical building blocks for the solutions needed to achieve a sustainable low carbon circular economy. You can find out more here.

The sixth success story in this summer series features a project that developed a successful business model based on rapid, on-demand manufacture of individual spare parts. Exploitation should significantly reduce warehouse stock and associated costs: DIRECTSPARE. Rapid manufacturing technologies, such as 3D-printing (aka Additive manufacturing), can enable fast manufacture of often-complex parts. 

3D-Printing polymer materials

Technology breakthroughs enabled the creation of new business models, investments and jobs

For Evonik DIRECTSPARE was an important project within a longer period of research, development and innovation concerning material for additive manufacturing. Without EU public funding, this project would not have taken place. This would have extended the time to market considerably, resulting in a high risk of being passed by competitors from outside the EU. 

Evonik has performed R&D on polymer materials for 3D-printing for about 20 years and is now commercially producing its first 3D-printing materials. A part of the R&D was done within the EU-Project DIRECTSPARE. A growing quantity of product types in every market and every sector of industry require large warehouses to keep stock for spare parts, with corresponding high costs and complex logistics. This emerging problem is caused by continuously decreasing product lifetime, decreasing time-to-market and increasing regulatory affairs. DIRECTSPARE aimed to find a solution using additive manufacturing (AM) technology, enabling economically viable, and on demand manufacturing of spare parts. 

How was the breakthrough innovation achieved? 

The project consortium consisted of technology providers, engineering companies, equipment producers, material producers, manufacturers, users, management consultants and academia. The DIRECTSPARE project has delivered several business models that allow SMEs to provide local services. Possibilities and challenges for obtaining cost reduction on stocks and warehousing have been identified. The project also learned that to obtain waste reduction and environmental benefits, a life cycle analysis approach needs to be used. One demonstrator part indeed proved that quality improvement, based on use information, can be achieved resulting in lower costs and better margins.

The objective of the DIRECTSPARE business model was for manufacturers to rapidly produce only those spare parts that are required, at a location close to the equipment that needs to be repaired. And also to improve the quality of the spare parts along the way.

The project analysed seven demonstrator parts. The functional and material requirements and the cost model of the original part were taken as the point of departure or baseline. The project team analysed the possibilities to manufacture similar parts using AM. The design, engineering aspects, material selection, production methods, quality issues and business economics of all of these parts were taken into consideration. 

Impact

The project delivered several breakthrough innovations on materials, engineering, process management and quality management. Three viable business models were developed. DIRECTSPARE created a significant networking platform for further development of new 3D-printing powders at Evonik. In February 2018 a production plant for polyamide 12 (PA 12) high performance powders, mainly for the additive manufacturing market became operational in Marl, Germany. The PA 12 material is used in automotive and lightweight design as well as in oil and gas pipelines. In addition to current applications in the automotive sector, Evonik is also very well positioned for the future production of hybrid and electric vehicles. Furthermore, the material is used in the medical sector and in 3D-printing. The investment in a new polyamide production plant secured and created around 10 new jobs.

More information
DIRECTSPARE – ‘Strengthening the industries’ competitive position by the development of a logistical and technological system for “high performance spare parts” that is based on on-demand production’ (FP7 GA 213424)

Read the SusChem White Paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’

KETs Impact: The SusChem flagship for flexible, continuous chemical production

The recent SusChem White paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’ included a number of success stories highlighting publicly funded innovation involving KETs and the SusChem News blog is featuring a selection of these fruitful 'SusChem inspired' initiatives.

KETs are technologies selected for their ability to address global challenges, support the development of new products, and stimulate economic growth.

Sustainable chemistry is essential to the technological advance of KETs including advanced materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, industrial biotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and photonics. SusChem's key enabling technologies provide the critical building blocks for the solutions needed to achieve a sustainable low carbon circular economy. You can find out more here.

Our fifth success story features one of SusChem’s original Flagship projects from FP7 - the F3 Factory – and one of its seven case studies. F3 stood for fast, flexible, future factory. Launched in 2009, the €30 million EU-funded project was a major public-private sector initiative under FP7 that sought to define and demonstrate a new paradigm in modular sustainable chemical production technology. You can find more information on all seven F3 Factory case studies here.

Modularised solutions enabling solvent-free process

Improve the Competitiveness of the European Chemical Industry – F3 Factory

Public funding creates cross-sectorial collaboration, breakthrough technology advancement and fast-track-to-market of new products

BASF was part of the consortium behind the “F3 Factory” project. This consortium – consisting of 26 partners from academia and industry – aimed to develop an approach for radical modular process design. This concept enabled significant process intensification and at least 25% less energy consumption.

How was the breakthrough innovation achieved? 

The concept of modularised solutions was investigated for different industrial processes. Results from academia were transferred in business case studies and were demonstrated at commercial scale in an open access backbone plant for modular continuous production (INVITE Research Centre). BASF together with Bayer Technology Services have collaborated to demonstrate the concept of multi-product, small-to-medium scale production for high viscous polymers in a solvent-free manufacturing process. This collaboration was supported by Technical University Eindhoven and the University of Paderborn.

Impact

• In addition to the technological advancement achieved in this project, the transfer from batch to continuous of a new solvent-free polymerisation process has demonstrated both cost (30% reduction of energy demand) and environmental (100% solvent reduction) impact for the production of highly viscous polymers.
• The modularisation concept investigated in the demonstration plant furthermore allows a reduction of investment cost (up to 40%) compared to conventional processes and reduced time-to-market (up to 50%).

More information
F3 Factory 'Flexible, fast and future production processes' (FP7 GA 228867) 

Read the SusChem White Paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’

KETs Impact: Creating a paradigm shift in water treatment in the chemical industry

The recent SusChem White paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’ included a number of success stories highlighting publicly funded innovation involving KETs and the SusChem News blog is featuring a selection of these fruitful 'SusChem inspired' initiatives.

KETs are technologies selected for their ability to address global challenges, support the development of new products, and stimulate economic growth.

Sustainable chemistry is essential to the technological advance of KETs including advanced materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, industrial biotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and photonics. SusChem's key enabling technologies provide the critical building blocks for the solutions needed to achieve a sustainable low carbon circular economy. You can find out more here.

Our fourth success story involves the E4Water: a FP7 project that SusChem and the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WssTP) were directly involved with. The chemical industry provides the highest potential for increasing eco-efficiency in industrial water management and the project addressed crucial process industry needs, to overcome bottlenecks and barriers to enable integrated and energy efficient water management. The main objective was to develop, test and validate new integrated approaches, methodologies and process technologies for a more efficient and sustainable management of water in the chemical industry that could also be adopted in other major industrial sectors.

Water fit-for-purpose management

Economically and ecologically efficiency in the European Chemical Industry

Public funding brought an Innovation Ecosystem together to take on a significant challenge to develop and demonstrate eco-efficient industry water management

Water is a scarce resource and a key element for the development of our society and economy. The chemical industry, as a water user and solution provider of innovative products, technologies and services, offers significant potential for increasing eco-efficiency in industrial water management. To deal with critical challenges, such as the need to reduce water use, wastewater production and energy use, an EU FP7 funded project applied new research and development concepts to boost eco-efficiency and sustainability. E4Water has addressed a wide range of aspects relevant for an efficient integrated industrial water management in practice. Developments provided and demonstrated in the six case studies comprise: utilisation of alternative water sources; treatment of organic and inorganic wastewater streams and concentrates; recovery of valuables and energy from wastewater; linking process water and cooling water networks; combining different scales in water management (process – plant – site – local – regional); introducing tools to optimise water management; Life Cycle Assessment of selected measures; considering regulatory framework aspects. The success of the E4Water project has shown what is possible in the chemical and related process industry sectors in terms of ‘fit for purpose’ water management effectively decoupling industrial production from the use of fresh water, other natural resources and energy. The outcome of E4Water strengthens both, the leadership of the European Water Technology Industry and of position of the European Process Industries.

How was the breakthrough innovation achieved?

The E4Water project did create a complementing consortium with partners from nine EU countries: large chemical enterprises, leading European water sector companies, innovative research and technological development (RTD) centres and universities active in the area of water management. The European Technology Platform for Water (WssTP), the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem), the German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DECHEMA), the SPIRE Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and water authorities were also linked through their members in the project. 

Impact

• Economic impact: Significant economic benefit can be gained, for example, operating expenditure (OPEX) was reduced by up to 30% for every m3 of saved freshwater/year (depending on local conditions); or eliminating the need for incineration (e.g. 5 000 tonnes/annum/plant) together with establishing a business case, leading to revenue generation.
• Environmental impact: 

1. Reduced fresh water uptake of 40-80% resulting in freshwater savings of ~3 million m³/year in one case. 
2. Reduced wastewater production of 30-80%, with close to 100% (loop closure) in one case and resulting in reduction of waste water production by ~2.5 million m3/year in another case. 
3. Resource recovery, efficiently extracting resources from water and returning these to the prime process or a local increase in resource efficiency by use of algae. 
4. Reduced energy use of up to 20% by using low energy technology, heat recovery, or optimising the integrated process with the use of improved modelling.

• Social impact: Water is a key to resource efficiency, climate action and other major societal challenges: Efficient water management is also essential to enhancing resource efficiency, improving energy efficiency and thereby tackling climate change and ensuring the continuing supply of raw materials. The results are also key to implementing process intensification concepts that will form the basis of the chemical and process plants of the future. The E4Water resulted in strengthening the competitive position for Europe's process industry and water industry and keeping Europe an attractive location for industry.

More information
E4Water - Economically and Ecologically Efficient Water Management in the European Chemical Industry (FP7 GA 280756)

Read the SusChem White Paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’

KETs Impact: The SUNLIQUID® and LIGNOFLAG Projects

The recent SusChem White paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’ included a number of success stories highlighting publicly funded innovation involving KETs and the SusChem News blog is featuring a selection of these fruitful 'SusChem inspired' initiatives.

KETs are technologies selected for their ability to address global challenges, support the development of new products, and stimulate economic growth.

Sustainable chemistry is essential to the technological advance of KETs including advanced materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, industrial biotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and photonics. SusChem's key enabling technologies provide the critical building blocks for the solutions needed to achieve a sustainable low carbon circular economy. You can find out more here.

Our second highlighted success story is built around the BBI JU Horizon 2020 project LINGOFLAG that aims to optimise the efficiency and increase the capacity of Clariant’s unique flagship plant for the production of cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues (such as straw) based on its sunliquid® technology as a significant step towards a biobased, circular economy in Europe.

Agricultural residues into biobased chemicals

Innovative process technology reduces Green House Gas (GHG) emissions

The realisation of a first-of-its-kind flagship production plant using a new technology is always a high-risk project with significant higher costs compared to subsequent plants. The support through public-private funded projects helps to de-risk the investment in a production plant and leverages private capital in this important industry sector.

Clariant’s sunliquid® process converts lignocellulosic agricultural residues, such as cereal straw, into cellulosic ethanol or other biobased chemicals in a way that is highly efficient, economic, energy-neutral and sustainable. Sunliquid® contributes to the political objectives of reducing GHG emissions in the transport sector, to support the transformation from a fossil-based economy to a biobased, circular economy through creation of green jobs, especially in rural areas, mobilisation of currently underutilised agricultural residues, boosts to local economies and creation of additional business opportunities, and creation of a sustainable and competitive source of domestic renewable energy for the EU. Sunliquid® is a biotechnological process and hence contributes to the KET biotechnology.

How was the breakthrough innovation achieved?

The sunliquid® process was developed by Clariant for more than 10 years to overcome major technological hurdles like the need for high yields, low energy consumption, and a stable and economic process of cellulosic ethanol production. During this time the process was developed from Technology Readiness level (TRL) 4 to TRL 8. The maturity of the process was developed in pilot plant scale in Munich, Germany. As a subsequent step within the process development the technology was further up-scaled to demonstration scale with Clariant’s pre-commercial plant in Straubing, Germany. This plant is operational since June 2012 and successfully demonstrated the process in an operational and integrated environment. Clariant’s sunliquid® technology is now ready for a flagship production plant for lignocellulosic ethanol.

Various development steps and parts of the sunliquid® process received and still receive funding. The funded projects on Bavarian, National and European level as well the partnership with the region Straubing enabled Clariant to develop the technology and still supports the proof of techno-economic viability of the sunliquid® technology at commercial scale.

Impact

Clariant is investing in a new commercial-scale plant for the production of cellulosic ethanol made from agricultural residues, based on the sunliquid® technology, in the southwestern part of Romania. This undertaking will have the following impact:

• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of up to 95%
• Clariant investment in southwestern Romania of approx. EUR 150 million
• Number of jobs: 80 direct and 300 indirect. 800–900 during construction phase in an underdeveloped region of the country with unemployment rates of 20%
• Additional income for farmers and local businesses: >EUR 20 million
• Additional tax generated in the region: >EUR 1 million annually for the next 20 years
• Regional Development: Industrial plant using agricultural residue as feedstock in a strong agricultural economy along with energy integration of actors along the whole value chain

More information
SUNLIQUID - Large scale demonstration plant for the production of cellulosic ethanol (FP7 GA number 322386)

LIGNOFLAG - Commercial flagship plant for bioethanol production (Horizon 2020/ BBI JU GA number 709606)

Read the SusChem White Paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’

RECREATE launches Green Horizons Scoreboard

RECREATE (REsearch network for forward looking activities and assessment of research and innovation prospects in the fields of Climate, Resource Efficiency and raw mATErials) is a FP7 project led by the Joint Institute for Innovation Policy (JIIP) in which Cefic was a partner. RECREATE established and managed a large network of key stakeholders in the fields of Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. The project has just ended in June 2018.

One of the key elements of the RECREATE project was the development of the RECREATE Green Horizons Scoreboard. The scoreboard gives access to a unique combination of indicators on innovation systems for sustainability, covering EU28 and additional European countries. The scoreboard allows users to make comparative analyses on sustainability innovation across countries, years and innovation systems.

To show potential users the possibilities provided by the Scoreboard, RECREATE has produced an instructional video that takes users through a number of example analyses.

More about RECREATE

The overall objective of RECREATE was to support the development of the European Union’s research funding programme Horizon 2020, with a specific focus on “Societal Challenge 5: Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials”, by providing a concrete evidence base.

To achieve this, RECREATE built on the following specific objectives:

• Assessing the impact of potential break-through innovations in the relevant fields
• Developing scenarios and analysing trends that help to define research and innovation priorities
• Benchmarking Member States' performance in the relevant fields
• Creating and maintaining a broad network of stakeholders that get involved in the above activities
• Transmitting the knowledge produced by the project effectively to policy-makers and other target groups

RECREATE will provide evidence and intelligence concerning the future directions of these research fields. Watch the video below to find out more or go to the RECREATE project website.

BioLinX Online Brokerage: Biobased Business Partnering made easy!

The EU-funded project BioLinX is organising an online brokerage event for the European bioeconomy community on 25 and 26 April. Participation in the brokerage event is free and it can help you to easily identify, contact and meet potential bioeconomy cooperation and business partners. All you need to do is register! 

To do good business means finding the right partners. The BioLinX Online Brokerage is an innovation exchange and a matchmaking platform serving academia, SMEs and large companies. If you are looking for new business partners, exciting inventions, new products and services or investments, BioLinX will connect you with the right people from the European bioeconomy community.

The third BioLinX Online Partnering and Brokerage Event takes place on 25-26 April 2018. Pitch your products, services and technologies and make new contacts in live bilateral online meetings in this international two-day event.

Matchmaking has never been easier 

• Upload your profile and cooperation offer on the brokerage platform.
• Present your business ideas and projects in live bilateral online meetings to CEOs, business developers, technology scouts and potential investors.

Or more effective

• Learn about the latest offers & requests of leading universities, research centres and SMEs.
• Identify promising innovators, contact them and let BioLinX automatically schedule your online meetings.

What are the advantages?

• Saves time and costs.
• Avoids unnecessary business trips.
• Enables experts from all over Europe to participate.
• Makes it quick and easy to pinpoint offers and requests.

Interested? Join the BioLinX Online Brokerage event and find new cooperation and business partners. You can register now for free here.

What is BioLinx?
The Horizon 2020 project BioLinX supports participants in FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects to commercialise their innovative ideas and connects them to markets and regional networks. Don't let your projects' research and development results be shelved- translate them into innovativebioeconomy solutions and products!

Contact BioLinX to find out more via Andreas Scriba at DECHEMA e.V.

SusChem F3 Factory shows synergy of EU Funding

The SusChem flagship F3 Factory project was in the spotlight at the European Commission’s Research and Innovation conference on “Shaping our Future” as an example of how to leverage EU research funding with the use of the Structural Funds. This is one of the key recommendations in the report of the High-Level Group led by Pascal Lamy, released at the conference on 3 July, to launch the debate on the next EU Framework Programme, FP9. Entitled ‘LAB – FAB – APP: investing in the European future we want’, the report delivers a strong message that investing in research and innovation is crucial for the future of Europe in a rapidly globalising world.

To shape our future together, we need to imagine, invent and create. We need research (“Labs”), innovation competitive fabrication (“Fabs”) and applications for the benefit of all (“Apps”). Hence the title of the report: Lab, Fab, App: investing in the future we want.

Launching the report European Commissioner for Research and Innovation Carlos Moedas underlined the crucial role of research and innovation for the future by saying: “Without science and innovation there is no growth. Without science and innovation there are no jobs.”

Reacting to the report on behalf of industry, Jean Pierre Clamadieu, CEO of Solvay and President of the Cefic council, told the conference: “Together with Commissioner Moedas, we can imagine a new FP9 that nurtures a European-based research, innovation and science ecosystem linked to industry".

F3 Factory success

The SusChem visionary project ‘The F3 Factory’ was highlighted at the conference by Marc Lemaitre, Director-General the Commission’s DG REGIO, as a success story showing how research and innovation projects can be combined with EU structural and investment funding and thus achieve rationalisation of EU funding schemes. This is one of the key recommendations of the LAB-FAB-APP report, echoed at the conference.

This F3 Factory FP7 initiative showed how it was possible “to leverage all assets in Europe” said Lemaitre (speaking above). The €30 million F3 Factory project, implemented between 2009 and 2013, was conceived and developed by a SusChem working group and looked to create the future of [chemical] production. The project was hugely successful in developing new modular production processes.

The German region of Nordrhein-Westfalen was then able to use money from the EU Regional Development Fund, and through its smart specialisation strategy has been able to form a new project in order to bring the F3 Factory concept closer to commercialisation for pharmaceutical processes.

The MoBiDik project scaled-up and validated the F3 Factory results showing a potential 40% reduction in capital costs and a 30% reduction in energy consumption. The work is continuing through the MoBiDik Pro project funded by Bayer.

Double R&I budget

The LAB-FAB-APP impact report focuses on proposing guiding principles for designing the post-2020 EU programme for research and innovation; provisionally entitled FP9. The 11 recommendations of the report aim to maximise the impact of future EU research and innovation programmes and each is exemplified by a key action.

Amongst the 11 recommendations in the report are proposals to double the budget of the post-2020 EU research and innovation programme, foster ecosystems that will promote and invest in innovative ideas with rapid scale-up potential through a European Innovation Council, and modernise the education and training of people for a creative and innovative Europe. Other actions look to further simplify EU R&I funding schemes and instruments, stimulate the involvement of citizens, and communicate the results and impact of EU R&I funding better.

The high level group that produced the report was led by Pascal Lamy, former European Commissioner and President Emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institut, and comprised 11 eminent personalities from research, innovation and education including Martin Brudermüller, Chief Technology Officer for BASF.

Water in the Circular Economy: Innovations for Urban Water Treatment

The FP7 project R3Water (Reuse, Recovery and Resource Efficiency: Innovations in Urban wastewater treatment) will be holding its final conference on 30 May 2017 in Brussels. The conference will provide participants with detailed information on the innovations for urban water treatment developed in the project.

The final R3Water project conference entitled ‘Water in the circular economy – innovations for urban water treatment’ will take place from 10:00 on 30 May 2017 at the Representation of the State of Hessen to the EU, 21 Rue Montoyer, 1000 Brussels.

As well as presentations related to the developments made during R3Water, several keynote speakers will give insights on the reuse of water, resource recovery and resource efficiency in urban waste water treatment.

The agenda for the meeting can be downloaded here and the registration form for the event can be found here.

More about R3Water

The R3Water project was funded under the European Commission’s FP7 programme and started in January 2014 for 42 months with a budget of EUR 7.8 million.

Wastewater treatment plants are usually regarded as facilities to avoid emissions from wastewater. Current research and development shows that these plants can be converted and upgraded into production units to provide energy, nutrients, water for re-use and possibly other valuable outputs. This is achieved by improved resource efficiency in the plant as well as through the use of new technologies and business models that allow the re-use of resources from the incoming water.

The main objective of the R3Water project is to demonstrate solutions that support this transition from a treatment plant for urban wastewater to a production unit for different valuable products.

The project consortium, coordinated by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, brings together 12 technological partners from seven European countries.

More information about the R3Water project can be found on the project website and in its brochure.

Modular White Paper builds on F3 Factory results

A new Dechema paper on ‘MODULAR PLANTS’ summarises results from some recently finished publicly funded research and innovation projects that successfully demonstrated the economic and technical benefits of the flexible and modular plant concept for the production of fine and specialty chemicals as well as pharmaceuticals pioneered by SusChem's flagship F3 Factory project.

Important project examples. including examples from the results of the FP7-funded ‘F3 Factory’ project, clearly demonstrate the advantages of operating modular continuous plant processes that are more economical and sustainable than current operations and are only possible due to new types of equipment design, advanced digital process control and online process analytics (PAT).

The Dechema paper discusses the need for further developments including work on standardised interfaces and standards for modular automation, the reliability of modules, sensors and performance control systems, new continuous downstream processing units, how to enable new business and service models that take advantage of flexible and modular plant concept and other boundary conditions such as the regulations required to build and operate such units.

Modular progress
Building on the ‘F3 Factory’ project concept, the Horizon 2020-funded SPIRE project ‘CONSENS’ as one example that is advancing the continuous production of high-value products that meet high quality demands in flexible intensified continuous plants. It achieves this by introducing novel online sensing equipment and closed-loop control of the key product parameters.

If these concepts were applied in industry, the outcomes of the projects could result in significant cost savings and reduction of CO2 emissions (estimated at 176,000 tonnes per year), less consumption of solvents in pharmaceutical and specialty chemical sectors, and a significant acceleration in the development of new products (estimated at two-times faster additional innovations and halving the time-to-market).

The European chemical industry is facing increasing market competition from outside Europe and challenges with product launches in new and often volatile markets that means a fast response to market requirements and reduced investment risk for new plants is required. In addition, shorter product life cycles and smaller product volumes due to diversification and increasing specialisation of product ranges due to increased customer-orientated products are a feature of the market.

"SusChem has highlighted the modular plant concept enabled by the latest digital technologies as one of its current core priorities," says Martin Winter, Cefic Innovation Manager with responsibility for SusChem activities in this area. "And we are convinced such developments can make a very high impact in modernising Europe's chemicals production capabilities, introduce significantly higher resource efficiency, and would position the European chemical industry in the lead in the race for competitiveness and sustainability."

White paper discussion
This Dechema white paper was produced by the ProcessNet Temporary Working Group on “Modular Plants” and included industry representatives from BASF, Bayer, Clariant, Evonik, Invite and Merck as well as the universities of Ruhr-Universität Bochum and TU Dortmund.

The paper assessed the results of recently completed public funded projects that had demonstrated successfully the technical and economic benefits of modular plants and their applicability especially for small to medium scale (typically 0.1 – 1000 tonnes per year) continuous production.

The experts from across the chemical industries agreed that such modular plant concepts have significant economic potential. General concepts for modular production and the required enabling technologies for process intensification have been jointly  developed in projects such as the F3 Factory and CoPIRIDE projects or the ENPRO initiative for improved energy efficiency and process intensification in the German chemical industry.

Writing in a preface to the white paper Dr. Thomas Weber, Chairman of the VCI Committee of Experts Research and Education policy group highlights that these projects have also shown that multiple challenges exist including a lack of standardisation for modules on equipment level, as well as on the level of a complete production plant. This means that 'off the shelf' modules cannot simply be bought on the market, even though it is broadly accepted in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries that this would result in significant advantages in investment costs, time to market and flexibility of production assets.

Associated with this issue is the unmet market need for process control and automation concepts for modular plants. In addition, the discussion of centralised (classical) process control systems versus distributed (modular) process control systems has only just begun. The supporters of a completely modular design strategy envision the various plant modules acting fully automated and autonomously, with communication existing only via interfaces and communication protocols. This would enable a giant leap forward towards full ex-changeability and re-usability for the modular concept. Having an appropriate concept for modulations of process control and automation could become one of the key enablers for modular production plant concepts, said Dr Weber.

There is also need for further development in the field of equipment and apparatus design, for example in separation and purification that could be quickly and directly scaled-up from laboratory to production scale at an acceptable risk. A simple and safe solution for production scale, is number-up instead of a classical scale-up. However, limitations exist as numbering up in many cases can increase investment costs and complexity.

You can download the Dechema White paper here.

It is hoped that this white paper will inspire new ideas and encourage a spirit of innovation across the a cross chemical industry for modular production plant concepts.

SSERR facilitates move from Research to Business

A new Support Services for Exploitation of Research Results (SSERR) initiative for completed and ongoing research projects in the field of energy has been launched by the European Commission. SSERR offers on-demand services to FP7 and Horizon 2020 energy projects to help maximise their value added and impact and to support and advise project partners in the exploitation of results.

Project partners can request support for project risk analysis, exploitation strategy seminars, business plan development, getting assistance for patenting and organising brokerage events, as well as ad hoc assistance. SSERR’s aim is to bridge the gap between research and business.

The aim of the service is to support exploitation of research results. This might result in the creation of a product, process or service; it might mean the establishment of new standards; or the delivery of new training courses or curricula.  Appropriate exploitation leads to innovation, new business, jobs and growth. Exploitation is a crucial element of EU research programmes and SSERR is here to help!

SusChem also supports its stakeholders to exploit the results of SusChem inspired projects through our brokerage events that help consortia building for Commission calls, our support to SMEs through SME workshops and our  Guide to Innovation Funding for SMEs in Europe and our dedication to help bridge the ‘innovation valley of death’ in general and for Key Enabling Technologies in particular.

Who and what of SSERR
There are many reasons to contact SSERR:

• If you have your potentially exploitable results but don’t know how to protect them
• If you need to develop a viable plan for the exploitation and dissemination the research results
• If you want to develop a business plan but don’t know all the items to be considered
• If you are you looking for businesses and investors

SSERR can provide the answers you need using a series of tailored, on demand, free services including:

• Project Risk Analysis to identify the risks and potential obstacles to the future exploitation of project results
• Exploitation Strategy Seminars to brainstorm on key results, and how to address the risks and obstacles associated with exploitation
• Business Plan Development service to assist project partners in commercialisation of results
• Assistance for Patenting and the protection of intellectual property rights
• Brokerage Events to allow projects to present their exploitable results to key investment actors

SSERR services can be accessed at any time during a project life cycle, even after the project has been completed. All that is required is an email from the Project Coordinator to RTD-ENERGY-SSERR@ec.europa.eu requesting SSERR assistance. The Project Coordinator and relevant Commission department then agree on the services and the Commission proposes a consultant who will deliver the service(s). The details are agreed between the Project Coordinator and the consultant under a confidentiality agreement. And all for free!

More information
For further information download the initiative's leaflet, visit the SSERR website, or contact the Commission via email.

E4Water report demonstrates EU Chemical Industry's water eco-efficiency

Today (18 October 2016), the results of the 'SusChem inspired' E4Water project - a ground-breaking water sustainability initiative - were presented by Cefic during a joint task force meeting with the European Commission in Madrid. The project, which was sponsored jointly by the European Commission under the FP7 Research Framework programme and industry stakeholders, produced real-world outcomes in industrial contexts where companies used less energy, less freshwater, and produced less waste water.

Designed to give a major boost to the water efficiency of the European chemical industry, the E4Water project aimed to demonstrate the benefits of integrated, cost and energy efficient water management. Including 19 partners across nine EU countries, and with six pilot sites the total project investment was € 19 million and the project ran from 2012 to 2016.

“Although the European chemical industry is a standard-bearer for eco-friendly measures like cutting greenhouse gas and increasing energy efficiency, this project identifies important new potential for increased water efficiency. This not only helps safeguard the planet by saving water and energy but also costs for industry”, said William Garcia, Cefic Executive Director. “We hope to see the model this project demonstrates scaled up in other industries to make important gains for the climate.”

Pilot examples
Six pilot cases were conducted to demonstrate what is possible if the recommendations from this project are taken up by other industry stakeholders and integrated into their processes. The potential benefits shown in the pilot studies included:

• Reduction of 3 million m3 of freshwater per year
• Reduction of 2.5 million m3 of produced wastewater per year
• Reduced wastewater discharge by 4 million m3 per year
• Reduced resource use through more efficient processes
• 20% less energy used by implementing low energy technology
• A drop in operating expenditure of 30% for every m3 of saved freshwater/year
• Eliminating need for incineration (5,000 tonnes/annum/plant)

More information on the project and its outcomes can be found in the E4Water brochure with a more detailed report available on the project's website.

Water efficiency is a huge part of tackling climate change. The EU chemical industry – Europe’s fifth largest manufacturing sector – relies on water for many industrial processes. For example, processing, washing, heating, cooling and transporting products. To cut the amount of water required for these processes, the E4 Water project applied new research and development concepts to boost its eco-efficiency and sustainability.

Background
The ‘Economically and Ecologically Efficient Water Management in the European Chemical Industry’ (E4Water) project addressed crucial process industry needs to overcome bottlenecks and barriers for an integrated and energy efficient water management. The main objective was to enable more efficient and sustainable management of water in chemical industry sector and identify possibilities to share the models developed with other industrial sectors.

The E4Water project consortium united large chemical industries, leading European water sector companies and innovative RTD centres and universities active in the area of water management with and collaborators from national and regional water authorities. The project received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

'SusChem Inspired' Project Package Published

CORDIS (the Community Research and Development Information Service) has just published a package of 13 summaries of “SusChem-inspired” FP7 projects. The projects cover a range of subjects within the overall theme of ‘Energy efficient process industries: Furthering Europe’s ambitious environmental targets’. Greater energy efficiency in Europe’s process industries contributes to Europe’s long-term competitiveness and helps to meet highly ambitious environmental objectives.

Over 450 000 enterprises and around 6.8 million jobs are dependent on Europe’s process sector, which includes chemicals, engineering, minerals and ore, non-ferrous metals, steel and water. The process industries, which generate more than EUR 1.6 billion in annual turnover and represent 20% of the EU’s total industrial production, are absolutely vital to Europe’s economy and long-term industrial competitiveness.

However, these vital industries have to face the key challenge of reducing their high dependency on resources. Although energy efficiency in industry across the EU has gradually improved (by an average of 1.8% per year up until 2009), there is still much work to do to encourage the uptake of cleaner technologies, more efficient methods and better industrial procedures to reduce environmental impact.

Achieving a better environmental footprint for the process industries is now even more pressing due to the EU’s target to cut its emissions to at least 40% of 1990 levels as a part of its comprehensive 2030 climate and energy framework. In April 2016, the EU also formally signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (COP21), formally committing the Union to fully embracing the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The CORDIS Results Pack showcases some SusChem-inspired and EU-funded projects that have taken up the challenge of developing the novel methods and enabling technologies that will increase energy efficiency in industrial processes.

Project examples

Examples include the implementation of more sustainable and less-resource dependent manufacturing methods, the design and optimisation of new and accurate computational frameworks and software, and the cultivation of better international cooperation.

The full list of projects described in the package is:

• MORE developed new tools to help large plants achieve resource efficiencies including new resource efficiency indicators and software that can be easily integrated into large processing plants in order to achieve optimal daily performance.
• TOP-REF worked on novel resource indicators and tools for competitive and sustainable continuous processing that will lead to the substantial improvement of resource efficiency in energy intensive industrial processes within the agro-chemical, chemical and petrochemical industries.
• MAPSYN researched new techniques to energise the EU chemical industry through new energy sources and catalysts that can achieve cost efficient, high yield chemical production and boost competitiveness.
• CYCLICCO2 was one of the first project to investigate conversion of carbon dioxide into commercially viable chemicals in a sustainable way that could be scaled-up for energy efficient industrial use.
• ALTEREGO helped to ‘green-up’ the chemical industry with efficient alternative energy sources including ultrasound, microwave and non-thermal plasma technologies to power chemical processes, replacing fossil fuels and achieving higher levels of energy efficiency.
• R4R used stronger regional cooperation to drive innovation in energy and resource efficiency forward in Europe’s chemical and processing industries.
• InnoREX looked to accelerate the production of ‘green’ biobased plastic polymers in an environmentally-friendly, energy efficient and commercially viable process. 
• COOPOL produced new monitoring tools for more efficient polymer processing in the chemicals sector that will improve polymerisation reaction quality and provide new continuous production methods.
• E4WATER helped to cut water use in the European chemical industry by creating novel systems and processes and make the European chemical sector more competitive.
• OPTICO developed an adaptive and integrated computational framework for intensified processes in the chemical and biochemical industries consisting of multi-scale, multi-phase phenomena-based modelling technologies, and advanced process analytical tools.