SPIRE moves to build new R&I road map with new structure

On Monday 4 February the SPIRE PPP celebrated five years of hard work in which it has seen the launch of 89 projects with a combined budget of some EUR 900 million. The A.SPIRE General Assembly meeting elected Pierre Joris, a board member of a number of international process and chemical companies and previously a senior manager at Solvay, as the new Chairman of the SPIRE Board. Pierre takes over from Daniel Gauthier who had completed his two-year term as Chair. Pierre (right) and Daniel (left) are pictured below with SPIRE Executive Director Angels Orduña at the SPIRE celebration.

At the General Assembly SPIRE announced a range of changes required to translate its SPIRE 2050 Vision, released towards the end of 2018, into concrete research and innovation proposals through the development and publication of a SPIRE 2050 research and innovation road map.

The SPIRE 2050 Vision has been strongly endorsed by SPIRE members, stakeholders and the PPP’s partners at the European Commission and SPIRE now aims to have a solid plan to achieve the implementation of this ambitious vision through the forthcoming Horizon Europe programme and beyond.

The process of building the road map is now beginning and will kick-off officially in March with the aim of achieving a first draft during the Summer and finalising the document by November 2019.

SusChem will contribute to the formulation of the road map through work on its own new Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda, in particular in areas such as process technologies, industrial symbiosis and digitalisation, where SPIRE calls could be a channel to the realisation of projects.

New working groups

In order to facilitate the development of the new road map the A.SPIRE Board of Directors and its Industrial Research and Innovation Advisory Group (IRIAG) has initiated the setting up of seven new SPIRE Working Groups (WGs).

The seven working groups are:

• G1 - Energy Mix
• G2 - Electrification of Industrial Processes
• G3 - Use of Hydrogen
• G4 - Capture and Use of CO2
• G5 - Resource and Process Efficiency (and Flexibility)
• G6 - Industrial and Urban Symbiosis
• G7 – Digital (This WG was already established in autumn 2018)

The current SPIRE WGs (FEED, WASTE, PROCESS and APPLICATIONS.) will no longer be active, however the Advocacy group (aka the Outreach group) will be (re)activated.

A Steering Group will provide strategic guidance and manage the structure of the road map to ensure coherence with SPIRE 2050 Vision. In addition, a consulting company will be selected by A.SPIRE in early 2019 to support the WGs in the formulation of the road map.

WG members required

To populate the new Working Groups, SPIRE is calling for experts from its member organisations to get involved! Two types of expert input are required:

• Technical Experts to provide expertise in the topics addressed by the WGs. In addition, expertise in supply-chain structures and in the upstream and/or downstream related sectors is needed, in order to ensure an integrated approach and consider the wider trends and developments on related EU policies (e.g. Industry, Climate Change and Circular Economy).
• Specialists to provide strategic guidance and input, e.g. experts from companies or research organisations that hold positions to lead implementation strategies in the WG topic.

The new road map will provide an outlook up to 2050, divided into two parts: firstly, a more detailed part that will look into the investments required to reach market deployment within the time line of Horizon Europe, and then up to 2030; and secondly, a less detailed part that presents the plans of the process industries up to 2050.

After the road map exercise, the SPIRE WGs will remain active for the development of the Work Programmes under Horizon Europe.

Five year perspective

At the SPIRE celebration, the former Chair of A.SPIRE, Dr Klaus Sommer, delivered a video presentation outlining the origins of SPIRE, what the PPP has been achieved so far and what the future holds.

News from RoadToBio: Nine new BioBased Opportunities and a New Survey

The RoadToBio project is developing different business cases to show the possibilities for greater use of biobased feedstock and materials in the chemical industry, the barriers which hinder market uptake for biobased products and how to overcome them. as part of this the project conducted a  webinar in mid-July that is now available for all. 

Nine new biobased opportunities identified for the Chemical Industry

The BBI-JU funded Horizon 2020 project RoadToBio has as its main main goal the development of a Roadmap to show the path to increase the bio-based share up to 25%  in the chemical industry by 2030.

The project has identified nine business cases that exemplify the possibilities for the chemical industry to produce more biobased products. For further information please follow the link and listen to a webinar held by the consortium on July 11 to present these nine business cases.

Survey on key barriers and hurdles on biobased products – what is your opinion?
Another feature of the RoadToBioproject is the involvement of stakeholders from the chemical industry, academia, NGOs as well as governmental bodies from the very start of the project. Currently the project is on the barriers which hinder market uptake for biobased products.

For this the project has developed a survey to give the different stakeholders the opportunity to share their opinions and to communicate them with greater impact. The project is seeking your input and opinion on significant barriers to biobased products that hinder market uptake.

Do you want to be part on the journey to a bioeconomy-based future? If so, complete the survey by the 31 August and return it back to the RoadToBio consortium. More information on the survey is available here.

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 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.

RoadToBio: Guiding the EU Chemical Industry towards the Bioeconomy

How can the chemical industry in Europe meet the challenges of global markets while at the same time becoming more sustainable? RoadToBio is an EU-funded project under Horizon 2020 that aims to pave the way for the European chemical industry to embrace a higher biobased portfolio and more competitive success. Despite considerable efforts over the past few years, the production and application of biobased chemicals is still limited. The roadmap developed in RoadToBio will specify the benefits for the chemical industry of moving from a fossil-based industry towards the bioeconomy to meet the societal needs of 2030.

Today (6 July) the project’s first expert workshop is taking place in Brussels to initiate a discussion on the biobased ‘sweet spots for the chemical industry and develop a list of criteria for biobased products and/ or the shift towards a bioeconomy in the chemical sector from the viewpoint of diverse stakeholders.

The results of the project, a Coordination and Support Action (CSA), first announced in the BBI JU 2016 work programme, will be of critical interest to SusChem stakeholders. The SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) focuses on a sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy as a priority and the outcomes of the project will inform future revisions of the SusChem SIRA.

The roadmap will also inform future work programmes for the BBI JU and SPIRE PPP, both SusChem inspired initiatives, and where SusChem takes role in coordinating work programmes and identifying synergies.

The roadmap

The roadmap will consist of two main components: an analysis of the most promising opportunities (the ‘sweet spots’) for the chemical industry to increase its biobased portfolio, and a strategy, action plan and engagement guide to overcome the existing and anticipated barriers and hurdles.

The analytical part of the project will take into account feedstock, technologies and markets as well as regulatory issues, societal needs, consumer acceptance and communication. Business cases will be explored that cover new feedstock for the chemical industry, new intermediates for and by the chemical industry, as well as new end-products.

The business cases will be analysed in detail to understand the market potential, the different up- and downstream actors in the value chain as well as the benefits for society based on techno-economic and life cycle assessments.

30% biobased share

The outcomes of the analysis will be used to formulate a strategy, action plan and engagement guide for the chemical industry. They will describe the actions that need to be taken by all stakeholders to achieve the objective of a 30% share of biobased products in the chemical industry by 2030.

To maintain a realistic perspective and gain the support and commitment of the key players, representatives of the European chemical industry and other stakeholders will be involved in the project from the very beginning, providing input and feedback.

This means the roadmap will be developed in consultation with stakeholders, and disseminated to a wide audience. Furthermore, RoadToBio will bring together different parts of the chemical industry, society, and governing bodies in order to start a dialogue and to create a platform where this action plan can unfold to its full potential.

The consortium of this two-year project that started in May 2017 consists of SusChem founding member DECHEMA eV., BTG Biomass Technology Group BV, E4tech (UK) Ltd., and the nova-Institut.

BIO-TIC’s 10 Recommendations to enable € 50 billion EU Bioeconomy

Today (23 June), the BIO-TIC project has launched its final roadmap report for tackling barriers to realising the full potential of industrial biotechnology in Europe. The report is entitled ‘The bioeconomy enabled - A roadmap to a thriving industrial biotechnology sector in Europe’ and was introduced at the project’s high level policy conference “From bugs to business: Unlocking the Bioeconomy in Europe” that took at the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in Brussels. The conference brought together industry, academia, policy makers, innovation agencies and other bioeconomy stakeholders to discuss the actions needed to stimulate the development of industrial biotechnology in Europe. 

The BIO-TIC report highlights that the EU market for industrial biotechnology-derived products is expected to increase from € 28 billion in 2013 to € 50 billion in 2030. This growth will be largely driven by replacement of fossil carbon materials, reflecting Europe’s desire to develop more sustainable and resource-efficient products and processes.

However, in spite of this market growth, significant hurdles remain and hamper the full development of industrial biotechnology in Europe. For example, the principal barrier to fully exploiting industrial biotechnology opportunities in Europe relates to product cost-competitiveness, both compared to fossil alternatives and to equivalent products sourced from elsewhere in the world.

Recommendations
To tackle this and other hurdles, and to ensure that most of this potential is realised in Europe, the BIO-TIC roadmap outlines ten pragmatic recommendations for action. Presenting the main findings of the report Antoine Peeters of EuropaBio (below) said that: "The projected market of up to € 50 billion meant that there were many opportunities for competitive European positions - it was now up to you [the European bioeconomy stakeholders] to make it happen!"

The ten main recommendations in the report are to:

• Improve opportunities for feedstock producers within the bioeconomy; 
• Investigate the scope for using novel biomass; 
• Develop a workforce which can maintain Europe’s competitiveness in industrial biotechnology; 
• Introduce a long-term, stable and transparent policy and incentive framework to promote the bioeconomy; 
• Improve public perception and awareness of industrial biotechnology and biobased products; 
• Identify, leverage and build upon EU capabilities for pilot and demonstration facilities; 
• Promote the use of co-products; 
• Improve the bioconversion and downstream processing steps; 
• Improve access to financing for large scale biorefinery projects; 
• Develop stronger relationships between conventional and non-conventional players in the value chain. 

Nathalie Moll, Secretary General of EuropaBio, which coordinated the project, said: “We are thrilled to see BIO-TIC come to fruition. The roadmap represents a comprehensive summary of expertise and insight from across the Member States. In 10 recommendations, it highlights ways of capturing the huge potential for environmental, societal and economic solutions that this cutting-edge technology offers in the development of a more competitive, circular EU bioeconomy.”

The roadmap
‘The Bioeconomy Enabled: A Roadmap to a Thriving Industrial Biotechnology Sector in Europe’ roadmap is a key deliverable of the EU funded BIO-TIC project. The results are based on an extensive literature review, complemented with over 80 expert interviews and 13 stakeholder workshops organised across Europe in 2013 and 2014. It is based on three detailed reports covering market potential, research and development and regulatory/policy issues, available separately as appendices to the main document. All BIO-TIC roadmaps can be downloaded from the BIO-TIC web portal.

The ‘From bugs to business: Unlocking the Bioeconomy in Europe’ conference was chaired by Professor Patricia Osseweijer of TU Delft and featured keynote speeches by BioAmber, Biobased Delta, Energochemica and Ecover to illustrate the issues and potential of industrial biotechnology in Europe.

Panel debates covered project financing for industrial biotechnology projects and issues around biomass availability. The conference concluded with contributions from MEP Lambert van Nistelrooij and Waldemar Kütt, ‎Head of Unit for BioBased products and Processes at DG Research and Innovation, giving their views from Parliament and the Commission respectively on industrial biotechnology.

Lambert van Nistelrooij highlighted the need to “introduce a long-term, stable and transparent policy and incentive framework to promote the bioeconomy” while Waldemar Kütt said that: “Industrial biotechnology can make a change to enable a future bioeconomy and a future circular economy. BIO-TIC’s ten recommendations will be very valuable making progress in this area.”

The event included an exhibition of industrial biotechnology-related tools (including 3D printing machines) and a range of biobased products (above). Conference delegates were also invited to visit the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant on the morning of 24 June.

About BIO-TIC
The Industrial Biotech Research and Innovation Platforms Centre towards Technological Innovation and Solid Foundations for a Growing Industrial Biotech Sector in Europe (BIO-TIC) project was launched in September 2012 with the vision to establish an overview of the hurdles to biotech innovation and find solutions to accelerate the uptake of industrial biotechnology in Europe. BIO-TIC was a three-year project funded by the FP7 Programme of the European Commission and is operated by 12 partners. These are EuropaBio, Cefic, PNO Consultants, TNO, Dechema, nova Institut, Clever Consult, KTN, IAR, Poyry Management Consulting Oy, Ciaotech and PNO Innovation. The consortium is led by EuropaBio.

More information
For more information, contact Claire Gray Project Co-ordinator for BIO-TIC at EuropaBio or visit the BIO-TIC website.

SusChem France Roadmap

SusChem France has just published its national roadmap in English. The aim of the “SusChem France Roadmap” is to provide an overview of France’s situation with respect to sustainable chemistry needs and to outline the main lines of action followed by SusChem players to meet these needs as effectively as possible.

The document is addressed mainly to research teams in the public or private sector and to innovation managers and resource agencies that can help to build the chemical industry and produce the sustainable products of tomorrow.

Collective thinking
In the introduction to the report SusChem Europe Chairman Dr. Paul-Joel Derian says: "The SusChem France roadmap, a product of high-quality collective thinking, comes at the right time to contribute to the updating of SusChem Europe’s strategic agenda and [to] plan for its implementation over the next few years."

"[We must] actively propose solutions to the European Commission to guide the structuring of the 8th framework programme which will begin in 2013 and ensure that the innovation needs of the chemical industry are taken into account," he continues. "[We must] switch from a research culture to an innovation culture, using the whole value chain of our industry by heading at least one of the new Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programmes to be launched by Europe between now and the end of 2011."

"SusChem has announced its ambition to head a PPP on the theme of chemistry, industry and technology as a source of more resource-efficient industrial processes.
To achieve these ambitious objectives, we will have to bring together our customers and suppliers, continue to develop cooperation between public and private research, and pool our forces with other European platforms."

"This requires stronger involvement of SusChem’s national platforms and a strong effort from French manufacturers and academics to bring new human resources into SusChem."

Eight themes
The 40-page report describes eight themes that summarise the French position on sustainable chemistry. The themes are:

• Renewable raw materials and biosourced economy
  
• Chemistry and recycling
  
• Advanced materials
  
• Chemistry for energy
  
• Eco-efficient processes
  
• Analysis, methods and performance
  
• Eco-design
  
• Innovation network

The Roadmap was launched in France at the 2ème Rencontres de SusChem France (Second stakeholder meeting for the French national platform) that took place at the end of November 2010.

The original French version of the roadmap (Feuille de route de SusChem France (Ed. 2010)) is available to download here. For more information on SusChem France activities visit the website or contact SusChem France coordinator Valerie Lucas at UIC.