VERAM delivers

The SusChem supported Horizon2020 project VERAM (Vision and Roadmap for European Raw Materials) brought together diverse stakeholders – including five European Technology Platforms (ETPs): Sustainable Mineral Resources, Forest, Construction, Sustainable Chemistry and Advanced Materials – to produce a medium-term (2030) Vision and a longer-term (2050) Strategic Research and Innovation Roadmap for raw materials. VERAM is now completed and its public project deliverables are available to download.

Demographic changes, such as population growth in developing countries and an ageing population in developed countries, coupled with increasing standards of living and urbanisation trends will foster a greater demand for products and applications linked to human well-being, health, hygiene and sustainability. As a consequence, the worldwide demand for raw materials is expected to increase while global resources and land become scarce. A shift towards a more resource-efficient, circular economy and sustainable development is essential. 

Europe is confronted with many challenges along the entire raw materials value chain. Yet, innovation in raw materials value chains remains untapped despite the sector’s great potential.  A more coordinated approach towards raw materials management will help reduce external supply dependency and lead to an efficient use of resources.

To achieve these goals, a long-term vision and roadmap to 2050 could help tap the full potential of raw materials supply and use in Europe and boost the innovation capacity of the sector, turning it into a strong, sustainable pillar of the EU economy and an attractive industry, whilst addressing societal and environmental challenges and increasing benefits for society. This is where VERAM came in.

Key to success

“The key to the success of VERAM was the strong partnership that was forged through the project, linking diverse ETPs, value chains, industry sectors and academia,” commented Patrick Wall, VERAM’s project coordinator from the European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources (ETP SMR).

“To address the challenges in the raw materials supply chain, VERAM initiated communication and dialogue between the different raw materials sectors, stakeholders (including civil society organisations) and all parts of the value chain to pool experience and knowledge and build the VERAM Vision and Roadmap for Raw Materials,” Mr. Wall continued.

Henk Pool, Innovation Manager at CEFIC, a partner in the VERAM project consortium said: “Predicting the future is a significant challenge, especially in a world that is experiencing rapid change, including accelerators of change such as digitalisation, however we can be certain that there will still be a significant need for raw materials in 2050! And VERAM has helped us understand what will be required and the critical need for innovation to ensure this need can be met.”

Deliverables to download

A range of deliverables across the project’s five work packages are now publicly accessible. They include:

Work package 1: Management and coordination

• Results of the feasibility study to establish a R&I Raw Materials Stakeholder Portal

Work package 2: Dissemination and communication

• Project website design and initial promotion materials (logo, templates)
• Clustering with ongoing initiatives (EIT RM; clusters; EU projects on RM, …)
• Final Conference

Work package 3: Defining and exploring the playing field

• Report on the raw materials research and innovation network: the relevant players and their roles
• Report on the RM research & innovation funding and projects: relevant R & I topics in the EU and abroad, strengths and weaknesses of current EU and MS funding landscape
• Report on future societal challenges and the corresponding needs of global markets and EU industries
• Report on the challenge ahead: the gap between future EU industrial needs and current research and innovation funding
• Web based information handling portal

Work package 4: Creating a vision 2030 and 2050 for raw materials

• Report on economic outlook and raw material needs for 2050
• Report on Raw material research and innovation vision for 2050
• Report on innovation and capacity building needs across the EU economy till 2050

Work package 5: Creating the raw materials roadmap 2050

• RM Research Roadmap drafts
• RM Research Roadmap and recommendations

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’.

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.

Can the EU Chemical Industry go Carbon Neutral by 2050?

The chemical industry’s ambition is to play a leading role in the transformation of the European economy to a sustainable low-carbon and circular economy by creating innovative climate and energy friendly solutions, both for its own processes and for many other industries through chemical products. A new report 'Low carbon energy and feedstock for the European chemical industry' from SusChem founding partners Dechema and released via the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) explores how the chemical industry can become carbon neutral by 2050. 

The Dechema study analyses the technological options available for the chemical industry and outlines the conditions necessary to facilitate the transition of the European chemical industry to carbon neutrality.

As well as giving a first full overview of all available technologies for the main chemical production processes, it describes what is needed to refurbish the industrial base we know today in Europe, in a world of shale gas and low oil prices:

• Abundant low-carbon electricity in much larger volumes and at competitive prices;
• Availability of alternative feedstocks (e.g. bio-based raw materials, CO2 or industrial waste gases).
• An enabling fiscal structure to modernise ageing production facilities and equipment or build new plants;
• Government or public-private support to scale-up technologies and share investment risk for those technologies that are first of a kind or high risk
• Innovation and research into new chemical technologies that help overcome these challenges.
• Enabling business models to enhance cross-sectoral collaboration to find sustainable ways to re-use CO2

Role for SusChem and SPIRE

The report concludes that, in order to achieve the EU’s 2050 objectives, an ambitious research and innovation programme will be essential to improve the potential of required advanced technologies, and public-private-partnership efforts will be critical to enable fast deployment and risk sharing for the investments needed. 

In addition, industrial symbiosis opportunities and sustainable materials recycling options should be further explored in order to improve energy and resource efficiency beyond sectorial boundaries. 

Clearly these areas where SusChem and SPIRE are currently working hard to advance sustainable chemistry and sustainable process industry technologies.

Energy intensive

The chemical industry has already halved its energy intensity and greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, but producing chemicals remains one of the most energy intensive industrial processes. Making the sector carbon neutral while retaining its competitiveness in a full circular economy in Europe is a significant challenge, which cannot be solved by the industry on its own.

In an interview with Politico Energy Marco Mensink, Cefic Director General, said that the fact that the industry is looking at how to cut carbon emissions shows that it’s embracing the need for change, “I think we have always taken the position that we are very energy-intensive and that there are huge challenges to become energy neutral,” he said. “But this is a different stance.” Why? Because the attitude of the sector is changing, because the Paris climate agreement has become a reality, and because time is ticking, he added.

The main findings of the report are that the implementation of the technologies investigated in the study would allow for a very significant reduction of CO2 emissions in 2050 (up to 210 Mt annually under the maximum scenario). And including the production and use of fuels related to the pathways considered in the study, the additional CO2 abatement potential in 2050 exceeds the chemical sector’s current emissions even under the intermediate scenario.

Commenting on the report, Marco Mensink said: “Many promising low-carbon technologies are available at a relatively advanced stage of development. The industry will need to find the way to overcome the investment, raw material and energy challenges for them to be implemented on a large scale in Europe.” 

Kurt Wagemann, Executive Director of DECHEMA added: “The implementation of the technologies investigated in this study would allow for a very significant reduction of CO2 emissions of the chemical industry by 2050 even under the least ambitious scenario.”

However, such a transition to carbon neutrality will entail huge challenges for the European chemical industry including availability of low carbon energy, availability of alternative feedstock, investments in new assets that far exceed the typical level of investments in the recent years, uncompetitive production costs. 

The report

The report Low carbon energy and feedstock for the European chemical industry looks into technology options and pathway scenarios to ensure a low-carbon, yet competitive European chemical industry by 2050. The study focuses on the main chemical building blocks used in upstream large volume production processes (ammonia, methanol, ethylene, propylene, chlorine and the aromatics benzene, toluene and xylene), which represent about two-thirds of all GHG emissions in the chemical sector.

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.

Save the date: 14 September for Societal Challenge 5 InfoDay

On 14 September 2016 the European Commission is holding an Information Day and Brokerage event covering the 2017 calls for proposals in Horizon 2020's Societal Challenge 5: ‘Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials’ in Brussels. The actual call will be launched in autumn 2016.

Societal challenge 5 is a key area of interest for SusChem and features in the SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda. Interested stakeholders from the research community, businesses and public administration are invited to register as soon as possible for this briefing in Brussels and to start consortium building.

A draft agenda for the meeting is available. The event takes place in the European Commission's Charlemagne building at rue de la Loi 170, Brussels and you can register here.

The event will open with two plenary sessions: the first introducing Societal Challenge 5 on Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials followed by a session on effective proposal submission; and the second session covers open data and risk management issues.

This will be followed by parallel sessions covering the following topic areas:

• Nature-based solutions & Cultural heritage for sustainable growth
• Climate services and decarbonisation, The Arctic dimension and earth observation
• Raw Materials
• Circular economy

A full list of call topics for Societal Challenge 5 for 2017 can be found here.

In the afternoon there will be an extended brokerage and matchmaking session.

Live webcast
If you can’t make it to Brussels on 14 September the morning plenary sessions and the parallel sessions will be webcast live (links available nearer the event) and after the event video recordings with sound and integrated slide presentations will be made available online too.

For more information contact the event organisers.

'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.

SPIRE Project Brochures Online

The Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) PPP has just published two brochures cataloguing the research and innovation projects established under its calls in 2014 and 2015. The two brochures concisely outline the aims of each project and the concepts being used to implement it. A link to each project’s website is also included. 

The 2014 Project Brochure covers the following calls and associated projects:

SPIRE 1 – 2014 on ‘Integrated Process Control’

• RECOBA - Cross-sectorial real-time sensing, advanced control and optimisation of batch processes saving energy and raw materials 
• DISIRE - Integrated Process Control based on Distributed In-Situ Sensors into Raw Material and Energy Feedstock   
• PROPAT - Robust and affordable process control technologies for improving standards and optimising industrial operations 
• CONSENS - Integrated Control and Sensing for Sustainable Operation of Flexible Intensified Processes 
• ICSPEC - In-line Cascade laser spectrometer for process control 

SPIRE 2 – ‘2014 on Adaptable industrial processes allowing the use of renewables as flexible feedstock for chemical and energy applications’

• STEAMBIO - Flexible Superheated Steam Torrefaction and Grinding of Indigenous Biomass from Remote Rural Sources to Produce Stable Densified Feedstocks for Chemical and Energy Applications 
• MEFCO2 - Methanol fuel from CO2 - Synthesis of methanol from captured carbon dioxide using surplus electricity 
• MOBILE FLIP - Mobile and Flexible Industrial Processing of Biomass 

SPIRE 3 – 2014 on ‘Improved downstream processing of mixtures in process industries’

• PRODIAS - PROcessing Diluted Aqueous Systems 

SPIRE 4 – 2014 on ‘Methodologies, tools and indicators for cross-sectorial sustainability assessment of energy and resource efficient solutions in the process industry’

• STYLE - Sustainability Toolkit for easY Life-cycle Evaluation 
• SAMT - Sustainability assessment methods and tools to support decision-making in the process industries 
• MEASURE - Metrics for Sustainability Assessment in European Process Industries 

EE 18 – 2014 on ‘New technologies for utilisation of heat recovery in large industrial systems, considering the whole energy cycle from heat production to transformation, delivery and end use’

• TASIO - Waste Heat Recovery for Power Valorisation with Organic Rankine Cycle Technology in Energy Intensive Industries 

Waste 1 – 2014 on ‘Moving towards a circular economy through industrial symbiosis’

• RESLAG - Turning waste from steel industry into a valuable low cost feedstock for energy intensive industry 
• CABRISS - Implementation of a CirculAr economy Based on Recycled, reused and recovered Indium, Silicon and Silver materials for photovoltaic and other applications 
• FISSAC - Fostering industrial symbiosis for a sustainable resource intensive industry across the extended construction value chain
• BAMB - Buildings as Material Banks: Integrating Materials Passports with Reversible Building Design to Optimise Circular Industrial Value Chains 
• RESYNTEX - A new circular economy concept: from textile waste towards chemical and textile industries feedstock  

The 2015 Project Brochure covers the following calls and associated projects:

SPIRE 5 – 2015 on ‘New adaptable catalytic reactor methodologies for Process Intensification’ 

• ADREM - Adaptable Reactors for Resource- and Energy-Efficient Methane Valorisation 
• MEMERE - MEthane activation via integrated MEmbrane Reactors 
• PRINTCR3DIT - Process Intensification through Adaptable Catalytic Reactors made by 3D Printing 
• ROMEO - Reactor Optimisation by Membrane Enhanced Operation 
• TERRA - Tandem Electrocatalytic Reactor for Energy Resource Efficiency and Process Intensification 

SPIRE 6 – 2015 on ‘Energy and resource management systems for improved efficiency in the process industries’

• EPOS - Enhanced energy and resource Efficiency and Performance in process industry Operations via onsite and cross-sectorial Symbiosis 
• MAESTRI - Total resource and energy efficiency management system for process industries 
• SHAREBOX - Secure Management Platform for Shared Process Resources 
• SYMBIOPTIMA - Human-mimetic approach to the integrated monitoring, management and optimisation of a symbiotic cluster of smart production units 

SPIRE 7 – 2015 on ‘Recovery technologies for metals and other minerals’

• ADIR - Next generation urban mining - Automated disassembly, separation and recovery of valuable materials from electronic equipment 
• REE4EU - Integrated high temperature electrolysis and Ionic Liquid Extraction for a strong and independent European Rare Earth Elements Supply Chain 
• REMAGHIC - New Recovery Processes to produce Rare Earth -Magnesium Alloys of High Performance and Low Cost  

SPIRE 8 – 2015 on ‘Solids handling for intensified process technology’

• IBD - Intensified by Design® for the intensification of processes involving solids handling 

EE 18 – 2015 on ‘New technologies for utilisation of heat recovery in large industrial systems, considering the whole energy cycle from heat production to transformation, delivery and end use’

• INDUS3ES - Industrial Energy and Environment Efficiency 
• I-THERM - Industrial Thermal Energy Recovery Conversion and Management 
• SUSPIRE - Sustainable Production of Industrial Recovered Energy using energy dissipative and storage technologies  

About SPIRE
The Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) is a contractual Public-Private Partnership (PPP) dedicated to innovation in resource and energy efficiency enabled by the process sector in Europe. The SPIRE Partnership is based on Article 19 of the EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020 regulation and has been established through a contractual arrangement between the European Commission and A.SPIRE aisbl. SPIRE will be implemented through competitive calls included in the Horizon 2020 work programme. The objective of SPIRE is to develop the enabling technologies and value chain solutions required to reach long-term sustainability for Europe in terms of global competitiveness, ecology and employment.

For more information visit the SPIRE website.

EFFRA Launches Public Consultation on FoF PPP Work Programme

The European Factories of the Future Research Association (EFFRA) has just launched a public consultation on the ‘Factories of the Future’ (FoF) PPP work programme for 2018 through to 2020. The FoF consultation document contains a wide range of potential call topics that will be of interest to the SusChem community from manufacturing complex and multi-material components to additive manufacturing (3D printing), material and resource efficiency in manufacturing, energy efficiency, new processes, digitisationresouir and circular economy issues.

The public consultation is part of EFFRA’s preparations for strategic discussions with the European Commission concerning the final ‘Factories of the Future’ work programme under Horizon 2020.

The consultation is a unique opportunity to provide your input to this important research and innovation programme. The deadline for consultation feedback is 4 May 2016 (17:00 CET).

EFFRA is looking for input from representatives of industry, research and innovation, and academia to provide their views on priorities for the work programme that will shape the ‘Factories of the Future’ research and innovation call topics in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

EFFRA will use the input received to compile a roadmap document that complements the current ‘Factories of the Future 2020’ roadmap. The new document will be entitled 'Factories 4.0 and Beyond' and will be delivered to the European Commission to provide a key contribution to preparations for the work programme.

How to get involved

The consultation feedback form can be completed online through the EFFRA Innovation Portal. The feedback form does not have to be completed in one sitting and participants may save and return to it as often as they need until the close of the consultation on Wednesday 4 May.

To access the response form you must be registered and logged into the EFFRA Innovation Portal. Instructions on how to participate are available here.

You can access the consultation response form here when logged onto the portal. The consultation document itself is available without logging on here.

For more information, or if you have specific questions on the consultation, please contact Chris DeCubber at EFFRA.

Consultation on shape of future Horizon 2020 SC5 calls launched

The European Commission has launched an external stakeholder consultation to help shape the Work Programme for 2018-2020 of Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5 – 'Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials'. SusChem stakeholders are invited to participate in this consultation and express your views. Of particular interest is the topic: "Sustainable supply of non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials". The consultation is open until Friday 8 April 2016. 

The European Commission is starting to prepare the next Horizon 2020 Work Programme and calls for proposals that will cover the period 2018-2020. Within Societal Challenge 5, research and innovation aims to "achieve a resource – and water – efficient and climate change resilient economy and society, the protection and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems, and a sustainable supply and use of raw materials, in order to meet the needs of a growing global population within the sustainable limits of the planet's natural resources and eco-system."

Since Horizon 2020 was adopted the socio-economic and policy context has changed. For Societal Challenge 5, the budget to be allocated for 2018-2020 will be of the order of EUR 1 billion and to ensure relevance a new consultation of stakeholders is required for this final programming period.

Consultation questions
The consultation seeks answers to the following questions:

• What are the challenges in the areas of Societal Challenge 5 that require action under the Work Programme 2018-2020? Would they require an integrated approach across the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges and Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies?
• What is the output/impact that could be foreseen? Which innovation aspects could reach (market) deployment within 5-7 years?
• Which gaps (in science and technology, innovation, markets, policy, financing and governance, regulation etc.) and potential game changers, including the role of the public sector in accelerating changes, need to be taken into account?
• Which areas could benefit from integration of horizontal aspects such as social sciences and humanities, responsible research and innovation, gender aspects, international cooperation?
• In view of the recent evolution of the socio-economic and policy context, what are the emerging priorities for Societal Challenge 5? 

Responses should cite any available supporting evidence such as foresight and other assessments of research and innovation trends and market opportunities, across the six sub-challenges of Societal Challenge 5.

These are: Fighting and adapting to climate change; Protecting the environment, sustainably managing natural resources, water, biodiversity and ecosystems; Ensuring the sustainable supply of non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials; Enabling the transition towards a green economy and society through ecoinnovation; Developing comprehensive and sustained global environmental observation and information systems; and Cultural heritage.

The consultation document is available here and background information on the whole Societal Challenge 5 programme is here.

All responses to the consultation should be send by email to the European Commission.

Alternative Energy use highlighted in Horizon 2020 Projects

The results from three Horizon 2020 projects on the use of alternative energy sources for industrial processes will be highlighted at a workshop in Brussels on 2 March 2016. The three projects address process intensification technologies utilising alternative forms of energy, such as microwave, laser or ultrasound, and are very relevant to resource and energy efficiency challenges in chemical processing.

This final industrial workshop is being organised by the InnoREX project and will see also the participation of projects MAPSYN and ALTEREGO.

InnoREX looked at the continuous reactive extrusion of lactide to polyactide (PLA) and online process monitoring of reactive extrusion processes. The project contributes to the fast growing demand for biobased polymers. Current catalysts needed to improve the polymerisation rate of lactones contain metals that pose a hazard to health and the environment.

InnoREX has developed a novel reactor concept using alternative energies for the continuous, highly precise, metal-free polymerisation of PLA in a continuous extrusion line. It has further replaced the metal-containing catalysts by newly developed organic catalysts, and investigated their activity enhancement by use of alternative energy sources laser, ultrasound and microwave. A pilot line including the energy sources and ensuring the polymerization and purification of the polymer from the residual monomer has been built. In addition simulation tools have been developed enabling fast upscaling of the process to industrial scale.

MAPSYN examined chemical reactions like selective hydrogenations and nitrogen fixation, upscaling of microreactors and flow reactors. The project aims to manufacture and scale microreactors and continuous flow reactors in which reactions are carried out assisted by ultrasound, microwaves or plasma energy. MAPSYN focusses on reducing costs and energy consumption of the production, preserving and enhancing high quality, reproducibility and sustainability.

Two different reactions were investigated:

• A novel hydrogenation process incorporating microwave heated microreactors and innovative catalysts has been evaluated
• Use of plasma reactors for nitrogen fixation processes including simulations of this process have been carried out

These reaction systems are important to the pharmaceutical and fertiliser industries. By the end of the project, MAPSYN will build two demonstrators: a plasma reactor for nitrogen fixation and a continuous flow microwave hydrogenation system.

ALTEREGO investigated pharmaceutical, green fuels and bulk chemicals synthesis and development of a generic methodology for upscaling these processes. The project aims for implementation of alternative energy technologies for intensified chemical manufacturing. A new hierarchical methodology to enable highly efficient chemical syntheses with alternative energy forms through reliable process data collection with advanced analytical tools, robust multiscale modelling and design and development of scalable equipment has been established.

The methodology is generic and was demonstrated for three alternative energy technologies: ultrasound, microwave, and non-thermal plasma. These were applied to different industrially relevant case studies in the application areas of advanced pharmaceutical synthesis and green fuels and bulk chemicals synthesis during the project.

More information
The workshop will take place at the Fraunhofer EU office in Brussels. Places at the workshop are limited, but if you are interested in attending, please contact the event organiser Anke Hartmann.

SusChem Position Paper on the Circular Economy

Following approval by the SusChem board, the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry has published a position paper on the Circular Economy. You can download the paper here. Since its inception in 2004 SusChem has inspired numerous research and innovation activities that address major European societal issues. SusChem’s solutions are based on sustainable enabling technologies developed by the chemical industry and its partners in academia, research and technology organisations, and other industrial players from a wide variety of different value-chains and sectors. Many of these technologies are essential to the implementation of a sustainable circular economy.

The position paper develops SusChem’s vision for a functioning circular economy in Europe (and globally) and provides some concrete examples of the high impact contributions that the platform and its partners can make to achieve this essential objective.

The paper has three main messages.

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

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

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

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

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

Case studies
The SusChem position paper concludes with  five case studies that describe a selection of potential contributions by SusChem technology solutions to the circular economy. Each case study describes the potential contribution of the technology to the circular economy, the technology development or deployment required, and the non technology barriers and policy framework aspects that require addressing.

The case studies cover:

• Utilisation of CO2 as an alternative carbon resource 
• New composite materials
• New catalysts 
• Industrial symbiosis 
• Biorefineries

More information
The full position paper can be downloaded here. If you have any questions about the paper, how you or you organisation could work with SusChem in achieving the circular economy, or would like more information on SusChem activities in general, please contact the SusChem secretariat.

UK Horizon 2020 Events announced

The Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge Five (SC5 -  Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials) is happening today (21 September) in Brussels, but in the UK Horizon 2020 National Contact Points (NCPs) are organising a number of information and networking events over the next two months at various locations across the UK. 

The events are theme-based and reflect the main interests of the UK research and industry community following preparatory work between the NCPs and many UK organisations for the 2016 - 2017 Work Programme. The events will be ideal places to learn about many interesting potential project ideas and to link up with project partners.

Attending one of the UK events will allow you to hear about the details of the SC5 funding calls and also to meet and network with organisations interested in collaboration.

Nature-based solutions - re-greening cities
30 September 2015 in London

Funding for water innovation
1 October 2015 in Manchester

Climate resilient business
2 November 2015 in Exeter

More information
For more information or to take advantage of our extensive UK network of industry and academia contacts for partner searching opportunity (provided both via the Knowledge Transfer Network and the Enterprise Europe Network), please contact Ewa Bloch UK National Contact Point for EU Horizon 2020 - Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials (Societal Challenge 5). Ewa will also be at the 21 September InfoDay in Brussels.

To register for regular updates from Horizon 2020 UK NCPs visit the UK Horizon 2020 website.

Help Shape Research Policy on Climate Change!

If you want to help shape the future Horizon 2020's programme in the area of Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials then you need to be in Brussels on 23 and 24 September for the second RECREATE Strategic Workshop. The workshop is being held at the Diamant Conference and Business Centre in Brussels and has the theme: “Defining tomorrow’s research and innovation funding priorities”.  Registration for the workshop is now open!

The RECREATE (REsearch network for forward looking activities and assessment of research and innovation prospects in the fields of Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials) project is a Coordination Action funded by the European Commission under FP7 and SusChem (via Cefic) is involved with the project.

The RECREATE project has the explicit purpose of supporting the European Commission in the future programming of Horizon 2020 calls in the area of Societal Challenge 5: Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. To do this the project is involving a large network of stakeholders, making extensive impact assessments and developing a range of forward looking activities (with a time horizon to 2050) to provide the insights and knowledge required. The RECREATE project started in July 2013 and will run until June 2018.

Participants in the workshop can get their travel costs reimbursed up to Euros 550.

Workshop objectives
The objectives of the September workshop include:

• Presentation of the project's first results and findings
• Gathering stakeholders’ viewpoints and feedback
• Identification of future research and innovation funding needs in the relevant fields

The workshop will open on the afternoon of 23 September and will include a keynote presentation on ‘Expectations and new developments at DG RTD with regard to Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials’ from Kurt Vandenberghe, Director Environment, DG RTD, European Commission and a report on recent progress in RECREATE from Robbert Fisher, Managing Director of JIIP and RECREATE Project Coordinator. A second Keynote presentation will be given by Eva Kaili, MEP.

The first day will also feature a presentation and discussion on the RECREATE scoreboard work package that is being developed to compare and benchmark the performance of Member States in terms of ‘Green Innovation’ and assess the implementation of the European Research Area in the fields of Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. The scorecard should be able to identify the main strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches pursued in the Member States and reflect on different opportunities as well as potential barriers and failures.

The day will be completed by a poster and networking session

On 24 September will feature a dual track with TRACK 1 looking at RECREATE’s evidence-based narratives on Climate Information Services, Nature Based Solutions, and Systemic Eco-Innovation and TRACK 2 discussing RECREATE’s Trends and Scenarios.

More information on the workshop can be found here and registration for the workshop is here.

This workshop is the second of four RECREATE workshops that will be held in Brussels to:

• Share information on the fields of Climate Change, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials.
• Enable networking with relevant stakeholders on these arenas
• Gather feedback on research needs, gaps and recommendations that contribute to creating a clear cut research and innovation agenda for the Horizon 2020

By participating in these workshops, stakeholders will be helping the project consortium and the European Commission in their efforts to develop a programme which addresses research, innovation and industry needs in these fields.

What does RECREATE do?
The overall objective of the project is to support the development of the European Union’s new research funding programme Horizon 2020, with a specific focus on Societal Challenge 5 - Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials - by providing an evidence base.

To do this RECREATE will:

• Create, launch and manage a Stakeholder Network
• Develop and monitor indicators for assessing the impact of EU research and innovation programmes (including policy, economic, society, sustainability)
• Analyse technology, policy and market developments as well as policies and programmes as a basis for forward looking activities
• Produce quantitative and qualitative briefings with R&I information, trends and strategic options for EU research

Further information about the event and the workshop's travel reimbursement policy can be requested from the RECREATE secretariat.

Shape the future of EU R&I policy in Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

On 23 and 24 September the second RECREATE Strategic Workshop will be held at the Diamant Conference and Business Centre in Brussels. The theme of the workshop will be “Defining tomorrow’s research and innovation funding priorities” and participants will help outline policy needs with other key stakeholders to support the development of the EU’s research funding programme Horizon 2020 in the area of Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. Registration for the workshop is now open!

The RECREATE (REsearch network for forward looking activities and assessment of research and innovation prospects in the fields of Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials) project is a Coordination Action funded by the European Commission under FP7 and SusChem (via Cefic) is involved with the project. RECREATE aims to provide evidence and intelligence concerning the future direction for research in Horizon 2020 in the areas of Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. To do this the project is involving a large network of stakeholders, making extensive impact assessments and developing a range of forward looking activities (with a time horizon to 2050) to provide the insights and knowledge required. The RECREATE project started in July 2013 and will run until June 2018.

Workshop objectives
The objectives of the September workshop include:

• Presentation of the project's first results and findings
• Gathering stakeholders’ viewpoints and feedback
• Identification of future research and innovation funding needs in the relevant fields

The workshop will open on the afternoon of 23 September and will include a keynote presentation on ‘Expectations and new developments at DG RTD with regard to Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials’ from Kurt Vandenberghe, Director Environment, DG RTD, European Commission and a report on recent progress in RECREATE from Robbert Fisher, Managing Director of JIIP and RECREATE Project Coordinator. A second Keynote presentation will be given by Eva Kaili, MEP.

The first day will also feature a presentation and discussion on the RECREATE scoreboard work package that is being developed to compare and benchmark the performance of Member States in terms of ‘Green Innovation’ and assess the implementation of the European Research Area in the fields of Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. The scorecard should be able to identify the main strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches pursued in the Member States and reflect on different opportunities as well as potential barriers and failures.

The day will be completed by a poster and networking session

On 24 September will feature a dual track with TRACK 1 looking at RECREATE’s evidence-based narratives on Climate Information Services, Nature Based Solutions, and Systemic Eco-Innovation and TRACK 2 discussing RECREATE’s Trends and Scenarios.

More information on the workshop can be found here and registration for the workshop is here.

This workshop is the second of four RECREATE workshops that will be held in Brussels to:

• Share information on the fields of Climate Change, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials.
• Enable networking with relevant stakeholders on these arenas
• Gather feedback on research needs, gaps and recommendations that contribute to creating a clear cut research and innovation agenda for the Horizon 2020

By participating in these workshops, stakeholders will be helping the project consortium and the European Commission in their efforts to develop a programme which addresses research, innovation and industry needs in these fields.

What does RECREATE do?
The overall objective of the project is to support the development of the European Union’s new research funding programme Horizon 2020, with a specific focus on Societal Challenge 5 - Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials - by providing an evidence base.

To do this RECREATE will:

• Create, launch and manage a Stakeholder Network
• Develop and monitor indicators for assessing the impact of EU research and innovation programmes (including policy, economic, society, sustainability)
• Analyse technology, policy and market developments as well as policies and programmes as a basis for forward looking activities
• Produce quantitative and qualitative briefings with R&I information, trends and strategic options for EU research

Further information about the event and the workshop's travel reimbursement policy can be requested from the RECREATE secretariat.