Author: Louis Ferrini

The European Bioeconomy Network (EUBioNet) is a proactive alliance of EU funded projects dealing with Bioeconomy promotion, communication and support. The main goal is to maximise the efforts, increasing the knowledge sharing, networking, mutual learning, coordination of joint activities and events. The European Bioeconomy Network will work in close collaboration with the European Commission, to ensure that the objectives identified by the Bioeconomy Strategy update will be properly communicated, addressed and implemented.
C4B project

C4B project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/12/2027

Circular Bio-Based Business models to create high-value Bio-based products in integrated value chains

Primary production in agriculture and forestry represents an essential part of the European circular bioeconomy. However, the involvement of primary producers in circular bio-based economy is still limited, and the benefits are in most cases not fairly distributed along the value chain, to the disadvantage of primary producers. Fair and sustainable business models that create opportunities for rural entrepreneurship and develop new forms of successful rural business are therefore needed. The purpose of C4B is to accelerate the development of rural communities and their economic viability by developing new fair and sustainable business models for different agricultural and forestry value chains. C4B business models will be designed to balance the share of power and profits across novel biobased value chains and to enhance the cooperation among farmers, foresters and industry. This project will advance the understanding of bio-based value chains by carrying out a holistic analysis of different case studies in EU that considers technology, business environment, primary producers’ behaviour, contractual agreements and ownership, and sustainability. By providing financial support to third parties via Open Call, C4B will demonstrate the applicability, scalability and replicability of the new business models in different business settings and geographical areas, eventually stimulating the uptake of the new business models. Joining forces with complementary and trans-disciplinary stakeholders from agriculture, forestry and industrial sector, the C4B consortium will define key R&I priorities to be implemented by means of the coming EU funding programmes to support the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, as well policy recommendations to advise Member States for implementing realistic and effective national CAP Strategic Plans that entail bioeconomy interventions.

Contact:

Francesco Sottile: francesco.sottile@pnoinnovation.com

website: https://www.c4b-project.eu/

RBRF project

RBRF project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/09/2028

Small-scale Circular Green Biorefineries for increasing farmer sustainability and competitiveness and building resilient rural areas

Rural BioReFarmeries brings together farmers, industries and other partners across Europe, to demonstrate a farmer-centred bioeconomy model aimed at maximizing the potential of Europe’s vast grasslands. The project will demonstrate a novel small-scale, decentralized, rural green biorefinery value chain, which addresses the limitations of existing green biorefineries. This small-scale decentralized model places farmers at the centre of the biomass value creation close to their farms, allowing them to co-produce inputs for their farms, with additional high value-added intermediates and products, which will be further developed in collaboration with centralized facilities and downstream industry partners. The model provides a practical implementation of the bioeconomy among a large farmer cohort and builds on the existing farm enterprises and cooperative structures of our partners, enabling collaboration, scale-up, market access, and building synergies across primary and industrial sectors. The project advances state-of-the-art for green biorefinery in terms of operational model, logistics, processing, product development and assessment methods, which collectively deliver a more sustainable and profitable model for farmers and rural communities. The model will serve as a blueprint for farmers to sustainably diversify into the bioeconomy, reducing their farm emissions while creating new products which displace unsustainable alternatives in a range of agri-food markets. Rural BioReFarmeries model will be replicated to diverse regions of Europe, supported by the development of inclusive business models and hands-on training among multi-actor groups and communities in regions of high potential. The project represents a highly replicable model for Europe’s abundant grasslands, helping farmers to deal with sustainability and profitability challenges while helping rural communities to become more resilient while realizing the potential of their local bioresources.

Contact:

Giulia Pastor: refarm@australo.org

website: https://ruralbiorefarmeries.eu/

LAB Biofine project

LAB Biofine project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/05/2027

LAB Biofine

LAB Biofine is a bold innovation and development platform for the bioeconomy. We help companies turn bio-based ideas into sustainable business through agile piloting, cutting-edge research, and international collaboration. Our activities are centred around a pilot plant based on pressurised hot water extraction and deep eutectic solvents, with advanced separation capabilities.

Contact:

Dr. Antti Kapanen, Specialist for International Networks: antti.kapanen@lab.fi

website: http://www.biofine.fi/

CIRCULAR BIOCARBON project

CIRCULAR BIOCARBON project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/05/2027

Turning urban waste streams into added-value products

CIRCULAR BIOCARBON presents a first-of-a-kind flagship biorefinery designed to valorise the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) and Sewage Sludge (SS) into high-added-value end and intermediate products, including coating of direct consumer products, coating of mechanical moving parts, coating of plastic moulding tools, biodegradable and compostable waste bags, green graphene-based devices and products, biodegradable soil mulch films, solid organomineral fertiliser with biostimulant properties and liquid biobased biostimulant.

Contact:

Cristina Garcia-Vera (Project Coordinator): info@circularbiocarbon.eu

website: https://circularbiocarbon.eu/

 ALFA project

 ALFA project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Scaling up the market uptake of Renewable EnergySystems by unlocking the biogas potential of Agriculture and Livestock FArming

Europe could double the biogas and biomethane production by 2030 by utilising the massive amounts of animal waste available.
However, despite the technological maturity and commercial availability of relevant technologies, this promising potential is still largely untapped. In this context, ALFA supports at least 50 livestock farmers in 6 EU counties (IT, DK, DE, BE, SK, EL, ES) to overcome existing barriers and viably take up biogas systems. We start by establishing regional Hubs that analyse the local framework conditions and livestock value chains, and help engage local stakeholders in co-designing our approach. Then, we enhance selected livestock farmers’ business and technical capacity by providing them with a series of demand-driven financial, business, and technical support services and organising dedicated capacity-building seminars. In parallel, we develop an Engagement Platform hosting tools that facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange among industry actors and provide credible estimations of each farm’s biogas potential, prospect profits, environmental and social impacts. Also, we improve the societal acceptance of biogas facilities amongst citizens by 25% (or above) through well-tailored awareness-raising campaigns. At the same time, we trigger the development of an enabling environment for the market uptake of biogas by formulating relevant policy recommendations and widely disseminating them to more than 60 policymakers. Finally, a monitoring and evaluation framework evaluates the performance and impact of all the above, providing us with the intel required to catalyse mutual learning across regions and contribute to creating a guide for replicating our results. Therefore, we expect a power output of 30 MWel by our supported cases / projects, leading to an increased share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption in the target countries and ultimately, saving 270,000tn CO2 and 330,000tn CO2-eq from manure management per year.

Contact:

Luna Del Pizzo: delpizzo@apre.it

website: https://alfa-res.eu/

Municipal biowaste as feedstock in a sustainable and circular bioeconomy

Municipal biowaste as feedstock in a sustainable and circular bioeconomy

Posted on by Louis Ferrini

During various inspiring presentations and a concluding roundtable with experts from industry, research and authorities, we will shed light on how municipal biowaste can be integrated into circular bioeconomy models. There will be time for discussion and mutual exchange.

The workshop will take place at the Center of Mediterranean Architecture in Chania, Crete, beautifully located directly at the harbour. Besides, there is the option to participate online.
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The event addresses all those interested in innovations for biowaste utilization, but also those generally involved in the topics of circular economy, recycling and biotechnology.

Check out the exiting workshop agenda, as well as information on the speakers.

From date
2025-06-11
To date
2025-06-11
LUCRA project

LUCRA project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/06/2027

Sustainable succinic acid production using an integrated electrochemical bioreactor and renewable feedstock

LUCRA will exploit the EUs underutilized and abundant, organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste and wood sidestream as feedstocks for the largescale production of platform building block biobased chemicals with significant industrial end-user interest using a circular bioeconomy biorefinery approach.
It will provide optimized and scaleable breakthrough first of a kind innovative technology to create a step change from pilot to large scale integrated fermentation with novel electrochemical extraction of succinic acid that will facilitate its industrial implementation, business models and market feasibility. To fit the needs of the industrial level, LUCRA will optimize the hydrolysis process of the different feedstocks to obtain efficient cellulose and hemicellulose conversion. Enzymatic cocktails will be demonstrated aiming to maximize hydrolysis of fermentable carbohydrate content with low inhibitors production. The crude sugar-rich hydrolysates will be used as fermentation feedstock in an electrochemical membrane bioreactor for efficient extraction and production of SA. To demonstrate the produced SA that will be able to compete directly their fossil-based counterparts from petrochemical processes, different polyurethane dispersions and resins will be produced at semi-industrial scale.

Contact:

Tanja Meyer: tanja.meyer@bbeu.org

website: https://lucra-project.eu/

CheMatSustain project

CheMatSustain project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/12/2027

IMPLEMENTING INNOVATIVE METHODS FOR SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENTS OF CHEMICALS AND MATERIALS PARTICULARLY AT NANO LEVEL IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

CheMatSustain is a research initiative, funded by the Horizon Europe Programme of the European Union. Spanning for a 48-month period, our consortium comprises 10 scientific partners from 7 EU countries, alongside collaboration with 1 esteemed UK Associate Partner and lead by the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences.
At CheMatSustain, we recognize the transformative potential of nanotechnology and the significance of Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) strategies in ensuring the safety and sustainability of nanomaterials and nanotechnology. Thus, the project envisions a future where innovative methods for safety and sustainability assessments of chemicals and materials, especially at the nano level, play a pivotal role in achieving a climate-neutral, circular economy continent. Through collaboration, research, and innovation, we strive to pave the way for a brighter, greener future for generations to come.

Contact:

Dr. Jelena Barbir: info@chematsustain.eu

website: https://chematsustain.eu/

BEAMING project

BEAMING project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/12/2027

Bioeconomy excellence alliance for stimulating innovative and inclusive green transition

BEAMING is a Horizon Europe project under the WIDERA work programme which seeks to promote innovation and valorization of knowledge in the field of bioeconomy through cooperation between higher education institutions, with a special focus on widening countries in Central-Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.

Contact:

Balázs Imre (Project Coordinator): imre.balazs@edu.bme.hu

website: https://beamingproject.eu/

WHAT’S NEXT FOR BIOECONOMY EDUCATION? Workshop series.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR BIOECONOMY EDUCATION? Workshop series.

Posted on by Louis Ferrini

The EU funded projects GenB and BioGov.net, in collaboration with the EuBioNet, are organising the “What’s next for bioeconomy education?” workshops series, whose outcomes will be presented to the European Commission in form of aggregated insights and recommendations, towards the revision of the European Bioeconomy Strategy.

Specifically, GenB is organising the workshop focusing on “Pre-University Education and Communication perspectives” – 28 October 2024 from 14.30 to 16.00 CET, online.

Agenda here

To confirm your participation, we kindly ask you to fill in this registration form

 

While BioGov.net is organising the workshop focusing on “VET and Life-long learning perspectives” – 29 October 2024 from 15.00 to 16.30 CET, online.

Agenda here 

To confirm your participation, we kindly ask you to fill in this registration form

 

Join us! Don’t miss the chance to shape the future of bioeconomy education!

From date
2024-10-28
To date
2024-10-29