Category: New value chains and business models

 ProBIO project

 ProBIO project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

ProBIO is a support action directly benefiting consortia of FP7 KBBE and H2020 bioeconomy. The overall objective is two-fold:

  1. To support the flow of knowledge-based bioeconomy project results from research to market, as well as back to R&I.
  2. To foster the networking and knowledge exchange between different European bioeconomy initiatives under H2020 and FP7 and the most important players in the field thus raising awareness towards policy makers and engaging the general public.

To achieve its objectives, ProBIO screens all 411 KBBE projects for results, describes them in interaction with the KBBE consortia, and finally classifies each result according to its nature. The results will be of different technological maturity level: some will be mature for direct market introduction, others need further development to reach a higher TRL, and some are not technological results, but knowledge and instruments of relevance to policy makers.
The ProBIO experts take this diverse nature and maturity level of research results into account and support each type of result with dedicated professional coaching and tools with a view to:

  1. Accelerating market entry through business coaching of the most promising R&D results
  2. Facilitating the flow of knowledge into new R&I projects in order to reach a higher TRL level
  3. Feeding policy-relevant results into the political process to inform policy making

ProBIO also foresees a range of events and communication activities supporting knowledge exchange and linkage of different actors along the bioeconomy value chains and making use of synergies through networking.

The multi-disciplinary team of the ProBIO consortium is built around highly specialised green innovation consultancies and a European expert group who together have an outstanding track record in promoting the uptake of results from public research. Additional thematic expertise is ensured by two technical centres, and communication is in professional hands, too.

Contacts: Ilaria Bonetti: ilaria.bonetti@mi.camcom.it

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 MPowerBIO project

 MPowerBIO project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Europe’s bioeconomy strategy addresses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into vital products and bioenergy. The industry is leading in innovative and sustainable solutions, but SMEs face challenges as regards investments. To address this issue, the EU-funded MPowerBIO will create an online platform with digital tools for evaluating and training skills, enabling SME readiness for investment. It will hold 10 train-the-trainer sessions for 90 European bioeconomy clusters. The aim is to improve capacity to support SMEs in the high-quality preparation process of presenting their projects to investors. The best SMEs will be selected to compete in two final events. In addition, 72 ready-for-investment SMEs will be selected and rewarded during the European Bioeconomy Venture Forum.

Contacts: Britt Sandvad (coordinator) Food & Bio Cluster Denmark: bs@foodbiocluster.dk

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 GO-GRASS project

 GO-GRASS project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Grasslands are important for land use in Europe, covering more than a third of the European agricultural area. Grasslands are also diverse in terms of management, yield and biodiversity value, providing forage and other key resources for Europe’s livestock sector. The EU-funded GO-GRASS project will create new opportunities in rural areas based on grassland and green fodder. These will be tested in four EU regions at small scale to ensure wide replication. Within a circular system, the project will develop business models that are circular, sustainable and suitable for remote areas with unexploited resources. The GO-GRASS consortium comprises a multidisciplinary team of 22 partners from 8 European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and Sweden).

Contacts: Philipp Grundmann (coordinator): go-grass@atb-potsdam.de
Natalie Höppner (communication & dissemination): nah@esci.eu

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 Glaukos project

 Glaukos project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

The EU-funded Glaukos project aims to develop innovative and environmentally sustainable textile fibres and coatings. The complete life cycle of these textiles will be redesigned: their sustainability performance (i.e. biodegradability and bio-recyclability) will be enhanced significantly, while their technical performance will be matched to end-user requirements. Glaukos builds on two concepts: triggerable biodegradability as a key concept in polymer design to mitigate textile-based microplastics pollution, and bio-recycling as a sustainable end-of-life solution. The supply chain distance is also substantially reduced by scaling up a disruptive way of producing the main polymer building block from several bio-based feedstocks. The underlying objective of Glaukos is to reduce the carbon and the plastic footprint of clothing and fishing gear. Stakeholders’ engagement will be encouraged through the involvement of individuals from the clothing and fishing gear industry.

Contacts:

Project Coordinator Zsófia Kádár zsofia.kadar@bbeu.org

Project Manager Tanja Meyer tanja.meyer@bbeu.org

Project Communication and Dissemination Manager Louis Ferrini ferrini@fvaweb.it

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 ENABLING project

 ENABLING project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

ENABLING is the initiative of 16 partners in 13 EU and associated (IL, NO) countries. The main goal is to support the spreading of best practices and innovation in the provision (production, pre-processing) of biomass for the BBI (Bio-Based Industry).

In particular, ENABLING aims at creating appropriate conditions for the development of efficient biomass to BBPs (Bio-Based Products and Processes) value chains.

The consortium’s vision is that Europe bears a huge potential for optimising the supply of biomass into innovative bio-based processes and products.

Upscaling biomass production and pre-processing, and combining streams towards the BBPs with those of more traditional bioenergy chains would enhance at least three interlinked types of impact. a) biomass production gains scale to meet higher demand in both sectors (bioenergy and the BBI); b) the reinforcement of biomass supply for the BBI benefits smaller BBI players, helping them diversify and consolidate biomass input sources; c) reinforcing the biomass and BBPs linkages may contribute to job-creation, due to the increased need for specialised workers.

To realise such potential, ENABLING also anticipates its longer term exploitation pathways. In the intention of the consortium, the project should aggregate and engage partners for the establishment of a permanent innovation brokerage platform, likely to become in the future, one of the main marketplaces and innovation transfer accelerators at European level.

In this sense, the project organises its work around two building blocks: one relates to animating the stakeholders (on the farming and BBPs sides), identifying best practices, turning them into easy to access content (in the EIP format) for their potential users and providing stakeholders with coaching and guidance on innovation. The other one looks at future developments, with the consolidation, in a self-sustainable way, of the innovation brokerage platforms after the end of the EU funded initiative.

Contacts: Zusepe Elias Zidda: zusepe.zidda@euknow.eu

Website

 EMBRACED project

 EMBRACED project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Objective

A sizeable category in terms of organic content within MSW is represented by Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHPs; e.g. nappies, adult incontinence products, feminine hygiene items, wipes, etc.) waste, which is currently considered as non-recyclable fraction of MSW and finds its way to landfills or incineration, leading to important environmental concerns. Indeed, each year 8,500,000 tons of such waste are incinerated or landfilled in Europe (the equivalent of almost 30 landfills every year), and over 30,000,000 tons in the world. AHP are mainly composed of a mix of natural fibres (cellulose) and polymers (PP/PE and superabsorbent polymer), valuable materials that currently don’t find a proper valorization. Within EMBRACED project, a first-of-its-kind multi-purpose integrated biorefinery will be established in order to valorize in a relevant environment scenario the cellulosic fractions obtained from AHP waste towards the production of bio-products of significant commercial interest, and – concurrently – high added-value co-products, such polyolefinic plastics and SAP (superabsorbent polymers).
This innovative biorefinery model will involve all the main actors of the whole value chain, from AHP consumers and local population to waste management and logistic companies, leading AHP producers and bioprocess developers, as well as final products developers. In a view of circular economy, all the fractions obtained from the processed AHP waste will be reused through valorization into final products, and in particular the high-quality cellulosic fraction of AHP (ca. 1,275,000 ton/y in Europe), which has significant advantages vs. traditional 2nd generation lignocellulosic feedstocks in terms of homogeneity and downstream bioprocessing costs, will be converted and valorized in two parallel value chains, leading to the production of biobased building blocks, polymers and fertilizers.

Contacts: Orsola Bolognani: embraced@fatergroup.com

Website

 BIOrescue project

 BIOrescue project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

OBJECTIVES

The BIOrescue project aims to provide a solution by creating a novel biorefinery concept for mushroom compost, transforming it into valuable bio-based products such as bio-pesticides, biodegradable nano-carriers for drug or fertiliser encapsulation, and bio-based horticultural fertilisers.

The concept will be developed for a conventional mushroom farm in Ireland that will be retrofitted to become a sustainable and efficient biorefinery. To strengthen the competitiveness of the novel biorefinery concept, project partners will conduct economic and environmental impact assessments of the newly developed processes and bio-based products.

EXPECTED RESULTS

BIOrescue will contribute to the emergence of a circular economy in Europe by recovering the vast majority of mushroom compost and reducing disposal costs for farmers. The bio-based products it develops, which are capable of replacing many fossil-based alternatives currently on the market, will also generate a new income stream for mushroom producers.

Contacts:

Inés del Campo: idelcampo@cener.com
Bénédicte Julliard: b.julliard@greenovate-europe.eu

Website

 Biorefinery Glas project

 Biorefinery Glas project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Overview

Biorefinery Glas is a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Operational Group funded by Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.  Led by the Institute of Technology, Tralee, Biorefinery Glas has a total of 5 partners including the Barryroe Co-operative, the Carbery Group, GRASSA B.V. and University College Dublin. Biorefinery Glas is a first demonstration of small-scale biorefinery in Ireland, supporting development of new business models and farmer diversification into the circular bioeconomy. Biorefinery Glas is a first step towards changing the role of farmers in the bioeconomy, from suppliers of biomass to producers of finished and semi-finished products.

Objective

Biorefinery Glas aims to improve the sustainability, value and resource efficiency of Ireland’s livestock sector through farmer diversification into the bioeconomy. The project will demonstrate a replicable small-scale biorefinery with farmers in the West Cork Region. Through biorefining, perennial ryegrass is fractionated into a variety of new products in a process which improves the protein efficiency, value and sustainability of our grasslands.

Approach

The biorefinery approach converts freshly harvested grass into a range of products, including; an optimised cattle feed fibre, a non-GMO protein concentrate feed for monogastrics, a high-value sugar stream of fructo-oligosaccharides and a grass whey for fertiliser or bioenergy applications. The project targets a 40% increase in usable protein per hectare. The project also expects to achieve a 25% reduction in nitrogen emissions in cattle excrement, with additional emissions savings through displacement of soybean feed imports with a grass-based monogastric feed. The project also demonstrates and evaluates an innovative business model for farm diversification into the circular economy and supports farmers with a range of knowledge exchange and dissemination activities. The experiences of participating farmers will be documented through our Digital Storytelling Initiative for the Bioeconomy.

Contacts:  James Gaffey: james.gaffey@staff.ittralee.ie

Website

 BIOREGIO project

 BIOREGIO project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

BIOREGIO boosts bio-based circular economy through transfer of expertise about best available technologies and cooperation models.
AIMS

  • improving knowledge related to circular economy of biological streams i.e. bio-based circular economy
  • increasing recycling rates of biological materials e.g. food waste/biowaste, municipal and industrial sludge and agricultural residues
  • transferring expertise about: a) cooperation models, e.g. ecosystems, networks, administrative cooperation,
    b) best available technologies, e.g. bio refinery, biogas production

ACTIVITIES

  • joint development of policy instruments
  • defining best practices of bio-based circular economy: cooperation models and best available technologies

ACTIONS

  • regional stakeholder group meetings
  • interregional events: roundtable discussions, seminars and site visits
  • policy briefs, expert papers
  • regional dissemination events

RESULTS

  • six improved policy instruments
  • regions will be better equipped to implement new technologies and cooperation models in order to move towards bio-based circular economy
  • increasing professional capacity among stakeholders
  • raising public awareness of bio-based circular economy

Contacts: Susanna Vanhamäki: susanna.vanhamaki@lab.fi

Website

 BIOPEN project

 BIOPEN project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Nowadays, the center of the bio-based economy is the development of integrated value chains removing sector barriers, where market and product innovations are driven by societal needs and vision of brand owners, and require the collaborations between different sectors through new bio-based value chains (from feedstock to products), also establishing co-operations throughout industry clusters.

Open innovation has been identified as the major driver to perform innovation through the flow (in and out) of knowledge, technologies and competences, for organisations to design, plan, and implement market and product innovations as well as to establish sustainable partnerships joining forces with customers, feedstock suppliers, academia, and financial sector.

In BiOPEN a consortium highly specialized in the bio-based industry, composed by five European bio-based clusters, three open innovation expert companies, and one research centre, will embark on an ambitious programme to support collaboration and knowledge sharing in the bio-based industry, stimulating the set-up of co-innovation partnerships for the development of new products and markets in the sector.

BIOPEN ambition is to become a single voice for the bio-based industries in Europe, gathering expertise and promoting engagement and involvement of industry, researchers and academia at European and national level, by setting up an Open-innovation platform addressing strategic cross-cutting challenges such as (i) clustering and networking to develop new value chains and favour the emergence of co-innovation partnerships across the value chains; (ii) Stakeholders engagement and support with regards to setting-up at least 20 co-innovation partnerships alongside existing and new value chains; (iii) creation of a knowledge centre collecting the prospective and insight of the community, and providing access to relevant information for markets and products innovations in the bio-based ecosystem.

Contacts: Patrizia Circelli: p.circelli@cioatech.com

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