Category: Open innovation platforms and facilities

 Bioeconomy Ventures project

 Bioeconomy Ventures project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Boosting European bioeconomy start-ups

The European Bioeconomy Strategy aims to accelerate the deployment of a sustainable European bioeconomy, which includes food security, the sustainability of natural resources, and reduced dependence on non-renewables. The EU-funded BioeconomyVentures project will develop a reference platform for bioeconomy-based start-ups and spin-offs seeking to gain access to finance. The platform will serve as a main meeting point for the bioeconomy entrepreneurship field. It is part of the project’s overall goal of building a first of its kind bioeconomy entrepreneurship ecosystem, boosted by the BioeconomyVentures Ambassadors Programme. It will also create an assessment methodology to qualify and quantify the needs of the start-ups and spin-offs though the BioeconomyVentures evaluation matrix.

Contacts:

Filippo Giancarlo Martinelli (MBA, PDEng, MSc): Filippo@bioeconomyfoundation.com
European Ambassador at Irish Bioeconomy Foundation (IBF) and coordinator of the BioeconomyVentures BBI CSA Project

Founding source: BioeconomyVentures project is cofounded by H2020-EU.2.1.4. H2020-EU.3.2. H2020-EU.3.2.6.

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 VALOR PLUS project

 VALOR PLUS project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini

Project concluded

Objective

The Valor-Plus supports the realisation of sustainable, economically viable closed loop integrated biorefineries through the development of new knowledge, (bio-)technologies and products that enable valorisation of key biorefinery by-products. The project comprises five key areas:
• Pre-treatment and fractionation: development of a novel methodology for the controlled and selective breakdown, release and fractionation of the lignocellulose biomass to minimally degraded cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin fractions that are suitable for further downstream refinement and processing to value product streams
• Hemicellulose Valorisation: engineering of new enzymes and microorganisms for the controlled hydrolysis and transformation of hemicellulose to high value oligomers and bulk fermentation product streams (butanol, ethanol and single cell proteins for animal feed)
• Lignin Valorisation: utilisation of combined chemo-enzymatic and chemo-microbial processes for the controlled depolymerisation and transformation of standardised lignin feedstocks to discrete families of platform and intermediate macromolecular and monomer chemicals; and their subsequent transformation to value product streams (fuels, platform chemicals, monomers for synthesis of resins and functional additives)
• Glycerol Valorisation: engineering of new microorganisms that are the suitable for the fermentation of crude glycerol to higher value product streams (lipids, alcohols and organic acids)
• Demonstration of the technological and economic potential for integration and scale-up within existing and future biorefinery value chains: including: demonstration of component technologies, focused biodiesel refinery case study, roadmaps for technology and product stream integration, and a full life cycle assessment

The project assembles an industrially focused pan-European consortium spanning the complete biorefinery value chain, including 9 SMEs, 1 large enterprise, 2 research centres and 3 universities

Contacts: Beatriz Palomo (ASEBIO) Dissemination and Exploitation WP Leader Valor Plus: bpalomo@asebio.com
Thomas Kowalik (IFAM) Ifam Fraunhofer Institute Valor Plus Coordinator

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 SuperBIO project

 SuperBIO project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

SUPERBIO focuses on the biobased economy. This emerging economy relies on the use of biomass (e.g. plants, waste) as renewable raw material for the production of new or existing products.

The technologies used are a combination of biochemistry, biotechnology, chemistry and processing technology. The cluster coordinating SUPERBIO (GBEV) has already more than 3 years’ experience in building new biobased economy value chains at regional level and is active in European projects aimed at supporting SMEs to bring innovations to the market.

The consortium consists of three cluster organisations specialised in the biobased economy from regions with synergetic smart specialisations, 4 highly skilled and experienced SME intermediates considered as important opinion makers in the biobased economy and 2 cross-sectorial SMEs regarded as specialists in their respective activities. The biobased economy goes along at least 19 different industrial sectors.

The project aims at constructing and validating new value chains providing the SMEs in the new value chains the tools to convince investors to contribute to building new emerging industries or to generate improved processes or products.

SUPERBIO will create a comprehensive open collaboration space based on the combined network of all partners, an idea validation procedure and a complementary innovation support program. Specifically, we expect to identify 10 validated value chains. With an average of 3 SMEs per value chain, this would result in providing support to about 30 SMEs or 10 SME groups. Our approach ensures the validation of sustainable and commercially viable value chains.

The output of this project will lead to the implementation of new value chains, the production of drop-in chemicals and products the production of new chemicals and products with improved features and can lead to investments in dedicated industrial production sites.

Contacts: Anneleen Devriendt anneleen.de.vriendt@bbeu.org

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 Pilots4U project

 Pilots4U project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Pilots4U is a very visible, easy accessible network of open access pilot and multipurpose demo-infrastructures for the European bio-economy with Europe-wide coverage and protecting IP rights of users. Since pilot- and demo equipment is very expensive and requires specific expertise, open access infrastructures are the most cost-effective manner to support the deployment of industry-driven innovations in the market.

To assure that the network meets the needs of the European bio-economy industry (SMEs, start-ups, Large enterprises), current European pilot and demo-capabilities are continuously

compared with the needs of the European biobased industry.   Different cooperation schemes for the open access pilot- and demo-networkare hereby considered.

Pilots4U is there to help innovators, companies and research institutions operating in the bio-economy sector to gain easier access to more than 100 shared testing facilities and scale-up their technology faster and cheaper towards the market.

Contacts:

Stef Denayer Stakeholder Relations Manager Pilots4U stef.denayer@bbeu.org mob +32 475 820300

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 Lifecab project

 Lifecab project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Biowaste management has become a major issue because of the increasing amount of biowastes. These stem from increasing polulation urbanization and consumption habits. Current biowaste management practices are based on fermentation and incineration technologies. These practices produce biogas, compost, thermal and electrical energy. The processing costs exceed the sale value of the products and/or raise issues connected to their secondary environmental impact. Based on previous research work1 carried out by the University of Torino in cooperation with Acea Pinerolese Spa located in Pinerolo (TO), LIFECAB will demontrate in real operational a new process to treat municipal biowaste (MBW) and produce soluble biorganic substances (SBO). These substances will be used as additives for anaerobic fermentation reactors to improve the economy and environmental impact of the current fermentation technology.

The new process, developed at small laboratory pilot level (www.biochemenergy.it), is based on the chemical hydrolysis of fermented MBW in water. It yields all marketable products. It allows recycling all reagents and water. It produces no secondary waste and process effluents needing disposal. Moreover, the SBO have been shown multipurpose products for potential use in the chemical industry, agriculture and animal husbandry. These findings prospect that a MBW treatment plant may be turned into a biorefinery producing biofuel and value added biobased products. Most recent laboratory studies have proven that the addition of 0.05-2% SBO to the MBW organic humid fraction (OHF) fermentation slurry decrease the ammonia content of the digestate, while maintaining biogas production and quality. The effect is presumably due to the capacity of SBO to promote oxidation of ammonia to N2.

Based on the above premises, LIFECAB is a pilot/demonstated project aiming to validate at TRL 7 previous research. This will be achieved by pursuing three main objectives:

  1. validating the SBO production process in real operational conditions;
  2. validating the new SBO assisted anaerobic fermentation process;
  3. demonstrating a new business model, which allows the valorization of biowastes through integrated biochemical and chemical processes in real operational environment with reduced entrepreneurial risk.

Contacts: Enzo Montoneri: enzo.montoneri@gmail.com
Sorani Montenegro: sorani.montenegro@hysytech.com
Simone Solaro: simone.solaro@hysytech.com

Website

 ICT BIOCHAIN project

 ICT BIOCHAIN project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

ICT-BIOCHAIN is a project aiming to promote the adoption of ICT, IoT and industry 4.0. solutions to improve the efficiency of biomass value chains. In order to achieve this, it developed a platform to connect stakeholders in the bio-based industry with ICT providers, and it established two Digital Innovation Hubs, located in ready-made, test-bed bioeconomy regions: South-East Ireland and Andalusia (Spain). Leading experts and support networks developed region-specific bio-resource data models and provided access within these hubs to best practices, expert knowledge, and information.

Contacts: Ana I. Martinez: anamartinez@sustainableinnovations.eu  and info@ictbiochain.eu

Website

 FASTER project

 FASTER project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Objective

FASTER – Farmers’ Adaptation and Sustainability in Tunisia through Excellence in Research will reinforce research and knowledge transfer capacity of INRGREF related to innovative land and water management in view of climate change and its implementation through the use of Farm Advisory Systems (FAS). To achieve this, we will develop a sustainable framework for research capacity building, international networking and FAS practice. Strengthening of researchers and technicians of INRGREF and associated centres (IRESA) will be developed by EU partners of established scientific excellence in the topic (CREAF, LU) and demonstrated experience in economic impact and awareness raising (EFB, Vision), and integration into national policies (AVFA). The proposal is structured into 5 work packages, during 3 years and amounting 1million €, including: coordination; capacity building through training and staff exchanges; living lab stablishing through summer schools, e-learning and stakeholder involvement; project sustainability by monitoring, networking and governmental support; and communication through awareness raising and knowledge co-creation. Expected impacts to INRGREF and Tunisian partners are increased number of publications in peer review journals, mobility and international co-funding, increased international reputation, awareness and engagement, new skills and competencies, new services and employment related to FAS, and new research avenues.

Contacts:

Dr Sihem Jebari, FASTER Project Coordinator:sihem.jebari@gmail.com
Chiara Colalelli (Communication and Dissemination): chiara@vision-communication.org

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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

 BIOSWITCH project

 BIOSWITCH project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

With a turnover value of €2.3 trillion and accounting for 8.2% of the European Union’s workforce, the bioeconomy is a central element to the success of the economy overall, and brand owners delivering bio-based products and bio-based packaging are one of the main drivers to boost it. However, brand owners are often reluctant to invest in taking a bio-based approach due to perceived risks and uncertainties, and to a lack of adequate support from the innovation ecosystems. BIOSWITCH aims to encourage and support them to switch to bio-based approaches by hosting a set of communication actions and events that will allow shaping solutions to mitigate brand owners’ perceived risks. Furthermore, the project will develop a toolbox that will allow to assess the brands’ bio-based maturity level and assist their owners in the transition journey. The project will focus on four regions that will serve as model demonstrators: Andalusia (Spain), Denmark, Finland, and Flanders (Belgium).

Contacts: Anna Tenhunen (Project Coordinator CLIC Innovation Ltd): anna.tenhunen@clicinnovation.fi
Jeisel Goyanes (Sustainable Innovations (SIE) and BIOSWITCH Dissemination and Communication Manager): jeiselgoyanes@sustainableinnovations.eu

Project contact: info@bioswitch.eu

Website

 BioLinX project

 BioLinX project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

BioLinX will bridge research and innovation efforts in the bioeconomy by building three large clusters in Europe and initiating within them a range of powerful linking and innovation acceleration processes. The BioLinX partners have leading roles in the bioeconomies of South West Netherlands and Flanders, the Nordic Countries and Northern Italy and in the lignocellulose, agro- and agro-waste feedstock sectors.

The partners are all pioneers of systematic innovation management and cluster acceleration practices and between them have leading roles in over 45 current or recent collaborative bioeconomy projects. From this strong starting point they will select sixty or more FP7 and Horizon 2020 biobased projects from all stages of the value chain, form the BioLinX clusters and develop among them brokerage, collaborative innovation and business acceleration dynamics.

Specific objectives are:

  1. Selecting and scouting more than 60 high potential bio-economy projects,
  2. Developing a network of key regional bioeconomy clusters (i.e. RIS3 regions or equivalent) covering 3 geographical regions (north, central, south),
  3. Analysing, clustering and focusing selected FP7 and H2020 projects as well as the network of RIS3 bio-economy regions,
  4. Implementing the Innovation Linking & Support Programme consisting of activities focusing on Brokerage and Innovation incubation, Business development, finance and funding, Identifying and sharing good practices and Advocacy, communication and dissemination.

Contacts: Dennis van der Pas: d.vanderpas@rewin.nl

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