CO2 capture process represents typically about 70% of the total cost of the CCS chain. Power plants that capture CO2 today use an old technology whereby flue gases are bubbled through organic amines in water, where the CO2 binds to amines. The liquid is then heated to 120-150ºC to release the gas, after which the liquids are reused. The entire process is expensive and inefficient: it consumes about 30 percent of the power generated. One of the most promising technologies for CO2 capture is based on the adsorption process using solid sorbents, with the most important advantage being the potential energy penalty reduction for regeneration of the material compared to liquid absorption . Nevertheless, the challenge in this application remains the same, namely to intensify the production of a CO2 stream in terms of adsorption/desorption rates and energy use while preserving the textural characteristics of the sorbents. The key objectives of the CARMOF project are (1) to build a full demonstrator of a new energy and cost-competitive dry separation process for post-combustion CO2 capture based on hybrid porous Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) & Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) (2) to design customized, high packed density & low pressure drop structures based on 3D printing technologies containing hybrid MOF/CNT to be used in CO2 capture system based on fluidized beds. The morphology of the printed absorber will be designed for the specific gas composition of each of the selected industries (ceramic, petrol products and steel) and (3) to optimize the CO2 desorption process by means of Joule effect combined with a vacuum temperature/preassure swing adsorption (VTSA or VPSA)/membrane technology that will surpass the efficiency of the conventional heating procedures

Despite its unique properties, graphene is relatively chemically inert, but its derivatives, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) are much more reactive and attractive for industrial applications. rGO bears some remnant oxygen groups and holes that allow the possibility of functionalisation. Tailoring the oxygen content in rGO (C/O-ratio) controls its properties and modulates its performance, therefore, the capability of controlling the C/O-ratio is crucial. The challenge is that rGO is not widely available at a commercial scale, even with a clear and identified market need for graphene derivatives. The Graphene Council identify 3 main barriers to commercialisation for graphene derivatives: cost of production; limitations of large-scale production and lack of quality assurance standards. Abalonyx will address these challenges through the perGOla project by: 1) Reducing the production cost of rGO to 100-400 €/kg (from 2,500 €/kg) 2) Increasing the large-scale production of rGO up to ~4 kg/day (1,200 kg/year) through the first industrial automated manufacturing process. 3) Offering the most reliable rGO production line in the market since perGOla process will use GO manufactured in-house 4) Increasing the C/O- ratio up to 100, and tailoring the C/O-ratio and number of layers in the rGO Abalonyx, leader in graphene sector, is a worldwide supplier of GO and rGO to research institutes, universities, SMEs such as Provexo, and “big players” such as ABB, Apple INC, and Tata Steel. 15% of our customers are recurrent customers. We have strong support from end-users such as Qenos, an Australian composite manufacturer who is interested in large amounts of rGO, or European Thermodynamics Limited, who requires rGO at a cost-effective price for the development of thermal interface materials, will help us to accelerate the commercialisation of perGOla. Within 6-years of commercialization, we expect €25m of cumulative profit to achieve an ROI of 11.5.

WEARPLEX is a multidisciplinary research and innovation action with the overall aim to integrate printed electronics with flexible and wearable textile-based biomedical multi-pad electrodes. It aims to answer the growing need for user-friendly electrodes for pervasive measurement of electrophysiological signals and application of electrical stimulation. It focuses on the development of the printable electronics and manufacturing processes for stretchable textile based multi-pad electrodes with integrated logic circuits that enable a significant increase in the number of electrode pads (channels) and facilitate the creation of new products in the sectors of medical electronics and life-style. The advanced printed electronics integrated in WEARPLEX electrodes will allow the individual pads to be connected in arbitrary configurations to the output leads of the electrode. Therefore, the pads will be flexibly organized into several virtual electrodes of arbitrary position, shape and size that can be connected to any standard multi-channel recording and stimulation system. In addition, software methods will be developed for automatic calibration of these virtual electrodes, to detect stimulation/recording hotspots and adjust the virtual electrodes accordingly. Therefore, the WEARPLEX project will lead to a new generation of smart electrodes that will be able to adapt simultaneously to the user (wearable and stretchable garment), recording/stimulation scenario (movement type and target muscles) and recording/stimulation system (number of channels). This is a paradigm shift in designing the recording and stimulation systems, as the switching electronics is shifted from the custom-made stimulator/recording device to the smart electrode, leading to a universal solution compatible with any system.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) market has grown with trends higher than 20% every year in the last 10 years. Their fast uptake is due to different innovative factors such as no shape limits in manufacturing process, full customisation on the single artefact, localised production and no waste material. In particular the ability to print any shape allows to design the products not following the constricting conventional manufacturing processes but just focalising on their function. This “Design for Function” feature is one of the main drivers for AM uptake on a wider scale production and the limited number of “functional” materials that can be printed or the limit in controlling gradient and surface properties are showing to be an important barrier. This is particularly true in manufacturing of tissue engineering (TE) scaffolds where the technology has a promising growth over the last decade. Scaffolds production for tissue regeneration is one of the main fields where the “Design for Function” feature of AM make the difference relative to the other production techniques if in the production process all the needed “Functions” can be introduced: mechanics, geometry (porosity and shape), biomaterial, bio-active molecules and surface chemical groups. The FAST project aims to integrate all these “Functions” in the single AM process. This integration will be obtained by the hybridisation of the 3D polymer printing with melt compounding of nanocomposites with bio-functionalised fillers directly in the printing head and atmospheric plasma technologies during the printing process itself. Final objective of the project is to realize a demonstrator of the proposed hybrid AM technology in order to achieve a small pilot production of scaffolds for bone regeneration with the novel smart features to be tested in some in-vivo trials.