The main objective of BIOCON-CO2 is to develop and validate in industrially relevant environment a flexible platform to biologically transform CO2 into added-value chemicals and plastics. The versatility and flexibility of the platform, based on 3 main stages (CO2 solubilization, bioprocess and downstream) will be proved by developing several technologies and strategies for each stage that will be combined as puzzle pieces. BIOCON-CO2 will develop 4 MCFs based on low-energy biotechnological processes using CO2 from iron&steel industry as a direct feedstock to produce 4 commodities with application in chemicals and plastics sectors using 3 different biological systems: anaerobic microorganisms (C3-C6 alcohols by Clostridia), aerobic microorganisms (3-hydroxypropionic acid by Cupriavidus necator) and enzymes (formic acid by recombinant resting E. coli cells and lactic acid by multi-enzymatic system). The technologic, socio-economic and environmental feasibility of the processes will be assessed to ensure their future industrial implementation, replicability and transfer to other CO2 sources, such as gas streams from cement and electricity generation industries. BIOCON-CO2 will overcome the current challenges of the industrial scale implementation of the biotechnologies routes for CO2 reuse by developing engineered enzymes, immobilization in nanomaterials, genetic and metabolic approaches, engineered carbonic anhydrases, pressurized fermentation, trickle bed reactor using advanced materials and electrofermentation. The project aims to capture at least 4% of the total market share at medium term (1.4Mtonnes CO2/year) and 10% at long term (3.5Mtonnes CO2/year) contributing to reduce EU dependency from fuel oils and support the EU leadership in CO2 reuse technologies. Policy recommendations and public perception and acceptance will be explored and a commercialization strategy will be executed by a detailed exploitation plan and technology transfer.

Today, the European Union?s steel sector is a modern industry with its main customer base found within the EU home markets, particularly in high-end segments. However, challenges remain to keep the EU steel sector both competitive at a global level and climate-neutral, in line with the European Green Deal and the CleanSteel Partnership?s vision. The scrap usage in steelmaking is a common practice to improve the process? sustainability, as it decreases the use of virgin raw materials and boosts the circularity of the sector (decreasing CO2 emissions and electivity consumption). Nevertheless, the current trend in the EU scrap market points at a slight decrease in the pre-consumer scrap and an increase in the short- and long-term of the post-consumer scrap stream, due to an increase in steel consumption. Nowadays, these ?low-quality? scrap streams are not suitable for most applications, thus limiting their use in steelmaking. In order to increase the steel scrap recycling capacity and energy efficiency, while keeping EU competitive and safe in terms of raw materials imports, energy consumption and climate change impact, innovative technologies to ?clean? the scrap before it reaches the steel furnaces need to be implemented. CAESAR gathers up steelmakers, technology developers and research centers in a joint effort to validate, at full-size industrial scale, integrated scrap upgrading, sorting and characterization technologies, thus enabling to untap volumes of low-quality scrap streams in Europe, while keeping a high-quality product and generating valorization routes for all the non-ferrous fractions obtained, towards a zero waste steel sector.

Atmospheric warming due to greenhouse gases has become a serious global concern. The shifting from fossil fuel to renewable energy has been slow mostly due to technological barriers. Meanwhile, the demand for energy is growing rapidly which makes fossil fuel consumptions inevitable, in spite of their high emission of GHC. Therefore, there is need for an immediate-medium term solutions to address CO2 emission of fossil fuel plants fast and in a cost effective way. CO2 capture technologies recognized one of the direct answers to this problem. Currently, CO2 capture technologies have been adopted in different parts of the world but still there is a long way to reach their full potential. Some of the most important barriers are large energy requirements and high cost. Advanced material solutions can play a significant role in price reduction and increase of efficiency and enable industries to use fossil fuel while reduce emission of GHC drastically. GENESIS project aims to develop and upscale some of the most promising material for CO2 capture and demonstrate their performance, durability and reliability in industrial environments. GENESIS is build upon two previous ambitious EU projects that developed IPOSS and MOF membrane systems with a great performance for CC. GENESIS will take these technologies a step further by scaling up the most promising ones by demonstrating in relevant 0.45 MWe capture process for pre-combustion and 2 post-combustion applications and achieve at least 90% of CO2 recovery at a cost of 15€/MWh in two carbon intensive industries (Cemex & Arcelormittal). GENESIS is building upon a multidisciplinary team of European technology centers, large enterprises, SMEs in a cross-border project. This will guarantee that the successful implementation of GENESIS and ensure the ambitious objectives will be achieved and impact will be realized in terms of a rapid market penetration of the developed materials and systems by overcoming technological barriers.

INITIATE proposes a novel symbiotic process to produce urea from steel residual gases. The project will demonstrate a reduction in; primary energy intensity of 30%; carbon footprint of 95%; the raw material intensity of 40%; and waste production of 90%. Additional to this level of reduction, the concept represents a positive business case. INITIATE will demonstrate operating reliability and technology-based innovations in a real industrial setting at TRL7 by producing urea NH3 from steel residual gases as part of three test campaigns spanning six weeks each. The reduction in primary energy intensity, carbon footprint, raw material intensity and waste production will be assessed and verified on a regional and European level by advanced dynamic modelling and Life Cycle Assessment commiserated with ISO 14404 guidelines. The project will develop a commercial implementation roadmap for immediate deployment of INITIATE after project conclusion and for ensuring roll-out of INITIATE and similar symbiotic systems. Designing a robust and bankable first-of-a-kind commercial plant to produce urea from residual steel gases will allow implementation after project conclusion. Long term roll-out will be enabled by defining collaborative strategy for stakeholders alignment to implement INITIATE and similar symbiotic systems. Finally, effective and inclusive communication and dissemination of project results are maximized by organizing summer schools and creation of Massive Open Online Course. INITIATE will take advantage of a consortium spanning the full value chain, including major steel and urea industrial players (Arcelor Mittal, SSAB, Stamicarbon, NextChem), functional material suppliers (Johnson Matthey, Kisuma Chemicals), multi-disciplinary researchers (TNO, POLIMI, Radboud University) and experienced promoters of CCUS, circularity and symbiosis topics to public (CO2 Value Europe).

In-No-Plastic’s goal is to develop and demonstrate nano-, micro, and macro-plastic clean-up technologies in the aquatic ecosystems. The approach taken is a combination of social and technical removal strategies targeting the industrial hotspots through cooling water systems (CWS), harbours, lagoons, shores and the shallow sea water. The technical approach comprises of comparing the existing removal approaches (tendering), with multiple developing technologies at varying testing sites in Europe and in the Caribbean for the removal of nano/micro/macro-plastics. The approach entails a comprehensive monitoring system to gather data at frequencies of every 6 month for 2 years. This is done to understand the effectiveness of the new technologies and current clean-up approaches both in terms of cutting down plastic presence in the environment and its effects on the marine and local ecosystem. The technical approach will be a blueprint in establishing a coherent and synchronized system of cleaning, that is scalable and replicable. The social strategy comprises of an incentive-based initiative that relies on a remote application. The focus is to get the local population involved by incentivising plastic pick-up in return for monetary gain or other rewards. With the plastic gathered at the demo sites, it is to be treated for reusability by investigating different recycling approaches. This would allow to close the loop and achieve circularity. The approaches include a.o. replacement of fossil fuels for a Steel Mill, where its produced syngas is sent to a chemical plant as raw material to produce chemicals. The added value of the approach is the inter-connectedness of the processes in acquiring plastic waste and creating circularity in the value chain. The complementary consortium of 17 partners from 10 different countries, including 2 research organizations, 2 Government, 4 Industry End Users, 2 NGO, 7 SME of which 4 technology providers and 3 service providers.