ETIP-B-SABS 2 will support and empower renewable fuel and bioenergy stakeholders’ contributions to the Energy Union and, more specifically, the Strategic Energy Technology (SET)-Plan. The European Technology and Innovation Platform Bioenergy aims to actively engage with these stakeholders and link their needs to policy making of the European Commission, and the project´s objective is to support ETIP-Bioenergy in this task. Specific objectives are to facilitate the following activities of ETIP-Bioenergy: • contributions to the SET-Plan activities and to the Strategic R&I Implementation Plans; • collaboration and interaction with other relevant initiatives addressing renewable fuels, decarbonisation of transport, bioenergy and biomass valorisation/ bio-based value chains; • constant provision of scientifically sound, unbiased, up to date information on the status of the renewable fuels and bioenergy sector • engagement with stakeholders as to better understand the actor perspective and the socio-technical aspects of technology development and implementation; with a special focus on support for outreach and engagement of actors in the civil society • assistance to the European Commission and Member States in defining research programmes, financial instruments, while addressing lower TRL research needs as well as advancing close to market technologies.

The overall objectives are to demonstrate a new biobased, renewable and economically viable carbon fibre (CF) precursor – lignin – produced in Europe with European raw material and to develop conditions for its processing into CF and structural CF composites. The target is a cost-effective biobased CF for use in reinforced composites delivering sufficient enough strength properties for large-volume automotive applications. Reducing vehicle weight is a decisive factor for successful fulfilment of the future targets in EU regulations regarding CO2 emissions from the automotive sector. CF reinforced plastics has been introduced as a low-weight material replacing/complementing steel and aluminium. Today’s CF production is based on use of a petroleum-based raw material, PAN, which is costly due to the starting precursor and the process for turning it into CF. Most PAN used in Europe is imported. The automotive sector has identified a need for a cheaper lower-grade CF to meet the demands of components in normal consumer cars. Lignin from kraft pulp mills is a green, sustainable, abundant and cost-efficient new potential CF precursor. The European pulp and paper industry has a need for additional revenues due to the global competition and the decline in printing and writing paper. Successful lignin applications like CF will create new business opportunities and new jobs also in rural areas where the pulp mills are located. The development of lignin-based CF is still in laboratory scale and material properties meeting high-quality product demands is the main challenge. Now a new technology in commercial operation makes it possible to produce lignin with new properties, higher purity and with less impact on the pulp mill operation. The idea is to tailor kraft lignin properties already in the lignin separation/upgrading and optimise the lignin for target automotive applications. The consortium has unique competence through the complete value chain to realise this new concept.

ABC-SALT will validate at lab scale a novel route to produce sustainable liquid biofuels (middle distillates (MD)) from various lignocellulosic waste streams for the transport industry, both on roads (biodiesel) and in air (jet fuel), targeting a yield over 35 wt% in the middle distillate range, based on the biomass dry input, and a carbon yield of 55 %. ABC-SALT will solve the following technical challenges: liquefaction and subsequent catalytic hydro-pyrolysis of the biomass in a molten salt environment, followed by the catalytic hydro-deoxygenation of the vapour phase using suitable catalysts to obtain a hydrocarbon product suitable for use as a MD biofuel. ABC-SALT will then operate an integrated lab scale reactor during over 100 hours to provide lab-scale validation of the whole process, bringing this technology to TRL 4. The project includes technical aspects (such as substrate flexibility, biomass liquefaction and hydro-pyrolysis in molten salts and subsequent hydro-deoxygenation and their integration), but also a socio- and techno-economic viability study of the technology (substrate availability and supply chain, future end-users and economic sustainability of the process). This will ensure the future deployment of this new technology considering its social related issues, such as acceptance or modification of the perception of transport induced by such sustainable fuels. Such a holistic approach considering the full value chain, combined to communication with stakeholders during the course of the project, will provide valuable input for scale up and industry-oriented research after this project, maximizing the impact, amongst other in the biomass, biofuel and transport industry. To reach its objectives, the project covers the whole value chain, from feedstock supplier to end-users (knowledge users (RUG, UG, AU, NMBU, DLR), technology users (BTG, Innventia), and middle distillates users (through DLR)), as well as an entity dedicated to SSH aspects (CIRPA).

The main objective of the project is the development of the pilot scale production system of the new generation of nanoporous organic and hybrid aerogels with multiple functions for application in gas and humidity adsorption, personal care and food. Thereby the fast manufacturing in form of spherical particles will be in focus in order to reduce the process time and to decrease the overall process costs. Thereby the purpose is to insure the high porosity and internal pore size distribution of the particles in order to provide the high surface area, pore volume and defined pore size needed for good adsorption capability. The production of organic aerogel particles in sufficient amounts will firstly enable the possibility to build prototypes for the applications in gas and humidity adsorption and food and to perform the corresponding tests. Based on the results of the test the properties of aerogels will be fine-tuned for the corresponding real applications in industrial environments. By this means it is intended to increase the technology readiness level of organic aerogels production from TLR 4 to TLR 6 by the end of the project.

The BIOSMART project proposal has the ambition to develop active and smart bio-based and compostable packages addressing the needs of fresh and pretreated food applications. Moreover, the novel packaging system will form the basis for tailoring performance and functionality to specific flexible and rigid food packages in diverse market segments. A holistic ecosystem approach is pursued by offering solutions that bring enhanced performance and acceptable economics to the value chain and facilitate implementation and large-scale commercialization. Critical issues that differentiate the present packages from the future all-bio-based and compostable ones are enhanced active and smart functionalities that make possible: light weighting, reduced food residues, shelf life monitoring and longer shelf life, easier consumer waste handling, and all this at a competitive cost to the incumbent. The BIOSMART project proposal develops thus encompasses an approach for selectively integrating superhydrophobic surfaces, microencapsulated phase change materials, barrier coatings, sensoring devices, and new bio-active antimicrobial and antioxidants, into all-bio-based multilayer flexible plastic packages. Three generic packaging systems are selected with specific performance needs as defined by current multi-material (eg. pouches, terrines and cardboard/thin film tray). The associate life cycle assessments for the different possible scenarios include the economic feasibility. Ultimately, this consolidated knowledge is captured in a material selection and packaging performance simulation App. through optimization of all possible variables to meet selected key performance indicators (KPI).