BIORECER aims to ensure the environmental performance and traceability of the biological feedstock used by the bio-based industries, deploying guidelines to strengthen the current certification schemes. Within this approach, the added value, the use, as well as social acceptance of bioproducts will be increased. To fulfill this goal, BIORECER is structured in three main technological pillars: 1) to develop a multidimensional assessment framework for an aggregated analysis on the biological feedstocks and their associated supply chains; 2) to create a BIORECER Innovation ecosystem living-lab with a multi-agent approach, testing the framework in 4 bio-based systems supply chain cases of study, and 3) to use all this knowledge to complement current certification schemes including new criteria for certifying biological resources’ sustainability, origin, and traceability, and ensure applicability at EU and global scale. The transition to a bio-based economy is expected to deliver substantial environmental and economic benefits. Specifically, BIORECER will assess the impact of current and adapted certification schemes on consumers and bio-based industries stakeholders’ WTP along with industries and consumers’ acceptance of new bio-value chains from biological feedstocks, including residual feedstock and waste. The project proposes first to design and develop a multidimensional framework to analyze and define the assessment of the environmental performance of biological resources and traceability that will be subsequently validated in 4 full bio-based systems and applicable to a wide range of bio-based value chains. This approach will be unfolded by the joint creation of two levels of interaction: a physical one through the creation of a BioResources Stakeholders Platform (BRSP) and a “digital” one through a BIORECER ICT tool (BIT) to amplify the “scope” of the project.

CIRCULAR BIOCARBON is a first-of-its-kind flagship biorefinery conceived to valorise organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) into value-added products: diamond-like-carbon coatings, green graphene, tailor-made bio-based fertilisers, or bio-plastic, as well as a variety of intermediate products. In order to maximise replicability and boost potential penetration in the market, the biorefinery will be operated for three years in Spain and Italy, and consistent business and exploitation strategies will be put in place. The CIRCULAR BIOCARBON biorefinery, organised through a pool of cascading technologies, start from anaerobic process steps (after proper pretreatment) of mixed urban waste streams, of which OFMSW is the main one, in order to treat all the biowaste produced by a medium-size city (at the end of the project, a commercial scale biorefinery will be fully operative). The fundamental objective of the CIRCULAR BIOCARBON project is to open up new business frameworks based on a new circular vision of waste treatment in a city towards a sustainable bioeconomy, to which actors leading the territorial waste management schemes and policies will be brought to maximize impact on the market, on policy makers and on society.

UPSTREAM addresses the targets of the Mission by overcoming challenges related to the monitoring, prevention, elimination, and valorisation of litter (L), plastics (P), and microplastics (MP). Demonstrating a suite of 14 solutions addressing pollution at every step in the water system, connected to 7 rivers in 5 countries, will enable the co-creation of an extensive database of knowledge and sustainable business models with a focus on making information as widely accessible as possible. The involvement of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) owners, industrial partners with existing supply chains, innovative SMEs, and a water cluster association will ensure exploitation of the project solutions, while €500k in cascade funding will enhance replication across Europe. The UPSTREAM consortium will thus establish circular value chains with the potential to decrease plastic litter by 50% and MP pollution by 30%. The advances in UPSTREAM are based on best-in-world innovations, including: • Standardised, rapid monitoring techniques able to detect MP down to sizes >25 μm • Bio-based, biodegradable plastics the stop the formation of MP in consumer products and WWTPs themselves • Elimination of more than 90% MP within WWTPs from both sludge and effluent streams • Innovative floating platforms capable of removing >83% of L, P, and MP directly from rivers at both the surface and riverbed, without creating noise pollution or harming ecosystems • Production of relevant monomers from recovered plastics through both advanced fractionation and depolymerisation and biotransformation UPSTREAM represents a pan-European consortium with 5 demo sites across Europe, including 4 WWTPs (UK, ES, DE, IT), plus a testing area on the Danube in Serbia. The consortium is strengthened by top European RTOs, the world leader in sustainable bioplastics development, Novamont, and completed by partners dedicated to creating a digital knowledge sharing platform and engaging with citizens and stakeholders.

digital-water.city’s (DWC) main goal is to boost the integrated management of waters systems in five major European urban and peri-urban areas, Berlin, Milan, Copenhagen, Paris and Sofia, by leveraging the potential of data and smart digital technologies. DWC will create linkages between the digital and the physical worlds by developing and demonstrating 18 advanced digital solutions to address current and future water-related challenges; namely the protection of human health, the increase of performance and return on investment of water infrastructures and the involvement of citizens in urban water management. Areas of application of DWC digital solutions range from groundwater management, sewer maintenance and operation, wastewater treatment and reuse to urban bathing water management. DWC combines cutting-edge digital technologies such as augmented reality, open source software, cloud computing, real-time sensors, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and decision support systems. DWC integrates the development of digital solutions in a dedicated guiding protocol to cover the existing gaps regarding ICT governance, interoperability, ontology and cybersecurity. Ultimately, DWC will provide an interoperable free flow of information among stakeholders and across the water value chain. DWC will generate the necessary conditions for co-creation and open innovation by the establishment of Community of Practices aiming at integrating stakeholder knowledge, ensuring the transferability of the digital solutions in other European or international contexts, supporting knowledge transfer beyond DWC and creating durable binding between European cities. The large scale assessment and communication of the benefits provided by the digital solutions in five major cities will serve as lighthouse, raising the awareness of European cities for a necessary digital transformation, and opening new market opportunities for DWC partners and European providers of digital solutions.

BIOMETHAVERSE (Demonstrating and Connecting Production Innovations in the BIOMETHAne uniVERSE) aims to diversify the technology basis for biomethane production in Europe, to increase its cost-effectiveness, and to contribute both to the uptake of biomethane technologies and to the priorities of the SET Plan Action 8. To this aim five innovative biomethane production pathways will be demonstrated in five European countries: France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and Ukraine. The project is based on the following founding pillars: Demonstration of innovative biomethane pathways; Technology optimisation and upscaling by technoeconomic flowsheeting; Environmental and social sustainability assessment; Replicability, market penetration, support to planning decisions of other investors and project developers, policy recommendations to policy makers; Dissemination, exploitation and communication of project results. BIOMETHAVERSE relates, within the Work Program 2021-2022 on Climate, Energy and Mobility, to the Call “Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply”, specifically to the topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D3-03-16: Innovative biomethane production as an energy carrier and a fuel. The project production routes cover one or a combination of the following production pathways: thermochemical, biochemical, electrochemical, and biological. As a starting point, four demonstration plants use conventional anaerobic digestion (AD), and one uses conventional gasification. In the BIOMETHAVERSE demonstrators, CO2 effluents from AD or gasification and other intermediate products are combined with renewable hydrogen or renewable electricity directly to increase the overall biomethane yield. All demonstrated production routes go beyond conventional technologies, with a circular approach for energy and material, while aiming at reducing the overall biomethane production costs and increasing the biomethane production. The demonstrated technologies will reach TRL 6-7 at the end of the project.