TRIBIOME's vision is to develop and implement a systemic solution to transform current food production systems. To this end, TRIBIOME aims to advance alignment with the Green Deal and Farm2fork strategies, by deepening the knowledge of soil/plant/animal and human microbiomes, as well as their interrelationships and interconnections, so that they can play a leading role in the resilience of food production systems in the near future. TRIBIOME will face the main challenges such as the need to minimize resources, reduce the environmental impact and promote healthy and plant-based food chain while feeding a constantly growing world population under the paradigm of climate change. This project aims to drive this concept from its base, establishing its central nucleus in current agricultural production systems based on the relevancy of the soil and plant microbiome, in order to produce more with less, through knowledge of microbial biodiversity and its interaction with the plant, developing novel technologies to influence its modulation (i.e., those enhancing plant growth, nutrient use efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance and better nutritional and health quality of food products) in such a way as to generate an upgrade quality food and have a positive influence on the microbiomes of both animals and humans. To this end, we will work cooperatively in a multiactor approach framework with all actors in the food production systems chain, from farmers to consumers, industry, investors and policy makers, in order to develop systemic solutions that guarantee their implementation and solve the real problems and needs of society.

Biowaste valorisation is an attractive approach in the framework of the EU Waste Management policies and the development of a circular economy. Waste from biostreams and different biobased sources are being under-utilised as potential resource of valuable compounds. Fertilisers play an important role as suppliers of nutrients relying on their production heavily on fossil mineral resources. European Fertiliser industry is besides very dependent on imports of these raw materials, being vulnerable to supply and pricing policies. Main objective of the proposal is to build up a breakthrough concept of Fertiliser Industry, strengthening European competitiveness and boosting the biobased economy potential, through the development of a new value chain, which will achieve turning solid and liquid residues, specifically ashes of different origins and livestock effluents, into high quality valuable products, a new generation of fertilisers. NEWFERT will focus on a viable and cost-effective industrial nutrient recycling scheme, developing new biorefining technologies aimed at increasing nutrient recovery ratios and mitigating environmental and socio-economical impact of the current fertilisers by replacing non renewable and fossil nutrients with biobased materials in their composition. Projected benefits also include substantial energy savings and CO2 emissions reduction. NEWFERT aims to decrease raw material dependency, prevent resource depletion and reduce the environmental impact increasing significantly the Fertiliser industry sustainability. The work organisation has been designed to link and pursue a successful industrial integration supported by a solid life-cycle cost analysis. The strategy of the work plan is based on 8 workpackages. NEWFERT consortium is lead by FERTIBERIA and composed by a balanced set of 6 partners from 4 European Union member countries: biobased industries, SMEs, RTOs and academic institutions covering nutrients recovery from biobased waste field.

The overall objective of WEDISTRICT is to demonstrate DHC as an integrated solution that exploits the combination of RES, thermal storage and waste heat recycling technologies to satisfy 100% of the heating and cooling energy demand in new DHC and up to 60-100% in retrofitted DHC. For this purpose, the focus of WEDISTRICT is large-scale replication of best practice: better valorisation of local resources, like renewable and waste heat by making District Heating and Cooling networks more efficient in relation to the use of new resources. In parallel, systems will evolve to provide even more flexible solutions by the integration of innovative molten-salts based thermal storage, the interaction with other energy networks (electricity and gas) and the involvement of end-users (operators and consumers) through ICT-based control and decision making. Finally, to enable significant expansion, cost-effectiveness will be enhanced by transitioning from handicraft to more industrialised solutions that integrate LEAN methodologies to optimise processes and lower costs.

The benefits of high efficiency concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) are well known: environmental protection, economic growth, job creation, energy security. Those technologies can only be applied properly in regions with annual mean radiation values higher than 1750 kWh/m2 per year. CSP has advantages in front of PV: possible 24h continuous electricity production, electricity and heat generation, heat for distributed in cogeneration plants. Within CSP, four technologies have been currently developed: parabolic trough collector (PTC), tower solar power, Stirling/ dish collector and linear Fresnel collector with its advance type named compact linear Fresnel collector. In 2015, there is global 4GWe production (96% PTC), almost 3GWe are under construction. However for huge deployment, a reduction of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) is imperative for industry consolidation, when nowadays is around 0.16 – 0.22 €/KWh depending on the size plant, Direct Normal Irradiance and the legal framework of site installation. CSP main components: solar field for solar to thermal conversion, power block for thermal to electrical conversion, and thermal storage system are the key to reduce LCOE. IN-POWER project will develop High efficiency solar harvesting CSP architectures based on holistic materials and innovative manufacturing process to allow a Innovation effort mainly focus in advanced materials such as High Reflectance Tailored Shape light Free glass mirror, High working temperature absorber in Vacuum Free receiver, optimized Reduced Mass support structure allow upgrading current solar field. IN-POWER reduce environmental impact also by reducing THREE times standard thermal storage systems by novel thermal storage materials; and a amazing reduction FOUR TIMES the required land extension in comparison of current mature PTC power generation with the same thermal power output. IN-POWER solution will bring LCOE below 0.10 €/KWh beyond 2020.

Through a holistic approach, APOLO aims to tackle the challenges of power conversion from ammonia and develop an efficient and flexible ammonia cracking technology. This technology will be coupled with fuel cells and engines to achieve complete decarbonization of the maritime sector. As the main objective of the call is to demonstrate scalability beyond 3MW, the consortium will focus on showcasing the following demonstration units: i) A 125kW power conversion system that utilizes an ammonia cracker coupled with a PEM fuel cell system, achieving an overall system efficiency of 51% to 54%. The ammonia cracker will be customized to work with different pressure conditions and efficiency levels of PEM fuel cells. A comparison of efficiency levels will be conducted to evaluate the flexibility of the cracking system for all types of PEM fuel cells. ii) A 125kW partial ammonia cracker coupled with a 4-stroke engine, exhibiting an overall system efficiency above 45% APOLO is dedicated to minimizing the ecological footprint of transportation and energy, focusing on the maritime sector. To achieve this, we're actively developing innovative power conversion technologies such as cracker, fuel cell, and engine, and utilizing life cycle assessment (LCA) at various stages of product development. The technologies developed in APOLO are capable of targeting the first 30,000 ships in the market. Initially, the focus will be on vessels with 1 to 10 MW propulsion, with a significant number of them being around 3 MW in the next decade, as these are the first vessels relevant for ammonia-powered solutions.