Climate change is the most significant challenge for humanity today. For this reason, fossil fuels must be replaced utilising renewables, improved energy efficiency and more flexible energy systems. An optimal combination of several renewable sources is needed to satisfy human energy needs. Bioenergy, in combination with hydrogen, can take the role as secure and plannable source for power and heat complementing intermittent renewable sources such as wind and sun. BIO-FlexGen will increase the efficiency and flexibility of renewable energy-based combined heat and power (CHP), playing a key role in energy system integration, and make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of the energy system. In particular, to overcome these challenges, Bio-FlexGen brings to the table a unique combination of gasification and gas turbine technology that allows the plant to utilise hydrogen for fast dispatch and biomass for low operating costs over time. Due to the high efficiency, three times more power can be generated from biomass for the same heat load, and the plant can quickly achieve full load by starting and operating on 100% hydrogen. To meet fluctuations in seasonal demands and prices, a variant of the plant can provide climate-positive hydrogen production during long periods of low electricity prices or heat demand. To do so, Bio-FlexGen consortium gathers the necessary experience, knowledge and resources through a multi-stakeholder approach that covers the whole value chain of the project. It consists of a multidisciplinary team of 14 entities from 5 different EU countries (Spain, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Hungary), among which, 4 universities, 2 RTD organisations, 1 NGO, and 4 SMEs to ensure market exploitation (2 industrial companies and 1 District heat company).

Europe faces the joint challenge of decarbonising ever newer sectors and applications, whilst also seeking clean waste treatment and valorisation pathways. With over 300Mt of waste generated each year, Europe could produce up to 30Mt of clean hydrogen from waste to accelerate the decarbonisation of challenging sectors like aviation and heavy industry. However, exploiting this energy potential remains a challenge and so far, no robust and cost-effective solutions has been successfully commercialised. HYIELD aims to open a new low-cost pathway for clean hydrogen production and waste disposal. The project proposes a novel multi-stage steam gasification and syngas purification plant concept, which will efficiently convert different organic waste streams into hydrogen and is expected to achieve H2 99.97% purity and 62-74% energy conversion efficiency. The concept includes several beyond state-of-the-art innovations, including a novel process design, waste heat exploitation, Water-Gas-Shift membrane reactor, low-pressure metal hydride storage buffer and IA driven digital twin. The solution will be implemented at 3MW scale in a cement plant in Spain, where the hydrogen will be exploited for cement kiln firing. The demonstrator is expected to operate for 4,000h over a 15-month testing period with at least 10 different organic waste streams, treating over 3.9kt of dry material and producing 650t of hydrogen. It will also carry out the groundwork for up-scaling post-project locally and across the EU, working closely with industrial partners from the cement, steel, copper and gas sectors. It is forecasted that the solution will be able to deliver a Levelized Cost of Hydrogen of 2.19€/kg at industrial scale (20,000t/year waste treated), far below current electrolyser pathways (>5.5€/kg). The project is led by a consortium of Europe’s leading research groups, technology developers and industrial players in the hydrogen sector, from Spain, France, Germany, Norway and Luxembourg.

The European aggregates extractive industry is, by far, the biggest non-energy extractive industries in the EU (Eurostat 2017): 26000 estimated extraction sites: 81,26% of the total EU mining and quarrying sites, 3000 million ton extracted and supplied to the EU internal market, ~ 220000 persons directly employed. Hence the EU faces the need of sustainable and competitive future for European Raw Materials specially in the construction sector due to a greater anticipated demand for products linked to human well-being, health, safety and sustainability. DIGIECOQUARRY will exploit the aggregates industry´s great potential through a coordinated approach towards construction materials management with the final goal of reducing EU external supply dependency as well as leading an efficient use of resources. DIGIECOQUARRY will develop systems, technology and processes for integrated digitisation and automation real-time process control, to be piloted in 5 EU quarries with the target of improving health and safety conditions for workers. The pilot campaigns will lead to improved efficiency of processes maximizing quarry resources and sustainable management of water, energy emissions, minimised environmental impact and expanding the EU aggregates and construction business. Coupling Artificial Intelligence approaches with cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things concept, make Industry 4.0 approach possible and the smart sustainable extractive site a reality. All phases of the process, from extraction to the end user are covered by DIGIECOQUARRY, ensuring communication with policy makers, social awareness activities and international cooperation with Colombia and South Africa to share knowledge and best practices. The development of innovative an Intelligent Quarrying System (IQS) will increase the sustainable supply of minerals for the construction sector as well as enabling the sustainable extraction of EU´s mineral resources in existing and new quarries.

Solid urban waste (SUW) is an abundant source for circular products production, but it is generally not exploited. In fact, over 500 kg of municipal waste per capita were generated in the EU in 2020, while only 45% was recycled. The proximity of resources and people, a sufficient scale for effective markets and the ability to shape urban planning and policy are key factors for cities to achieve advancements in this area. REDOL has been conceived to take advantage of this scenario and transform cities into hubs for circularity that implement zero residues strategies while fostering industrial-urban symbiosis (I-US) approaches among local and regional actors. To this end, REDOL will redesign 5 value chains for SUW (packaging, plastics, CDW, textiles, WEEE) ending-up in the production of 12 circular products. Along the value chains a range of new solutions will be implemented for 1) upgrading management technologies to collect, sort and classify SUW, 2) enhancing the processing routes of sorted materials to avoid landfilling and 3) applying cutting-edge digital tools to optimize value chains and interaction among key players. Moreover, REDOL will provide the required organizational procedures, business models and social innovation actions required for the establishment of successful I-US interactions and hubs for circularity at local level. Such an approach will result in the development of guidelines and recommendations for major decision-making bodies and will achieve improved citizens’ perception on SUW as a local resource and on recycled products, thus increasing their participation in separate collection schemes. REDOL will be implemented in Aragon, with Zaragoza in the center of the hub for circularity. This way, REDOL will support its transition towards a zero residues city by 2040. This will imply 144.720 tons SUW/year being re-used, valorized or transformed into secondary raw materials, leveraging economic and GHG emissions savings over 14B€ and 280 ktCO2/year