Cost-effective production routes towards bio-based alternatives to fossil-based chemical building blocks

Successful proposals will contribute to developing bio-based novel dedicated^[1] or drop-in^[1] platform chemicals^[3] with improved technical and/or environmental performances, contributing to the circularity and carbon neutrality of related systems. Projects are therefore expected to address the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and its action plan, the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, the EU industrial strategy, and the upcoming transition pathway for the energy-intensive industries ecosystem (more specifically the ’chemicals transition pathway’).

Project results should contribute to the following expected outcomes:

• Resource- and energy-efficient cascading use of sustainably sourced biomass.
• Diversification on the range of EU-produced chemicals, while also growing the bio-based chemicals portfolio with high-volume/low cost and/or low volume/high-cost chemicals, depending on application, performance, and functionality.
• Higher sustainability and competitiveness of the European chemical industry.
• Reduction of direct emissions (scope 1 and 2)^[1] and indirect emissions (scope 3)^[1] against available fossil-based and/or bio-based benchmarks of the chemical industry, with a clear technical pathway to carbon neutrality.
• Public awareness and acceptance of bio-based solutions.
• Support market uptake growth and acceptance of scalable bio-based solutions.

Technology Readiness Level (TRL): Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see Horizon Europe General Annex B.

Expected EU contribution per project: It is estimated that a contribution of EUR 6 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal requesting different amounts.

Europe needs to diversify the sources of sustainable feedstock for its chemical industry, for not only improving on environmental sustainability performance of industrial processes and products, but to also enhance their strategic autonomy and resilience. Cost-competitiveness and scalability often remain a challenge for many bio-based chemicals. In contrast to fossil-based chemicals, they are characterised by relatively novel and comparably lower production scales, having higher OPEX costs (as well as CAPEX costs for new biorefining facilities). Accelerating the development of the bio-based chemicals portfolio will be key for growth of the bioeconomy and towards accelerating further on the fossil-based feedstock substitution. In addition, climate change, driven by industrial emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), has a fundamental socio-economic and environmental impact. The reduction of GHGs emissions is a priority for the chemical industry, as an energy-intensive industry sector. Bio-based platform chemicals, derived from sustainably sourced feedstock and with a lower carbon footprint, can contribute to realising this priority.

The topic does not address bio-based chemicals that already have a large-scale, industrial production capacity in Europe.

Proposals under this topic should:

• Demonstrate novel or improved production routes for bio-based platform chemicals, within the scope of CBE and reaching the targeted TRL, encompassing different enabling technologies ^[6].Assess and prove technoeconomic feasibility for the proposed bio-based platform chemicals, in comparison to fossil-based and/or bio-based benchmarks, where these exist.
• Apply and/or adapt existing/mature or novel digital technologies, provided that they are instrumental to achieving the project’s outcomes and scope, especially to ensure high standards of resource efficiency and environmental protection. Applications of digital technologies that should be considered in the scope are among the following areas

(Note): i) chemicals, materials and process design & modelling ii) (real-time) process monitoring and optimisation (including environmental performance) iii) predictive maintenance & plant engineering and iv) data analytics and data management of the production processes in the scope.

(Note II) Points i)-iv) should consider the contribution to/from data/feedback loops across circular, bio-based value chains but also coordination of processes among different sectors (especially if symbiosis concepts apply in the project)

• Demonstrate scalability of the process towards industrial production and market size/applications for the chemical building blocks (dedicated and/or drop-in chemical structures) produced, including identifying appropriate business models for their market uptake.
• Assess the environmental sustainability performance for the production (and along the full bio-based system) of the bio-based platform chemicals via Life Cycle Assessment or other appropriate methodologies (see more under Additional requirements).
• Provision for the project integrating ‘safe-and-sustainable-by-design’ generic criteria and framework considerations^[7], in line with the EU Chemicals strategy for sustainability.
• Demonstrate the applicability and added-value of the bio-based chemical building blocks compared to the fossil-based ones, while considering the target end uses in bio-based products.
• Develop and propose a strategic roadmap for closing the competitiveness gap between well-established fossil-based routes and the proposed novel or improved bio-based routes.
• Propose recommendations on opportunities/challenges to be addressed to targeted stakeholders, including, where possible, national/regional stakeholders, investors and brand owners^[1].
• Disseminate the outputs and learning outcomes from the project in order to increase the public awareness, and awareness of relevant industry actors, of potential benefits of bio-based solutions.

Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach and demonstrate the involvement of all concerned key actors in the bio-based systems, such as researchers and technology providers bio-based processing industries, end-users and consumers (in case of B2C value chains). Please see the section Additional requirements in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022^[9] for more details.

[1] for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)

[2] for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)

[3] Spekreijse, J., Lammens, T., Parisi, C., Ronzon, T. and Vis, M., Insights into the European market for bio-based chemicals, EUR 29581 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-01500-0, doi:10.2760/739561, JRC112989.

[4] for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)

[5] for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)

[6] Enabling technologies include (without the list being exhaustive): catalysis, biocatalysis, metabolic engineering, systems biology, enabling digital technologies (e.g. for chemicals design, high-throughput testing, chemical process design, control and optimisation)

[7] The publication of the ’Safe and Sustainable by Design chemicals and materials’ Framework, aiming to the definition of criteria and evaluation procedure for chemicals and materials, is expected to become available by end of 2022. The proposed SSbD framework is expected to assess chemicals and materials following a hierarchical approach in which safety aspects are considered first, followed by environmental, social and economic aspects. Please see also European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Caldeira, C., Farcal, R., Moretti, C., et al., Safe and sustainable by design chemicals and materials: review of safety and sustainability dimensions, aspects, methods, indicators, and tools, 2022, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/879069

[8] for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)

[9] https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents