Biorefinery research with big impact
The eight projects selected in the FACCE SURPLUS 2nd call – with small-scale bio-refineries as the central theme - relate well to the objectives concerning scientific impact of the call - and they run according to plan. These are the main conclusion of the mid-term report.
The objectives concerning scientific impact of FACCE SURPLUS are met by the eight projects selected in the FACCE SURPLUS 2nd call – and the projects run according to the plan. This is the conclusion of the mid-term report.
The objectives concerning scientific impact of FACCE SURPLUS are two-fold, as stated in the call announcement published in February 20 (see fact box).
| SCIENTIFIC IMPACT OBJECTIVES |
|---|
| Improving collaboration and cooperation across the European Research Area in the area of sustainable intensification of food and non-food biomass production and decentralized transformation systems, in particular small scale multi-input, multi-product bio-refinery concepts. |
| Supporting local innovation and value creation from biomass and bio-refineries in synergy with the environmentally sustainable intensification of biomass production taking into account the required economic, environmental and social conditions and resilience to climate change. |
The mid-term report establishes that the scientific impact objectives are met by the eight different projects: FLEXIBI, CichOpt, HaloSys, ABC4soils, DEBUT, SUPERVALUE, PASS-BIO and PROWASTE.
Private sector involvement is high, either by having private partners directly in the consortium and by actively seeking contact through workshops, interviews etc. However, provided implementation readiness levels (IRL) indicate that research results are still a few steps from being implemented. As not all projects work with technologies intended for commercialization, the project coordinators have been asked to indicate how close their work is from any recipient, who might be using it (e.g. in policy-making, decision support, legislation support and also marketable technology).
The projects selected also foster collaboration and cooperation across the European Research Area confirmed by the high percentage of new collaborations. Since projects are rather small, in four out of eight projects partners from only two counties are involved. Three projects involve partners from four countries.
Furthermore, the mid-term reports concludes that projects, in general, run according to plan; the difficulties that occurred will be dealt with so that no substantial changes from the original project objectives are foreseen.
| THE EIGHT PROJECT OF THE SECOND CALL | |
|---|---|
| FLEXIBI | Small-scale flexi-feed biorefineries: experimental evaluation and development of a decision support tool devoted to agricultural and industrial urban and peri-urban wastes. |
| CichOpt | Optimal use and valorization of biomass streams from Cichorium. |
| HaloSys | Integrated system of bioremediation – biorefinering using halophyte species. |
| ABC4Soil | Advanced Biochar Fertilizers for Multiple Ecological Benefits in Soil Conditioning. |
| DEBUT | Production of ferulic acid, 2,3 Butanediole and microbial plant biostimulants from lignocellulosic biomass by a two-step cascading process. |
| SUPERVALUE | Solving the problem of locally available wet residue streams by recovering the energy content and extracting the valuable elements from the inorganic part using a small scale biorefinery concept based on the SCWG process. |
| PASS-BIO | Plug flow reactor –based Acid fermentation for Small-Scale BIOrefineries. |
| PROWASTE | Protein-fibre fibre biorefinery for scattered material streams. |
