Project description
Transforming trash into power
Landfilling is the most common disposal method of municipal solid waste, which is produced mainly by households. While it is simple in terms of the technical requirements and process, it’s the least recommended option in terms of environmental implications. For instance, the biodegradable waste in landfill (paper and food wastes) decompose and emit methane – 23 times more potent than CO2. The list also includes the contamination of soil and groundwater, unpleasant odours and the spread of pathogenic microorganisms. The EU-funded Pirocrack project proposes new clean and cost efficient technologies to treat municipal waste based on pyrolysis (one of the technologies that can convert biomass to an intermediate liquid product). Specifically, the Pirocrack method decomposes waste without using oxygen, avoiding pollutant emissions. It also transforms waste into high-value products that can be commercialised, contributing to the circular economy.
Objective
Waste disposal is one of the biggest problems that the world is facing. Increasing population, urbanization and industrialization are accelerating drastically the generation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Landfilling is the usual method but is the least recommended option since they release GHG, contaminates the soil and ground water, produces unpleasant odours and spread pathogenic microorganisms. Recycling is unable to deal with the huge amount of garbage produced. Mass-burn incineration eliminates waste but emits highly dangerous dioxins and furans creating major social opposition. Composting is limited to large fractions of organic waste and is very odorous. Most of the gasification plants that started to operate have shut down failing to provide a solution to the problem. New clean and cost-efficient technologies to dispose this huge amount of garbage are urgently needed. PYROCRACK uses a patented Pyrolysis process to treat MSW obtaining a mixture of liquids, gases and solids with high energy content and a novel Thermal Cracking process that improves the quality of this mixture. Pyrolysis decomposes waste without using O2 which avoids pollutant emissions. Thanks to its endothermic feature it transforms waste into high value products that can be commercialised in the industry making of PYROCRACK a flagship of the Circular Economy. Pyrolysis has been known for centuries but now it is the focus of the MSW treatment business because of the inability of the existing techniques to respond to the ever-growing generation of garbage. Our approach is disruptive since we will treat MSW in a distributed manner through profitable and clean small/medium plants located closer to households and businesses to transform the content of waste into usable products (biochar, syngas and power). Our aim is to reach a gradual and scalable market implementation in Solid Waste Market of the PYROCRACK technology so has to reach a ROI of 6,59 and a payback period of 2,25 years.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- social sciences economics and business economics sustainable economy
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
50004 Zaragoza
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.