SusChem launches sustainable vision
The European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry - SusChem - has announced that its stakeholders have endorsed a research agenda - the Implementation Action Plan (IAP) - covering chemical and biochemical sciences. The platform has also announced three major new projects. The meeting, in Budapest, included discussion on SusChem funding opportunities and the needs of the new EU Member States. In the future, SusChem activities will be divided into the following areas, to develop a sustainable chemistry economy: - bio-based economy; - energy; - healthcare; - information and communication technologies; - nanotechnology; - sustainable quality of life; - sustainable product and process design; - transport. Three major new projects will examine applications in these areas. The first is the 'smart energy home', which will look at close to zero-energy homes, using new construction methods and materials to improve home efficiency. SusChem plans a test centre to demonstrate and research new construction materials for 2007. The final home will be designed to generate all the energy it needs, minimising the use of electricity. The second, the integrated biorefinery, aims to improve the processing of biological material, from the standard starting materials today, such as crops and oils, to the raw materials of tomorrow - waste. The development of such a refinery relies upon the production of sufficient biofuel crops in the short-term, but when running, again anticipated by 2007, the facility should be able to produce virtually no waste. Finally, the F3 (faster and more flexible future production) chemicals factory aims to produce a full chemical portfolio with a minimal environmental impact by using processes with small ecological 'footprints'. The scheme will use highly efficient micro reaction technologies, which are scalable. Alfred Oberholz, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management of Degussa and chair of the SusChem board said: 'SusChem is here for the long-term. SusChem's key goal remains to foster chemistry and biotechnology innovation in Europe. We believe that the network that SusChem has created is of value to all its stakeholders and society in general.' A public consultation into the IAP document will be open until the end of October 2006, with the final document published before 2007. 'From the Budapest meeting SusChem will further hone the IAP document to define a coherent set of project proposals that could be submitted to the first calls for FP7 or pursued by other means,' continued Mr Oberholz. 'The IAP maps out a programme of medium and long-term activity that will be constantly reviewed and implemented as appropriate.'