Apply emerging breakthrough technologies to improve existing value chains

Adapt, and when needed, further develop innovative technologies for integration into an existing bio-based value chain to improve its performance in terms of efficiency, yield, cost and/or sustainability.

Proposals should describe the current bottleneck(s) and how the introduction of the new technological solutions could help enhance the technical performance and bring down costs, and/or reduce the environmental footprint.

This topic focuses on completely new breakthrough game-changing technologies. It excludes incremental innovations and continuous improvement.

Proposals should commit to assessing the environmental impacts of the developed processes or products using LCA methodologies based on available standards, certification, accepted and validated approaches (see also introduction – section 2.2.5 - published in the BBI JU AWP 2018)¹.

Proposals should also include an economic viability performance check (value chain and market analysis) of the developed products and processes, along with an analysis of social impacts where applicable.

If relevant, proposals should also allow for pre- and co-normative research necessary for developing the needed product quality standards.

The technology readiness level (TRL) ² at the end of the project should be at least 3 for the bio-based value chain in question. Proposals should clearly state the starting TRL, which may be as low as 1 or 2.

The scope aims at assisting industry to further explore promising technologies to broaden and strengthen the bio-based industries in Europe. It also aims at reducing the environmental footprint of the total value chain.

Indicative funding:

It is considered that proposals requesting a BBI JU contribution of between EUR 1 million and EUR 2,5 million would allow the specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. However, this does not preclude the submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

To be eligible for participation a consortium must contain at least one constituent entity of the Bio-based Industry Consortium not eligible for JU funding according to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 623/2014.

¹ The LCA may focus on a set of critical issues early on to steer the development process in the right direction. In this case, it is essential that this selection is carefully explained in the proposal in order to allow for expert assessment. See also in the introduction.

² Technology readiness levels as defined in annex G of the General Annexes to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-ga_en.pdf

The emerging bio-based industry in Europe is taking shape thanks to its many value chains, either built on existing value chains from the participating industrial sectors, or afresh, from new partnerships across sector boundaries. As the industry progresses, the existing situation offers opportunities to (further) improve existing value chains by integrating breakthrough technologies where applicable. The targeted improvement could be higher performance, lower costs, and/or enhanced sustainability.

The specific challenge of this topic is to identify possible technological improvements to existing value chains when breakthrough technologies are included.

• improve technological performance of existing biorefining operations;
• reduce biorefineries’ capital and operating costs;
• reduce the environmental footprint of biorefining operations in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the resource efficiency.

Expected duration: 1 to 4 years.

Type of action: Research and innovation action.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.3.3. of the BBI JU AWP 2018