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New technologies to integrate PLASTIC waste in the Circular Economy

Project description

Closing the loop in the plastic life cycle

Recycling is necessary to overcome the challenges of climate change. Unfortunately, only 20 % of plastics produced are recycled. This is mainly due to difficulties in the recycling process that include the presence of contaminants or other mixes in plastic waste. This leads to large amounts of plastic waste being incinerated or landfilled, causing serious environmental impacts. The EU-funded PLASTICE project aims to tackle this issue. To do so, it will develop and design four innovative technologies (cascade enzymatic hydrolysis; combined gasification and chemical post-treatment; hydrothermal liquefaction; and microwave assisted pyrolysis) to assess the valorisation processes which will be further validated in industrial environments. This will help bring about a sustainable closed-loop value chain for plastics.

Objective

Nowadays, only 20% of the whole plastic production is recycled due to barriers such as the presence of complex fractions in the waste streams including contaminants or multilayer materials or the mix of plastics with other types of waste that cannot be sorted in a feasible way. This situation implies a high environmental impact when plastic waste is landfilled or incinerated, so new solutions other than mechanical recycling must be developed to significantly increase the amount of plastics being valorized into new feedstocks.
PLASTICE was conceived to solve this need by developing a set of new valorization processes that are aligned with the most relevant roadmaps of chemical recycling technologies at European level. Therefore, main efforts will be devoted to the design, development and demonstration under real conditions together with EU waste managers of four valorization technologies: (i) MW-assisted pyrolysis; (ii) hydrothermal liquefaction; (iii) Combined gasification and chemical post-treatment and (iv) Cascade enzymatic hydrolysis.
Moreover, PLASTICE overall approach will deploy innovative elements along the whole value chain with the objective of integrating green technologies for the new processes to become sustainable and closing the loop to deliver circular value chains around plastics (including textiles with plastic content). Therefore, PLASTICE works both upstream and downstream the valorization processes, integrating new sorting systems, quality upgrading technologies, digitalization tools and eco-design principles together with new business models linked to each step of the circular value chains.
Following this approach, PLASTICE will impact on the amount of landfilled plastics and GHG emissions linked to process operation and fossil fuels-based feedstock. Its replication will be supported by contributing to the development of new standards and regulations, and by creating a community of followers supported by PLASTICE tools and consortium.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2021-TWIN-TRANSITION-01

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Coordinator

FUNDACION CIRCE CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION DE RECURSOS Y CONSUMOS ENERGETICOS
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 2 074 375,00
Address
PARQUE EMPRESARIAL DINAMIZA, AVDA. DE RANILLAS, 3D
50018 Zaragoza
Spain

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Region
Noreste Aragón Zaragoza
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

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.

€ 2 074 375,00

Participants (24)

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