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NEXT GENERATION, ZERO-WASTE, DYNAMIC, MULTIVALORIZATION ROUTE BIOREFINERY FOR SUSTAINABLE BOTANICAL INGREDIENTS:SHOWCASING A REPLICABLE AND VERSATILE MODEL FROM EXTREMADURA TO BIO-BASED INDUSTRY IN EU

Project description

Building the world’s most advanced biorefinery for botanical extracts

The EU-funded SUSTAINEXT will transform NATAC’s current production plant in Hervás, Extremadura, into the world’s most modern, efficient and sustainable botanical extracts biorefinery. The project will scale an innovative dynamic biorefinery model designed to dramatically improve process efficiency, maximise resource valorisation and advance towards zero waste and net-zero emissions. By integrating the full value chain, from the primary sector to leading international brand owners, SUSTAINEXT creates a collaborative ecosystem with global relevance. Beyond industrial transformation, the project will generate a decisive regional impact in rural Extremadura by creating skilled employment, attracting investment, supporting reindustrialisation and establishing a new innovation hub rooted in circular bioeconomy. In doing so, SUSTAINEXT positions both NATAC and the region at the forefront of sustainable industry.

Objective

SUSTAINEXT is led by Natac and brings together 21 partners from Europe and Spain, 7 of them from the Extremadura region. The project will start in June 2023 and will last four and a half years. In summary, the technological objective of the project is to implement on an industrial scale a digital, dynamic, versatile, disruptive and multi-product biorefinery, with a processing capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year and following a NetZero Carbon strategy. This first-of-its-kind flagship will transform the plant-based ingredients sector, while showcasing and deploying a first-of its kind model likely to be replicable by the whole European bio-based industry.
SUSTAINEXT aims to transform Natac's current production plant, located in Hervás in the north of Extremadura, into the most modern, digital, innovative and sustainable plant extracts factory in the world, placing the company and the region at the forefront of the sector at a global level.
The model is based in the integration of the whole supply chain - from feedstock to end users - applying a disruptive circular model based on a smart dynamic analytical biorefinery (DYANA): a smart dynamic biorefining process for the cascade valorisation of feedstocks which is optimized batch-wise according to the initial composition of the feedstock to deliver maximum value with minimum environmental impact and ensure resource efficiency. DYANA will allow to achieve the complete valorisation of the processed feedstock with a zero-waste and zero-emissions ambition.
SUSTAINEXT will be industrially deployed with six sustainably and locally sourced European feedstocks. Three medicinal and aromatic crops (rosemary, camomile, and lemon verbena) will be cultivated in Extremadura in disused tobacco fields as an alternative towards healthier crops, and also between solar panels (agrivoltaics) enhancing soil use. Three agro-industrial side streams (olive, artichoke/cardoon, and pomegranate) will showcase how biomass upcycling represents an opportunity to give a new life to certain underexploited bio-based feedstocks.
SUSTAINEXT flagship will deliver 46 plant-based healthy extracts and functional ingredients out of which 13 are totally new on the market and 12 are newly produced in Europe. It will generate a revenue of 271 M€, will create more than 5,000 new green jobs (direct and indirect) and will have a decisive socioeconomic impact in Extremadura.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-JU-IA - HORIZON JU Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022

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Coordinator

NATAC BIOTECH SL
Net EU contribution
€ 10 293 398,29
Address
C/ POLIGONO INDUSTRIAL LAS CANADAS S/N
10700 Hervas
Spain
SME
Yes
Region
Centro (ES) Extremadura Cáceres
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost
€ 17 155 663,81

Participants (20)

Partners (1)