Project description
Producing bioplastic from CO2 and sunlight
If consumers continue to buy food and other items wrapped in plastic at the same rate, today’s environmental problems will grow to unmanageable proportions. Plastic must be replaced with biodegradable materials such as polylactic acid (PLA). However, the production of PLA from crops is highly demanding as regards the amount of fresh water and the size of farmlands required. The EU-funded RePLAy project will try to solve this problem by replacing the current way of PLA production with the revolutionary technology platform introduced by the Photanol company. The platform allows the highly efficient production of bioplastic out of CO2 and sunlight by transforming special bacterial strains in photobioreactors into lactic acid. The new method ensures multiplied efficiency of production as well as dramatically reduced use of water and land.
Objective
The demand for plastic packaging is predicted to triple to >285 million tons by 2050, bringing on well-recognized problems around the use of fossil feedstocks. Biodegradable bioplastics, especially polylactic acid (PLA), offer a promising solution to replace plastic packaging. However, the production of PLA currently depends mainly on food crops as key feedstock and requires significant amounts of agricultural land and fresh water. There is a urgent need for innovative bioplastic production technologies that do not take over our land, water and food production system.
Dutch applicant Photanol leverages a proprietary technology to produce lactic acid, the key ingredient for PLA, directly out of CO2 and sunlight. Its revolutionary platform technology is based on the combination of optimized bacterial strains and tailor-made photo-bioreactors, enabling direct conversion of the limitless available CO2 feedstock into lactic acid and a production efficacy that is 7x higher than crop plants. In the process, 1.6 tonnes CO2 are captured per ton lactic acid and 24x less land and 25x water are used compared to current methods.
Photanol is led by experienced biotech entrepreneurs, chemical industry representatives and scientific leaders. The award-winning biotech SME has reached important up-scaling milestones obtaining permits and successful construction and operation of a first-of-a-kind outside pilot plant. As next step, Photanol aims to construct a full commercial production plant (operational in 2024, with an expected annual gross profit of €75 million). This project will address all technical, operational, economic and financial barriers before scale-up to commercial size. The project will allow Photanol to demonstrate the commercial potential of its technology and expand the company from 21 to >70 FTE by 2024. Ultimately, Photanol aims to become a key enabler of a revolution in the chemical industry that will decouple any kind of chemical from fossil feedstocks.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology biomaterials bioplastics polylactic acid
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry organic acids
- social sciences economics and business business and management entrepreneurship
- social sciences political sciences political transitions revolutions
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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-2 - SME instrument phase 2
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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.
1098 XH Amsterdam
Netherlands
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.