Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BIONANOPOLYS (OPEN INNOVATION TEST BED FOR DEVELOPING SAFE NANO-ENABLED BIO-BASED MATERIALS AND POLYMER BIONANOCOMPOSITES FOR MULTIFUNCTIONAL AND NEW ADVANCED APPLICATIONS)
Período documentado: 2022-07-01 hasta 2023-12-31
To succeed in the ambitious objective of achieving a climate-neutral EU by 2050 the bio-based sector, as a key actor, shall respond to relevant challenges in the short term. Climate protection, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and saving of fossil resources are key elements for a more sustainable future. Biomaterials must offer functional properties for high-volume applications and performing better than fossil-based materials to be accepted by the industry and end users.
The transformation of biobased materials to the nanoscale solves this challenge, providing them with new properties required in many sectors such as a bigger specific surface area, high aspect ratio, and enhanced mechanical, thermal, rheological, optical, barrier and active properties.
BIONANOPOLYS will strengthen the circularity of nano-enabled bio-based materials (NEBM) in the economy launching and promoting an Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB) to develop innovative bionanocomposites from main feedstocks in Europe and bio-based nanoproducts in relevant sectors such as: polymers, packaging, textile, agriculture, cosmetics, pharma, hygiene, food and additive manufacturing.
The Bionanopolys project will improve technologies and processes required in fourteen different pilot lines distributed across Europe within fifteen experienced technological institutes located in ten countries. Four additional partners (technological companies and services providers) will contribute to ensure the feasibility of the test bed, including outreach, dissemination, and a business accelerator programme. Finally, eight key industrial players (SME and LE) will act as final validators in almost twenty different cases studies.
The transformation of biobased materials to the nanoscale solves this challenge, providing them with new properties required in many sectors such as a bigger specific surface area, high aspect ratio, and enhanced mechanical, thermal, rheological, optical, barrier and active properties.
BIONANOPOLYS will strengthen the circularity of nano-enabled bio-based materials (NEBM) in the economy launching and promoting an Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB) to develop innovative bionanocomposites from main feedstocks in Europe and bio-based nanoproducts in relevant sectors such as: polymers, packaging, textile, agriculture, cosmetics, pharma, hygiene, food and additive manufacturing.
The Bionanopolys project will improve technologies and processes required in fourteen different pilot lines distributed across Europe within fifteen experienced technological institutes located in ten countries. Four additional partners (technological companies and services providers) will contribute to ensure the feasibility of the test bed, including outreach, dissemination, and a business accelerator programme. Finally, eight key industrial players (SME and LE) will act as final validators in almost twenty different cases studies.
The progress of this project is on track with the expected for most of the tasks and work packages.
The steps and decisions to take in WP2 for the establishment of the SEP at M22, the definition of the OITB management structure, conditions of the Open call as well as BIONANOPOLYS service portfolio, are not easy decisions and have required successive meetings and actions meaning a higher effort than expected to meet the objectives established.
In the case of WP3, the implementation of the upgrades in the different PP has been performed and tested and tuned up with commercial feedstocks, because of the delay in the delivery of the biomass selected in the project. For that reason, during the second period, which covers until the end of the WP, a bigger effort will be carried out to test the pilot plants with the biomass selected and obtain the nanoadditives to be used in the successive WP.
Regarding WP4, the acquisition of the new elements to implement in the different PP has been finalized, a third of the objectives has been achieved and the estimated upgrades validated with commercial nanoadditives. After this validation, testing the pilot plants with nanoadditives from WP3 and similar characteristics to the commercial ones will require a minor effort than at the beginning. Anyway, the objective of this WP is to upgrade the PP involved, if possible, to test the nanoaddives from WP3, but the production of bionanocomposites with these will be carried out during the validation in WP7 in the corresponding UC.
The acquisition of the new elements to be implemented in the different PP at WP5 has been almost completed and most of them tested with commercial materials. The pending ones will be tested during the second period with minor effort than at the beginning as fewer upgrades are expected. As the objective of this WP is to upgrade the PP involved, the validation with bionanocomposites from WP4 can be carried out during the validation in WP7 in the corresponding UC.
In the case of WP6, the work performed has been focused on collecting the information (requirements, parameters to control, properties to be achieved…) from the different pilot plants as well as defining the first mathematical models and starting the first off-line measurements to evaluate the suitability of the techniques selected. During the second period, their implementation in the different pilot plants and the evaluation of the upgrades achieved in terms of faster verification of materials performance will be performed.
The WP7 has just started at M18 and only the definition of the different UC has been carried as starting point to booth this WP.
Util the UC development starts, the activities of WP 8 were to create a database of reagents used in the project, to lay out a flow diagram summarizing the materials and resources to be used for each User Case, and to define the tests and methodologies for the LCA.
Regarding dissemination and exploitation activities, 3 workshops on Business Model Canvas were given to Bionanopolys core partners and SMEs, the project website was created (www.bionanopolys.eu) National stakeholder events in 10 countries (outreach to approximately 400 stakeholders) were organised and bionanopolys partners assisted to 5 networking and clustering activities with other OITBs
The steps and decisions to take in WP2 for the establishment of the SEP at M22, the definition of the OITB management structure, conditions of the Open call as well as BIONANOPOLYS service portfolio, are not easy decisions and have required successive meetings and actions meaning a higher effort than expected to meet the objectives established.
In the case of WP3, the implementation of the upgrades in the different PP has been performed and tested and tuned up with commercial feedstocks, because of the delay in the delivery of the biomass selected in the project. For that reason, during the second period, which covers until the end of the WP, a bigger effort will be carried out to test the pilot plants with the biomass selected and obtain the nanoadditives to be used in the successive WP.
Regarding WP4, the acquisition of the new elements to implement in the different PP has been finalized, a third of the objectives has been achieved and the estimated upgrades validated with commercial nanoadditives. After this validation, testing the pilot plants with nanoadditives from WP3 and similar characteristics to the commercial ones will require a minor effort than at the beginning. Anyway, the objective of this WP is to upgrade the PP involved, if possible, to test the nanoaddives from WP3, but the production of bionanocomposites with these will be carried out during the validation in WP7 in the corresponding UC.
The acquisition of the new elements to be implemented in the different PP at WP5 has been almost completed and most of them tested with commercial materials. The pending ones will be tested during the second period with minor effort than at the beginning as fewer upgrades are expected. As the objective of this WP is to upgrade the PP involved, the validation with bionanocomposites from WP4 can be carried out during the validation in WP7 in the corresponding UC.
In the case of WP6, the work performed has been focused on collecting the information (requirements, parameters to control, properties to be achieved…) from the different pilot plants as well as defining the first mathematical models and starting the first off-line measurements to evaluate the suitability of the techniques selected. During the second period, their implementation in the different pilot plants and the evaluation of the upgrades achieved in terms of faster verification of materials performance will be performed.
The WP7 has just started at M18 and only the definition of the different UC has been carried as starting point to booth this WP.
Util the UC development starts, the activities of WP 8 were to create a database of reagents used in the project, to lay out a flow diagram summarizing the materials and resources to be used for each User Case, and to define the tests and methodologies for the LCA.
Regarding dissemination and exploitation activities, 3 workshops on Business Model Canvas were given to Bionanopolys core partners and SMEs, the project website was created (www.bionanopolys.eu) National stakeholder events in 10 countries (outreach to approximately 400 stakeholders) were organised and bionanopolys partners assisted to 5 networking and clustering activities with other OITBs
For this first period, the impact of Bionanopolys was felt in the industrial sectors, as the dissemination activities and workshop events have increased awareness of the problems to be solved by this project. This also attracted the interest of potential clients of the OITB from different sectors (functional and structural materials, active ingredients, food, construction, energy, and health) who want to innovate and accelerate the launch of their new biobased nanoproducts once the open call is launched. We expect this to generate positive impacts on society and the economy of the EU by facilitating the commercialization and safe access to novel biobased nanoproducts, and also attract investment and economic growth in the EU, create new jobs, and provide useful goods for society.
Moreover, the performance of the biobased products developed in this project are expected to reach superior performance to conventional fuel-based products and offer the possibility to be biodegradable or compostable. This will alleviate the alarming dependency of the European Union on fossil fuels and the number of plastics that accumulate in the environment.
Moreover, the performance of the biobased products developed in this project are expected to reach superior performance to conventional fuel-based products and offer the possibility to be biodegradable or compostable. This will alleviate the alarming dependency of the European Union on fossil fuels and the number of plastics that accumulate in the environment.