GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Proposals under this topic should:

• Integrate innovative and sustainable conversion processes in existing biorefineries (currently producing a conventional and/or narrow range of products), addressing all elements in the value chain, also integrating, if applicable, dismissed or declined industrial assets that could be converted as parts of the biorefinery by:
  • increasing the valorisation of sustainable bio-based feedstock, from primary and secondary sources, respecting the ‘cascading use’ approach;
  • expanding the use of residual and waste streams from bio-based processes within the biorefinery into added-value products, addressing the technical challenges of converting secondary bio-based feedstock (limited process integration, energy inefficiency, water use, etc.);
  • integrating, when applicable, any other local residual biomass such as residual and waste streams from different sources (aquatic or terrestrial) to extract maximum value from the incoming feedstock and increase the economic viability;
  • developing new production methods enabled by innovative, including emerging breakthrough, technologies;
  • expanding and diversifying the production capacity and range of bio-based products, and increasing their value, including via symbiosis with other industrial actors when applicable;
  • improving the environmental sustainability profile of the plant by decreasing and controlling polluting emission and energy consumption;
  • improving the efficiency of processes to minimise process losses and reducing or eliminating the use of hazardous substances;
  • improving the flexibility to energy supply, e.g., expanding the use of renewable energy resources, increasing electrification, enabling energy storage, etc.;
  • responding to current and foreseen market requirements, e.g., expanding to markets different from the ones considered when building the plant in the first place.
• Validate the technical and economic viability of the plant conversion concept, enabling its replication including the integration of dismissed industrial assets, if applicable.
• Demonstrate the replication potential of this flagship concept in the EU and the associated countries.
• Demonstrate the economic and social sustainability in terms of maintaining (or increasing) jobs and skilled jobs, including at regional level towards an improved social and economic development of sectors providing bio-based feedstock, such as rural community, with no interference with the food value chains.