Sister projects
PLASTICE – 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.
PLASTICS2OLEFINS – Sorting plastic waste with a new pyrolysis technique
The EU-funded Plastics2Olefins aims to demonstrate a novel plastics recycling process based on high-temperature pyrolysis, as the main product will be a gas stream instead of a liquid, so it will reduce the lifecycle GHG emissions by more than 70% compared to existing plastics recycling processes for unsorted plastic waste. The project will realise this in a two-step approach: first by adapting and testing a scaled pilot plant to optimise the components and process conditions and finally, a pioneering full-scale industrial demonstration plant at Repsol’s petrochemical site. To optimise the carbon footprint of such a plant, the project will design and construct a plant that will be fully electrified by renewably generated electricity.
Associations
A.SPIRE
A.SPIRE is the European Association which is committed to manage and implement the Processes4Planet co-programmed Partnership. It represents innovative process industries, 20% of the total European manufacturing sector in employment and turnover, and more than 170 industrial and research process stakeholders from more than 20 countries spread throughout Europe. A.SPIRE brings together cement, ceramics, chemicals, engineering, minerals and ores, non-ferrous metals, pulp and paper, refining, steel and water sectors, several being world-leading sectors operating from Europe.
The mission of A.SPIRE is to ensure the development of enabling technologies and best practices along all the stages of large scale existing value chain productions that will contribute to a resource efficient process industry.
CAPTURE
The CAPTURE initiative started in 2015 and has grown from an interdisciplinary collaboration between several young and dynamic professors from Ghent University. At present VITO, the University of Antwerp and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have joined the initiative. CAPTURE wants to deliver a disruptive contribution to the circular economy. Their mission is to accelerate radical technological innovations in the field of sustainable resource recovery by multidisciplinary collaboration between stakeholders, with a clear focus on valorization. They do so by focusing on 1) clustering of expertise, infrastructure and stakeholders in thematic pipelines to develop solutions from waste to resource to final application; 2) acceleration of the introduction of knowledge and technologies towards industry and society; and 3) training of multidisciplinary professionals. Doing so, CAPTURE wants to be a one-stop-shop for industry and government and offer integrated solutions related to resource recovery, without being restrained by the boundaries of institutes and stakeholders.
P4PLANET
The Processes4Planet (P4Planet) Partnership aim is to transform the European process industries to achieve circularity and overall climate neutrality at the EU level by 2050 while enhancing their global competitiveness. P4Planet is a European co-programmed public-private Partnership established between A.SPIRE – as the private entity – and the European Commission in the context of the Cluster 4 (Digital, Industry and Space) of Horizon Europe funding programme.
The systemic shift required to transition to a climate-neutral and circular society calls for more than technological innovation. The spirit of the Processes4Planet Partnership is to promote a holistic systemic socio-economic approach! The Partnership has strategic importance for the European industry, delivering impact on its global technical lead, as well as on the economic growth and creation of new high-skilled jobs.
STOP – STOP WASTE. GO CIRCULAR.
Project STOP’s mission is to design, implement and scale circular economy solutions to marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia. For that, they use a “system enabler” approach in which a team of experts in waste management, plastic recycling, organics management, behavior change, and program governance help a city design and then implement a low-cost waste management system in which all households and institutions benefit from collection, and plastics are kept out of the environment.
Their aim is to create sustainable, low-cost waste systems that capture as much value from the waste as possible. The many existing local initiatives and informal waste pickers are supported and integrated into the business model.
Borealis and Systemiq launched Project STOP in 2017.