Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are critical and non-substitutable raw materials with high economic importance for European industry, as they are crucial components for a broad range of advanced products. The main goal of the SecREEts project is to establish a stable and secure supply of critical REEs based on sustainable extraction from European apatite sources used in fertiliser production. Pilot processes will be developed for the innovative extraction, separation and transformation of REEs. Rare Earth (RE) metals will be supplied to application areas like electric vehicles, industrial motors and wind turbines. Replication potential will be demonstrated in medical diagnostics, Fluid Catalytic Cracking and consumer products. The main objective of the project is to demonstrate a new integrated value chain for the optimal extraction, refining and production of REEs in Europe. This will be achieved through the development and demonstration of a number of innovative technologies: • Utilise efficiently a novel industrial sidestream process in fertiliser production to extract the REEs • Separate REEs by a novel chromatographic process into distinct nitrate salts • Realise electrochemical production of metals and alloys from the above targeted RE oxides • Demonstrate the market value and relevance of the produced RE metals in permanent magnets and its downstream products • Validate market acceptance of the RE oxides not processed to metals • Create an industrial symbiosis between two value chains • Demonstrate the economic, environmental and societal sustainability as well as safety of the pilot units SecREEts pilots will focus on Pr, Nd and Dy metals used in permanent magnets as these are extremely critical for the European economy. Industrial implementation of the pilots developed in SecREEts will lead to a supply of at least 3000 tonnes annually of REEs to European industries in 2023, with 75 M€ in estimated value.

Catalytic reactors account for production of 90% of chemicals we use in everyday life. To achieve the decarbonisation of European economy and comply with the 20-20-20 target, resource utilization and energy efficiency will play a major role in all industrial processes. The concept of PRINTCR3DIT is to employ 3D printing to boost process intensification in the chemical industries by adapting reactors and structured catalysts to the requirements of the reaction. This manufacturing technique is particularly useful in reactions where diffusion, mixing and/or heat transfer are limitations against reaching higher performance. The utilization of the concept of 3D printing will also reduce the resource utilization of reactor and catalyst manufacture, energy consumed (< 15%) and transportation. The rationale of using 3D printing will follow a generic and systematic structure for implementation. The methodology will be applied to three markets of fine chemicals, specialty chemicals and fertilizers, ranging from few tons to millions of tons of production per year. This demonstrates the enormous versatility of 3D printing for reactor and catalyst designs that cannot be improved with traditional building and design tools. For all these processes, the challenges to be solved are thermal management, innovative reactor design and flow distribution. These examples will provide realistic data in different markets to delineate business case scenarios with the options of new integrated plants or retrofitting for large-scale applications. Application of cutting-edge 3D printing to catalytic reactors will foster higher productivity, a more competitive industrial sector and higher value jobs in Europe - keeping leadership in such a challenging arena. PRINTCR3DIT is a joint effort between world-leading industries (4), innovative SMEs (4), R&D institutes (4) and a university that aim to accelerate deployment of a set of products to the market.

DeliSoil will adopt a multi-actor, transdisciplinary approach to co-design processes that minimise food processing waste and valorise its by-products. We will apply a circular bioeconomy approach to the waste hierarchy, creating sustainable soil improvers in support of soil health in Europe. DeliSoil’s 5 regional Living Labs (LLs), with actors along the entire food value chain, will use innovative technologies to convert residues from food processing and production industries into tailored soil improvers. Research partners and companies will evaluate the soil improvers in state-of-the-art laboratories, and landowners will test the project’s solutions. The tailored soil improvers will be tested for stability, biosafety and molecular parameters, and their impacts on soil health, agronomical performance, and environmental risks will be evaluated. Environmental footprints will also be measured for selected products. We will identify technological, legislative, financial, and social barriers and enablers for the conversion of food processing residue streams into organic soil improvers and fertilising products, and use these results to analyse fairness throughout the LL value chains. Together with stakeholders, we will build communities and create networks to facilitate knowledge sharing of DeliSoil’s key exploitable results, empower interdisciplinary design processes to improve soil health through the valorisation of food by-products, and increase societal soil literacy. The Living Labs will share their solutions for using side-streams from vegetable, meat, insect cultivation, mixed food, tomato, olive oil, and wine industry actors. Our proposed Lighthouses will allow inter-European partnering and demonstrate improved waste management sites integrating optimal practices in a circular bioeconomy framework. We will work in close cooperation with other EU projects and the European Soil Observatory (EUSO) to ensure coordinated delivery of Soil Mission goals.