The universal use of different types of plastic-based materials as new products to meet the insatiable global demands of the 20th century has had an unprecedented impact on our evolution as a society. Unfortunately, micro- and nano-plastics are now ubiquitous in marine and freshwater environments, as well as terrestrial ecosystems, where they act as a source of highly detrimental toxic chemicals that negatively affect the environment and human health by interacting with terrestrial organisms that mediate ecosystem services and functions, such as soil dwelling invertebrates, terrestrial fungi and plant pollinators. It is our duty as scientists to provide immediate and appropriate solutions to control the fate and reduce the effects of micro/nano-plastics on our planet. BMRex will develop entirely new concepts for micro/nano-plastic removal from household and industrial waste water effluents by validating a novel biocatalyst-based membrane reactor technology to degrade plastic waste avoiding further damage. The consortium will produce, test & optimize biocatalytic membrane reactors based on porous inorganic scaffolds functionalized with ionic liquid materials modified for biofouling resistance, plastic affinity and controlled attachment of plastic-degrading enzymes. Interchangeable enzyme species will permit a precise control of stepwise catalytic processes enhanced with artificial cytosis, maximizing activity and stability of the biocatalytic reactions. BMRex will also evaluate the economic and technological viability of this novel technology. With its unique integration of scientific approaches, competences and resources, BMRex has the potential to open up an entirely new technological field. In the long term, this project aims to enable an in situ, more efficient and safer recycling of waste waters with transformative effects on a society that is currently in the very early phases of transitioning toward an environmentally sustainable use of plastic.

The core of the project is focused on proposing sustainable processes from both an environmental and an economical point of view, being involved into the concept of circular economy. It is designed using an integrated biorefinery concept, which ensures a comprehensive use of material and energetic resources, while food residues are valorized, reusing valuable components at the farm and at industrial level. Innovative solutions to waste streams in the wine and fruit juice industries are looked for in this project, extracting medium to high-added value mixtures that are or can be used as ingredients, chemicals and additives in the food; chemical and cosmetic industries; or as plant immune-system elicitors in green-houses and farms, reducing the need for agrochemicals. Processes to value-added products from wastes are physical, chemical, physicochemical, enzymatic and microbiologic, and products will be tested for their antioxidant and plant immune system elicitor capacity, this latter at lab, pilot-plant and field scales. Therefore, the proposed strategies will reduce waste treatment costs, while improving economics at the food industry and farm levels. The consortium is well balanced considering the complementary scientific and economic background, expertise and capabilities (fundamental and applied research, laboratory, demonstration and production capacities, and public/industrial participation) of the partners to successfully address the ambitious project objectives. It is formed by eight partners from four European countries and comprises two universities (Complutense University of Madrid –Spain- and Université de Picardie Jules Verne –France-), two public research institutions (National Institute of Agriculture and Food Research and Technology -Spain- and Paper and Fiber Research Institute –Norway-) and four SMEs (ASA Spezialenzyme –Germany-, ELYS Conseil SASU –France-, Plant Response , and Pago de Carraovejas –Spain-).

BUTTERFLIES aims to drive Europe towards sustainability and technological progress through Biointelligent Manufacturing, using biological systems to create innovative production technologies. Our project will achieve these aims by addressing challenges currently preventing widespread uptake of bio-polymers in advanced additive manufacturing (AM). The BUTTERFLIES bio-inspired advancements are based on chitin, one of the most abundant bio-polymers on Earth (second only to cellulose), and applied specifically to binder jetting (BJT) and 2 photon polymerisation (2PP) AM processes. Environmental sustainability will be achieved through chitin nanocrystal crosslinkers that bind chitin biopolymers in BJT and photocurable chitosan bio-polymer in 2PP. These approaches will offer streamlined production to replace petroleum-based plastics and non-environmentally friendly binders. BUTTERFLIES seeks to transform and revolutionise European manufacturing and products through seamless integration of biomaterials into additive manufacturing processes. BUTTERFLIES will address the challenges associated with the processing of biomaterials such as chitin and chitosan in processes such as binder jetting (BJT) and 2 photon polymerisation (2PP). Environmental sustainability will be achieved through low-temperature bio-based binders that will offer streamlined production to replace petroleum-based plastics and binders with chitin, the second most common biopolymer in nature. BUTTERFLIES will focus on development of smart bioproduct and hybrid manufacturing techniques through key technology developments: - BJT and 2PP for bio-intelligent 3D manufacturing to manufacture complex structures from biomaterials with embedded intelligence from bioprocesses and mimicry of real biological systems. -Novel biomaterial binders -Process design for BJ and 2PP-based 3D printing of biomaterials. -Process scalability of the 2PP technique based on laser beam shaping and multi-beam processing.

ENZYCLE’ overall objective is to valorise and upgrading non-recycled plastic fractions through enzymatic processes to obtain high value-added products. For this, enzymes with a high hydrolytic activity on polyesters (PET) and on polyolefins (PE and PP) will be identified and selected in order to establish an efficient production process and developing recycling processes on plastic fractions that are currently not recycled. Additionally, ENZYCLE will deal with the problem with microplastics and their high environmental and health impact. Within ENZYCLE project, new processes for enzymatic recycling of multilayer packaging, post-consumer PET trays and clamshell and microplastics will be developed with the aim of enhancing the sustainability of these wastes, within a framework of circular economy, so as to save material and economic resources, creating new value chains by turning them into valuable products and closing the loop value chain by introducing the final obtained products back in the production process for plastic polymers.