The increased penetration of variable renewable energy (VRE) in the future will require backup technologies due to intermittency, and long-term energy storage in the form of a chemical vector (such as green ammonia) is increasingly favoured. FASTER will develop and demonstrate the techno-economic feasibility and reliability of a non-noble catalyst based on metal nitrides/ hydrides/amides active at low temperature (< 250 C) and pressure (<50 bar) in combination with a new reactor concept using structured catalysts and temperature swing absorption unit for synthesis and separation at TRL4. The use of highly thermally conductive reactor and absorption scaffolds will increase heat transfer, allowing fast transitions during operation at fluctuating loads (0-100 %). FASTER is a consortium of 5 companies and 3 research universities. The consortium aims to develop (1) novel catalysts highly active at low temperature and pressure for ammonia synthesis, (2) improved heat and mass transport reactor concepts using structured reactors and absorbers, (3) develop and validate a demonstration installation for the FASTER technology, and (4) generating accurate and reliable techno-economic models to identify suitable locations to deploy the concept across Europe and beyond. The innovation tasks will be supported by a dissemination, communication and exploitation strategy focusing on an effective market roll-out by the industrial project partners in the European Union. For this purpose, FASTER gathers a selected group of private and public organizations as Advisory Board Members (ENEL, STEDIN, UPL Mumbay, Fertiberia, Abengoa, TNO, Ammonia Energy Association, Smart Port Systems, and Port of Huelva) to ensure fast-tracking of technology take-up. Ultimately, FASTER will deliver an affordable and clean alternative for hydrogen storage and transport using ammonia as vector in the EU context.

SELECTIVELI represents a strong BBI consortium, including full members Sappi (SAPPI), Idener (IDENER), associated members Vito (VITO), Leitat (LEITAT) and Sintef (SINTEF) in addition to industrial partners Chimar (CHIMAR) and LCEngineering (LCE) and leading experts in the field of preparative electrochemistry, University of Mainz (JGU). SELECTIVELI will provide proof of concept on the laboratory scale (at least TR3) to demonstrate the potential for converting low cost lignosulfonate feedstocks (by-product from paper and pulp industry) into high value bio-sustainable chemicals through the following: (I) Development and optimisation of the electrochemical process to convert bio-based feedstock (lignosulfonates) into target monomers, some of which can be converted into polymers for study in further downstream processes. (II) Development and optimisation of downstream separation and purification processes to extract the target products and conversion of intermediate building block monomers (mixed phenolic derivatives) into higher value polymers (III) Modelling the process to (a) prepare process designs and scale up strategies for future industrial scale production and ensuring commercial viability (b) assessing energy requirements and proving the process is capable of benefitting from surplus energy and accommodating energy fluctuations. (IV) Conducting a full life-cycle analysis to establish that a future biorefinery process can reduce environmental footprint of a value chain.

CIRCWIND will develop and validate innovative technologies for current and future wind turbines (WT), to enhance reliability and lifetime, performance, operability and maintainability, as well as to find cost-efficient pathways towards complete circularity in a context where a growing number of WT are reaching their EoL. CIRCWIND’s most relevant results are: - A prototype Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) material for blades with improved damage-tolerance and fatigue life, using a new multiscale modelling tool and simulation framework. - A circular low Carbon concrete material for offshore floating WT based on a new geopolymer binder and circular lightweight aggregates (CLWA). - New virtual replica-based constitutive models and simulation tools for the FRP material and geopolymer concrete, coupled with monitoring technologies allowing to simulate and predict failure and lifetime, and enabling future digital twinning for blade and substructure components. - Integrated sustainability analysis addressing social, economic and environmental aspects, as well as improved circularity. CIRCWIND will develop its technologies to TRL5, building prototypes and validating them in relevant environmental conditions. Representative components of TLP floater and blade have been chosen, made of geopolymer concrete and FRP materials respectively. These innovations will allow future WT to include circular and cost-efficient materials installed in critical WT components at operating windfarms, ensuring feasibility, sustainability, acceptability and high replicability. Besides, new simulation tools, virtual replicas, DT to improve O&M costs. CIRCWIND consortium has a good balance of academic and industrial partners, which allows the project’s developments to be well-oriented towards real market needs that in addition to the strong dissemination and exploitation plan proposed will maximise future impacts, clustering with relevant Offshore Wind stakeholders.

ATENA+’s main objective is to contribute to improve the competitiveness of the European Battery industry by demonstrating a new generation of safe, sustainable-by-design, high-performance, cost-effective and fully Made-in-Europe Sodium-Ion Battery (SIB) technology at pre-industrial scale (TRL 7). By leveraging a multidisciplinary consortium of leading European research institutions and top-tier industrial players, ATENA+ will demonstrate the manufacturing of up to 80 Ah and >2,5kWh modules representative of BESS applications by: (i) optimizing cutting-edge active materials (i.e., stable Co-free layered oxides with minimal Ni content and improved energy density and processability; EU-sourced biobased hard carbon, made from sustainably managed forests, with enhanced capacity, efficiency and material density; customized advanced electrolytes with interphase-stabilizing characteristics, high-ionic conductivity and high electrochemical stability; (ii) developing environmentally-friendly processing techniques for high performance electrode production; (iii) improving cell and module architecture designs featuring high reparability-level, low maintenance requirement and enhanced safety performance and; (iv) integrating an advanced BMS with Battery Passport capabilities and fine-tuned SoC management to achieve optimal cell performance. All this, supported by iterative feedback loops with thorough electrochemical and safety testing, environmental, eco-design and recyclability criteria. Finally, the technology will be virtually upscaled to full BESS level to evaluate the system’s performance across 5 different real end-user operating conditions to accelerate post-project technology commercialization and ultimately contributing to the establishment of a competitive, resilient, and sustainable battery manufacturing industry in Europe.

The MONSOON vision is to provide Process Industries with dependable tools to help achieving improvements in the efficient use and re-use of raw resources and energy. MONSOON aims at establishing a data-driven methodology supporting the exploitation of optimization potentials by applying multi-scale model based predictive controls in production processes. MONSOON features harmonized site-wide dynamic models and builds upon the concept of the cross-sectorial data lab, a collaborative environment where high amounts of data from multiple sites are collected and processed in a scalable way. The data lab enables multidisciplinary collaboration of experts allowing teams to jointly model, develop and evaluate distributed controls in rapid and cost-effective way. Hybrid simulation and seamless integration techniques are adopted for rapid prototyping and deployment in real conditions. MONSOON will be developed and evaluated in two sites from the aluminium and plastics domains. The aluminium scenario will be focused on predictive monitoring of potlines, targeting early detection of anomalies and identification of potential optimization gains. Aluminium cases will be implemented in the plant with the highest primary aluminium production in the EU-28, namely the AP Dunkerque smelter, France. The plastics scenario will focus on fusing data from data-intensive in-mould sensors with information from higher SCADA levels, enabling early and precise identification of potential issues. This use case will be implemented in the GLN plant in Maceira-Leiria. MONSOON addresses the SPIRE vision, providing advantages for the European industry competitiveness and sustainability through the realization of an overarching monitoring and control infrastructure. MONSOON aims at creating synergies within and between the process industry sectors, boosting European industry in the worldwide race for competitiveness and sustainability.