HyWay aims to synthesise hydrogen rich syngas from low cost carbon source, and eliminate the environmental issues from conventional waste management (e.g., landfill or incineration). HyWay advances the state-of-the-art in carbonaceous waste management especially plastic waste, waste tires, waste biomass and crude glycerol for hydrogen production. The overall aim of the HyWay is to establish long-term consolidated research collaborations between the participating institutions with complementary expertise and knowledge to design and develop carbon-neutral, scalable, and socially acceptable pathways to sort and convert waste to hydrogen-rich syngas as part of next generation sustainable fuels. Through secondments, workshops, training, webinar series, and industry-focused events, HyWay produces multiple avenues for career development, cross-sectoral experiences, and academic training in a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary environment. Research results are translated into training materials, including formal academic and industry courses on waste sorting, chemical recycling technologies, process modelling, machine learning, techno-economic analysis and life cycle analysis for postgraduate students, early-stage and experienced researchers and industry; training tutorials for industrial and technical staffs; and creating the basis for developing academic textbooks for the wider research community and possibly in undergraduate module delivery. There is also a focus on transferable skills, with dedicated training activities specially designed to facilitate personal development, technological and communication skills. HyWay delivers through the effective collaboration of 7 member state/associate country universities and companies, and eight third country universities and companies from China, Japan and Australia.

The cooling production, coupled with renewable electricity generation, are considered a cornerstone technology to meet increasing global cooling demand whilst decarbonise various sectors. According to the International Energy Agency, only accounting the air-conditioning sector, consumes about 20% of the overall electricity used globally and is expected to be doubled by 2050. Improving the efficiency, reliability, affordability, and environmental performance of cooling systems is critical to maximum benefit for society and the environment. HydroCool project will develop a novel cooling production concept that can significantly improve the cooling system performance beyond the state-of-the-art. The solution is based on the hydraulic compression and expansion of CO2 in a reversible cycle capable of delivering cooling for a wide range of application such as food, data centres or air conditioning [-40ºC;+12ºC]. By switching from solid to fluid dynamics, HydroCool will enable both isothermal compression using liquid piston fluid and energy recovery between expander and compressor. Preliminary studies indicate a potential to nearly double the Coefficient of Performance through these two mechanisms. The hydraulic compression is also expected to lead to a significant improvement of the system lifespan, operating cost and reliability due to reduced friction and limited use of lubricants. Additionally, HydroCool offers an opportunity to accelerate the move in favour to CO2, displacing the use of environmentally harmful HFC and CFC refrigerants with high Global Warming Impact, that combined with the high system performance, improves considerably the cooling sector footprint by almost halving its impact. Thus, HydroCool will improve the affordability, performance, sustainability, and scalability of the CO2 based refrigeration system. In the project, a hydraulic CO2 cooling system will be engineered, implemented, and tested at 17.6kW scale to achieve TRL4.

FUEL-UP project aims at producing simultaneously the key renewable SAF and marine fuels from 100% biogenic feedstocks (primarily forestry residues) through pyrolysis and downstream upgrading of pyrolysis oils to advanced biofuels, reducing GHG emissions of the important aviation and marine transport sectors. FUEL-UP will demonstrate at TRL6-7 the production of sufficient aviation and marine fuel in the project, transforming 1000 L HPO to 450-500 L SAF, 300-350 L marine diesel and 100-200 L marine fuel Naphtha/Bio-methanol co-blend for testing. The key challenges are to de-risk and optimize stabilisation, deoxygenation, hydrodeoxygenation, hydrotreatment and hydro-isomerisation steps; including optimisation of catalysts and scalability. FUEL-UP will ensure the fuel quality meets standards and engine specifications. The produced SAF will be tested according to aviation standards (Tier 1, 2 & 2.5) to qualify them with D4054 certification and provide a strategy for fuel certification through introduction to EU Clearinghouse. The produced marine biofuels streams fuel quality (marine diesel and Naphtha enhanced Bio-methanol co-blend) will be assessed with marine engine testing performed according to ISO 8217 and ISO 8178 standards. FUEL-UP will also maximise the valorisation of all carbon side streams (gaseous and aqueous), with aqueous phase treatment and extraction up to 80%, resulting in at least 200 L valuable compounds /t HPO, followed by subsequent conversion into high quality biogas. The heavy component of Naphtha fraction will be evaluated for aromatisation by continuous catalytic reforming to produce solvents. Environmental impact of the value chain will be assessed to show up to 80% GHG emission reduction compared to fossil fuels and provide scenarios for green hydrogen production. Process engineering will ensure scale-up of technologies to reach commercial scale by 2030 and replication in 10 sites by 2035 and 25 sites by 2040, allowing production of >2Mt fuels.

The overall objective of ELECTRO is to demonstrate a revolutionary technology concept that links the waste and petrochemical industry and provides them with a sustainable, low GHG footprint and scalable circular solution for olefin and polyolefin production. The priority for ELECTRO is the plastic waste streams that are currently not recycled but rather either incinerated or dumped to landfill: examples are multilayer plastics, mixed PE/PP/PS, and waste PS. An innovative modular extruder for optimal pre-treatment of plastic waste will be combined with an electrically heated reactor for the catalytic pyrolysis of plastic waste at TRL 7. The main product, plastic waste pyrolysis oil, will be used as a feed for steam crackers. Steam cracking will be electrified in the roto-dynamic reactor (RDR), a second novel reactor technology to be demonstrated at TRL 7 in ELECTRO. In the RDR heat transfer is accelerated by an order of magnitude compared to heat transfer rates achieved in the fired heaters used in conventional crackers. And so the RDR has a substantially higher selectivity towards light olefins and improved process efficiency. The light olefins will be further processed into PE and PP, demonstrating the technical feasibility of chemical recycling and the use of plastic waste as a circular carbon feed. This scalable concept will enable strong industrial symbiosis, with the initial LCA showing an 90% GHG reduction compared to today's best available technology (BAT). Given the amount of plastic waste that can be converted, and the market demand for the compounds produced, the impact of ELECTRO will be profound. To further extend the impact of ELECTRO, the global replicability and economic viability of the proposed concept will be demonstrated using waste streams from the Republic of Korea and Indonesia, and a thorough programme will be implemented to train the next generation of waste management engineers and workers.

SIMPLI-DEMO, the Demonstration of Sonication and Microwave Processing of essential chemicals project, aims at strengthening the chemical process industry ? and in particular the specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries ? in its capacity to produce materials and chemicals in a sustainable and competitive way by moving from batch to continuous and modular production with flexibility being ensured by the application of alternative energy forms. Currently, the conventional technologies in the specialty and pharma sector tend to be batch-type, combined with mechanical mixing and conduction-based heat transfer, inherently leading to poor process control. SIMPLI-DEMO's vision is that of intensified processes, where alternative energy sources enable continuous and modular technologies to achieve localized actuation of multiphase, flow reactors for the purpose of high-value product synthesis. SIMPLI-DEMO focuses on the synthesis of specialty polymers and particles for use in a wide variety of every-day-use products, e.g. insulation, paints and coatings, plastics, catalysts, as well as health applications, which are important domains in the chemical industry today and into the future. Therefore, SIMPLI-DEMO advances the technology readiness level (TRL) of modular flow technology for multiphase streams involving suspensions or viscous products from TRL5 (validation in relevant environment) to TRL7 (industrial system demonstration). SIMPLI-DEMO has brought together a consortium of four end-user chemical companies, two technology suppliers (ultrasound and microwave technology), five universities and research institutions (process control & automation, reactive extrusion, oscillatory flow, ultrasound, microwaves), one SME experienced in modular automation and another SME experienced in sustainability assessment and exploitation.