In the ARBAHEAT project an existing 731 MWe Ultra-SuperCritical coal-fired power plant will be transformed into a biomass-fired Combined Heat and Power plant by repowering with thermally-treated biomass produced on-site. This demonstration encompasses: (1) Transformation into CHP: This will be demonstrated by delivering a minor amount of heat to the on-site biomass treatment process, while envisaging large-volume heat delivery to nearby industry. This will provide renewable local heat, enhancing the overall efficiency of the plant from 46% electricity-only to 70-90% in CHP mode, (2) Biomass feedstock: An integrated thermal pre-treatment process will enable utilisation of diverse sustainable biomass feedstock. This will minimise investment and operating cost while broadening the possibilities in term of geographical feedstock sourcing and quality (3) Biomass pre-treatment: The thermal biomass upgrading process of ARBAFLAME will deliver biomass fuel with handling and milling characteristics approaching that of coal, allowing for retrofitting with minimal adaptations to the existing power plant. The technical capacity of the demonstration plant will allow for maximum flexibility in upscaling the technology for future replication, (4) Integration into power plant: The biomass pre-treatment and heat delivery system will be physically integrated within the existing power plant. Eliminating several cost and energy intensive steps (steam production, pelletizing) will be investigated, towards more cost-effective final design. This demonstration of an integrated very low-costs concept in large-scale energy production will pave the way to subsequent multiplication in commercial industrial projects, thus increasing the EU capacity for renewable power and heat generation. The renewable ARBAHEAT solution therefore has the potential to significantly contribute to the replacement of fossil-fuel in the heat and power sectors and increase the decarbonisation of the energy market.

The LEILAC2 (Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement) project will pilot a breakthrough technology that aims to enable Europe’s cement and lime industries to capture their unavoidable process carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for minimal energy penalty (just compression). Responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions, low-cost, fast, and effective options are urgently needed for the cement and lime industries. Building on the success of the previously H2020 LEILAC1 project – capturing around 5% of a typical cement plant’s process CO2 emissions – the LEILAC2 project seeks to scale -up to around 20% of a typical cement plant’s process CO2 emissions in a deployable and scalable module; demonstrate the use of multiple fuel sources (particularly electricity with rapid ramping to enable renewable load-balancing); and show how it can be immediately, cheaply and incrementally or fully retrofitted to all cement plants. This will be achieved by building a demonstration plant alongside an operational cement plant in Europe: allowing 100ktpa of pure CO2 to be captured – and four business cases will be investigated for the near-term use or storage. Due to the purity of the captured CO2 (there are no new chemicals or additives), there is already interest from CO2 users. As an early mover in the heart of industrial Europe, LEILAC 2 would actively develop a CO2 hub, with onshore and offshore storage options being investigated. Engaging with all relevant stakeholders will be critical: CO2 producers and users, transport and storage operators, and most importantly the public – conducting Social Impact analysis, and extensive bespoke dissemination. The most feasible storage or use option will then result in a final business case being developed. The significant industrial partners involved in this project – contributing around €19m of funding - testifies to the interest of the cement and lime industries.

Lignocellulosic (LC) feedstock will soon become a key strategic resource in Europe for chemical intermediates and products, boosting the transition from fossil-based to bio-based economy. BIOFOREVER will demonstrate 5 new LC value chains and 3 valorisation routes for co-products utilizing 4 different cascading biorefinery concepts in order to establish optimal combinations of feedstock, biorefinery, end-products and markets that will allow the successful implementation of these value chains in commercial scale as follow-up step. Chemicals, food and specialties will be produced. The project will target spruce, poplar and wood waste but will also assess other LC feedstocks in order to achieve the most commercially viable and sustainable value chains. Using a fast-track (3-year) and open innovation approach, BIOFOREVER teams up 14 leading industrial partners in feedstock supply, pre-treatment, downstream processing and producers of chemicals, food and specialties in order to rapidly progress commercialization of these value chains. Assessment of feedstock sustainability, customer perception and stakeholder engagement for scale up to commercial scale will be integrated in the project. Business cases for the value chains will result in competitive biobased products, matching cost of existing fossil-based products (e.g. at par with current sugars) and improving performance in properties and sustainability. Other impacts of BIOFOREVER are: - Up to 85% reductions in CO2-emissions compared to fossil-based value chains. - About € 400 mln turnover in biorefinery intermediates (lignins and sugars) and € 650 mln in chemical intermediates and products for a 1,5 mln ton/year LC biorefinery. - The number of direct jobs of commercial scale biorefinery would accumulate to about 1200, generating typically 6000-7500 indirect jobs and an additional investment exceeding the 70M euros by the partners