Enlarging the portfolio of commercially produced bio-based SSbD solvents

ExpectedOutcome:

Projects are expected to address the EU Bioeconomy Strategy^[1] and its action plan, the zero pollution ambition for a toxic free environment under the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and the Zero Pollution Action Plan,^[2] the EU Industrial strategy,^[3] the EU Biodiversity strategy 2030,^[4] as well as and the co-implementation of the Transition Pathway for the Chemical Industry.^[5]

Project results should contribute to the following expected outcomes:

• Availability of a broader range of bio-based safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) solvents meeting market and technical performance requirements while delivering environmental and safety performance benefits, further facilitating of the market uptake of scalable bio-based solutions across the value chain.
• Significant improvement of environmental and safety performance across the value chain against specified fossil and/or bio-based benchmarks.
• Significantly improved sustainability, safety, strategic autonomy, resilience and competitiveness of the European chemical industry and with cascading impact in other downstream sectors.
• Reduce the fossil feedstock dependence of chemicals production and/or minimising biomass imports dependencies of the bio-based industries.
• Improved circularity and resource efficiency via practical application of circular bioeconomy, encompassing the resource- and energy-efficient, cascading use of sustainably sourced biomass^[6].
• Societal relevance and social acceptance of circular bio-based solutions and products.

Scope:

Solvents play an essential role in many applications, from production processes (both upstream and downstream steps), including recycling processes, to being essential components in final products. The EU bio-based production share is 1.5% (1% CAGR^[7]), indicating a ‘young’ market.^[8] The safety of solvents (conventional or not) is a concern; hence there is growing interest in safe and sustainable alternatives.

Proposals under this topic should:

• Demonstrate sustainable and efficient production process(es)^[9] for obtaining bio-based solvents which can be then applicable as SSbD alternatives in one or more of the following applications: i) production processes and/or ii) recycling, decontamination or pollution control processes; and/or iii) formulation ingredients/additives. The focus should be to address safety and sustainability challenges of market-relevant solvents, including the ones under the SVHC^[7] and SoCs^[7] categories.
• Clarify the relevant feedstock in scope including availability and process flexibility aspects in relation to feedstock composition if relevant. The cascading valorisation of secondary biomass and residual streams is also in scope.
• Demonstrate that the targeted bio-based solvents are applicable in the most relevant final processes and/or products with critical market volumes or processing applications. This includes testing and validating (end TRL: 5 and above) the novel solvents in final products and/or processes to assess the impact on end-product and process design, overall impact, and performances.
• Include a task to integrate assessment based on the safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) framework, developed by the European Commission, for assessing the safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials.^[12] Under this context, projects are expected to contribute with and develop recommendations that can advance further the application of the SSbD framework.^[13] The safety and environmental performance assessment must account for the full value chain and the most relevant final application(s) and end-of-life , ensuring safety for workers, end users / consumers as well as the environment.
• Assess the social sustainability performance of the bio-based solutions via S-LCA.

Proposals must apply the concept of ‘multi-actor approach’ and ensure adequate involvement of all key actors in the value chains relevant for this topic and across the sustainable circular bio-based system including end users, such as B2B stakeholders and brand owners.

Proposals should seek for links and complementarities and avoid overlaps with past, ongoing and upcoming EU funded projects, including those funded under H2020, HEU and the BBI JU and CBE JU.^[14] Collaboration among projects from the same topic are encouraged.

Proposals should also describe their contribution to the Specific CBE JU requirements, presented in section 2.2.3.1.

[1]Updated Bioeconomy Strategy 2018.

[2]The EU’s chemicals strategy for sustainability towards a toxic-free environment

[3]Brussels, 5.5.2021 COM(2021) 350 final

[4]Brussels, 20.5.2020, COM(2020) 380 final

[5]Transition pathway (europa.eu)

[6]Feedstock chosen should ensure that there is no competition with food/feed, as well as adhere to environmental sustainability requirements (including biodiversity, etc.) – further described under the Specific requirements section 2.2.3.1 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2024, https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents.

[7]See glossary of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2024 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents).

[8]Spekreijse, J., Lammens, T., Parisi, C., Ronzon, T. and Vis, M., Insights into the European market for bio-based chemicals, EUR 29581 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-01500-0, doi:10.2760/739561, JRC112989.and ‘Road2Bio’ BBI JU project.

[9]Enabling process technologies may include chemical, physicochemical, biotech or hybrid technologies while symbiosis concepts are welcomed, if applicable to attain resource efficiency and sustainability with regards to attaining the targeted bio-based solvents.

[10]See glossary of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2024 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents).

[11]See glossary of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2024 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents).

[12]See document defining the framework and criteria: Safe and sustainable by design.

[13]More specifically, provide thresholds that can support the criteria definition and improvements for the assessment SSbD methodologies, including any specificities related with bio-based surfactants. Recommendations should also include identification of data gaps, especially safety, environmental, but also socio-economic factors, as well as priorities for data collection.

[14]For example from the BBI JU portfolio, without the list being exclusive: RESOLUTE (FLAGSHIP; end: 2023), RESOLVE (RIA; end: 2020) and GREENSOLRES (IA, end:2021).