Advanced chemicals production from biogenic CO2 emissions for circular biobased industries

Biorefinery industries are in a unique position to lead the way in turning CO2 emissions into added-value chemicals due to their intrinsic keenness towards innovation and their potential to transform their biogenic CO2 waste streams into biobased chemicals that can be integrated within their own processes in a circular way. CO2SMOS aims to develop a platform of technologies to transform CO2 emissions produced by biobased industries into a set a of high added-value chemicals with direct use as intermediates for biobased products.

The result is a toolbox combining:

  • intensified chemical conversions (electrocatalytic and membrane reactors)
  • innovative biotechnological solutions based on gas/liquid combined fermentation processes
  • and organic/green-catalysts reaction processes,

which allow versatile production, depending on the available resources and the targeted value chains, of seven different biobased chemicals. These molecules will be validated as renewable CO2-based commodities for the formulation of high-performance biopolymers and renewable chemicals.

The five breakthrough technologies involved in CO2SMOS will ensure low energy use (< 50 kWh/kg of CO2-based chemical), low production cost (< 1.75 €/kg), high product yield (up to 68% the ideal yield) and an outstanding GHG-abatement potential (avoiding of up to 10 additional kg of CO2 per each kg used as feedstock), which will contribute to the sustainability and cost competitiveness of the integrated conversion processes.

Integration of CO2SMOS concept in existing and emerging biorefineries (supported by Scale Up and Replication plans) will contribute to expand the business portfolio and strengthen the economic base of the sector. A campaign to assess social acceptance of CO2SMOS solutions and to promote awareness of their environmental, social and economic benefits is also foreseen. The consortium counts on academic, RTO and industrial partners with two major actors in the biorefinery sector.

ACTIVITIES of the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant

  • Development and scale-up of gasfermentation processes for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA’s), long-chain dicarboxylic acids (LcDCAs), diols and small organic acids from biogenic CO2.
  • Development of a downstream processing protocol for microbially produced PHA’s, LcDCAs, diols and small organic acids.

PARTNERS

SUPPORTED by:

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research innovation programme under Grant Agreement number: 101000790.

 

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