The objective of the project is to exploit the integration of the carbon, nitrogen and suflur cycles in bioreactors to design optimal treatment trains to recover added-value products out of liquid and gaseous effluents. The strategy will be to combine interdisciplinary approaches to: - investigate innovative unit processes based on partial nitrification for nitrogen recycle, autotrophic denitrification for biosulfur recovery and multienzyme-based bioreactors for CO2 valorization; - apply technologies that are novel in this field such as moving bed bioreactors, membrane biofilm reactors and enzimatic reactors - combine biological processes in to innovative treatment trains for wastewater treatment and biogas upgrading. The topic will be addressed from the point of view of circular economy by exploring the potential synergies of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycles in wastewater and biogas treatment trains to reduce treament costs and to te increase production of added-value products. From a methodological point of view, the project targets the improvement of existing knowledge of innovative technologies based on immobilized biocatalysts as well as the demonstration of the viability of innovative treatment trains at in-silico, lab- and pilot-scale levels. The project is interdisciplinary and intersectorial; in fact, the research teams involved include environmental and chemical engineers, biologists and bioinformatics and mathematical modellers, while the companies are complementary being specialised in reactors design and construction and in bioprocess design and control. Finally, the involvement of the industry will allow to receive feedbacks on the solutions needed from pilot case studies using real effluents and to effectively translate novel scientific outcomes into suitable technologies.

Rare Earths Elements (REEs) are crucial for the EU's strategic sectors, in particular renewable energy and electric mobility. However, they are classified Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) with a high supply risk. FREECOVER aims to develop a sustainable hydrometallurgical process for recycling REEs from metallic waste based on eco-friendly materials as key-elements of the separation processes. The project objective is strengthening the supply chain, protect environment and generate new value through its circular economy approach. FREECOVER aims to show the effectiveness of materials derived from natural resources in developing a sustainable REEs recovery process. The demonstration will focus on the recycling of REEs from permanent magnets, which constitute one of the large scale applications of REEs. The proposed process starts from treating the waste magnet by using natural acids, then REEs are separated from the resulting complex liquid phase by liquid/liquid extraction using novel eco-friendly ionic liquids supported on polymeric membranes, based on natural polymers and composites. Then, residual metals will be removed using natural, low-cost, minerals as adsorbents. The resulting aqueous phase will be recycled within the process to obtain a closed water cycle. Finally, the project will show how the metal-loaded adsorbent will be valorized as catalyst in wastewater treatment processes. The project brings together 6 academic partners and 3 companies from EU/AC and one AP from Cuba. The staff involved will perform international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary secondments to develop high quality R&I activity, transfer knowledge and benefit of new skills and experience. A detained dissemination and communication activity will be directed to maximize the impact of the project. The EU will benefit from FREECOVER by acquiring a technologies capable to ensure the supply of REEs, and thus increase the competitiveness in green technologies.

The proliferation of sargassum has emerged as a pressing global ecological challenge, with far-reaching impacts on marine ecosystems, public health, and coastal economies. While Europe has so far been largely insulated, climate change and associated factors—rising sea temperatures, shifts in oceanic currents, and increased nutrient loading—heighten the risk of sargassum blooms in European marine ecosystems. Regions like the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, and Northern European freshwater systems are increasingly vulnerable, threatening sectors such as fisheries, agriculture, and tourism, which collectively contribute over €1.3 trillion annually to the EU economy. In the Caribbean, Cuba illustrates the devastating consequences of sargassum inundations, with annual blooms exceeding 24 million tonnes. These have inflicted severe economic damage on tourism, fisheries, and public health. European-owned hotels and tourism operators in the Caribbean report annual losses of €120 million, compounded by clean-up costs of €30,000 per kilometer of coastline and ecosystem degradation affecting fisheries and biodiversity. Hydrogen sulfide emissions further exacerbate public health risks, underscoring the urgency for innovative and proactive solutions. SARGEX is a transformative project designed to address these challenges by providing scalable, sustainable, and circular solutions for marine biomass valorization. The project integrates modular processing plants equipped with biodigesters for zero-waste transformation of sargassum into valuable outputs, including bioinputs, biochar, and biogas. These bioinputs, capable of replacing up to 30% of synthetic agrochemicals, are projected to increase agricultural yields by 30%. Additionally, biogas generation (20 m³ per tonne) and biochar production contribute to renewable energy goals and soil enhancement, aligning with the EU’s Green Deal, Circular Economy Action Plan, and Biodiversity Strategy 2030.

Daily intake of arsenic polluted water by cattle in Argentina is becoming of increasing concern, especially due to the important size of the livestock export market where EU is a main customer. Because natural forage or alfalfa grown without irrigation is used to feed livestock, drinking water is considered the main source of arsenic for cattle (several studies reveal arsenic concentrations in phreatic water samples above 0.15 mg/L, the level that suggest causing chronic intoxication in cattle). Therefore, as it has been demonstrated, there is a risk of exposure for the human health due to the introduction in the food chain through milk or meat. In view of arsenic toxicity and the large number of people exposed to its effects worldwide, there is a clear need for the implementation in remote exploitations of affordable and sustainable treatment methodologies to provide potable water to cattle. To face this problem and provide a solution, NANOREMOVAS pursues to develop and implement a pilot plant for the remote treatment of arsenic polluted waters based on the application of state-of-art advanced multifunctional nanostructured materials, already tested at the laboratory level. In this sense, NANOREMOVAS includes the cooperation between the industry and academia of partners from Europe and Argentina. Besides the required research and innovation to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of the developed water recycling technique, the seconded researchers will carry out a series of tasks and outreach activities, promoting entrepreneurship culture and support of young innovative companies in order to set-up technological partnerships within the water and livestock sector. Furthermore, NANOREMOVAS represents a significant contribution to knowledge and technology transfer from the academia to the industrial sector, through the partners well established reputation as transfer hubs, that will led to quickly creating designs and industrial equipment/processes/model

BIOMETHAVERSE (Demonstrating and Connecting Production Innovations in the BIOMETHAne uniVERSE) aims to diversify the technology basis for biomethane production in Europe, to increase its cost-effectiveness, and to contribute both to the uptake of biomethane technologies and to the priorities of the SET Plan Action 8. To this aim five innovative biomethane production pathways will be demonstrated in five European countries: France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and Ukraine. The project is based on the following founding pillars: Demonstration of innovative biomethane pathways; Technology optimisation and upscaling by technoeconomic flowsheeting; Environmental and social sustainability assessment; Replicability, market penetration, support to planning decisions of other investors and project developers, policy recommendations to policy makers; Dissemination, exploitation and communication of project results. BIOMETHAVERSE relates, within the Work Program 2021-2022 on Climate, Energy and Mobility, to the Call “Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply”, specifically to the topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D3-03-16: Innovative biomethane production as an energy carrier and a fuel. The project production routes cover one or a combination of the following production pathways: thermochemical, biochemical, electrochemical, and biological. As a starting point, four demonstration plants use conventional anaerobic digestion (AD), and one uses conventional gasification. In the BIOMETHAVERSE demonstrators, CO2 effluents from AD or gasification and other intermediate products are combined with renewable hydrogen or renewable electricity directly to increase the overall biomethane yield. All demonstrated production routes go beyond conventional technologies, with a circular approach for energy and material, while aiming at reducing the overall biomethane production costs and increasing the biomethane production. The demonstrated technologies will reach TRL 6-7 at the end of the project.