Thermosetting Polyurethanes (PU) provide a unique combination of durability, light weight, high strength and flexibility to high value consumer goods and other applications. PU thermosets have grown to a global market of 50 billion €, ultimately resulting in high volumes of waste mostly disposed via landfill or incineration as the SOA of the recycling technology is limited. PUReSmart will bridge the gap between the current PU linear economy to a circular model by designing smart polyurethane materials that can be reshaped into new products with undiminished quality. PUReSmart will provide solutions for the identified three scientific-technological urgent needs that require conceptual breakthroughs: 1) Smart DESIGN of covalent adaptable polyurethanes (CAPU) to bridge the gap between thermosets and thermoplastics, thanks to thermally reversible bonds; these CAPU are reprocessable, similarly to thermoplastics. 2) Smart SORTING, using the unique spectroscopic fingerprints of conventional PU and smart building blocks to create a validated and cost effective PU sorting platform with high specificity and sensitivity; this enables driving CAPUs to reprocessing and PU to chemolysis. 3) Smart CHEMOLYSIS with mass balanced and minimized input of virgin chemicals, maximal purity and efficient isolation of the obtained building blocks resulting in full re-utilization of all obtained fractions for PU or CAPUs; PUReSmart will integrate CAPU chemistry with monomers obtained by next-generation chemolysis processes, using well-sorted feedstocks, aiming at scalable industrial products (TRL 5) with social and economic value assessed by a Life Cycle Analysis for ‘cyclic’ PU. The project encompasses a concerted effort of partners along the value- and revalorization chain: PU producers, producers of the building blocks, technology providers for physical sorting, and research institutions focusing on design of new PU types and on innovative chemolysis methods for existing PU types.

The DISC project addresses the need to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels by developing key technologies for the next generation of high-performance photovoltaic (PV) solar cells and modules, allowing ultra-low solar electricity costs with minimum environmental impact. DISC focuses on the only way to fully exploit the potential of silicon to its maximum: through the use of carrier selective junctions, i.e., contacts which allow charge carriers to be extracted without recombination. Such contacts allow for simple device architecture as considered in DISC - non-patterned double-side contacted cells – which can be fabricated within a lean process flow, either by upgrading existing or within future production lines. In DISC, a unique consortium of experienced industrial actors will collaborate with a set of institutes with demonstrated record devices and worldwide exceptional experience in the R&D field of carrier selective contacts. DISC will target efficiencies >25.5% on large area cell and >22% at module level while demonstrating pilot manufacturing readiness at competitive costs. Together with a reduction of non-abundant material consumption (Ag, In), with an enhancement of the energy yield, with modern module design ensuring outstanding durability, DISC will provide the key elements for achieving in Europe very low Levelized Costs of Electricity between 0.04 – 0.07$/kWh (depending on the irradiation), with mid-term potential for further reduction, making solar one of the cheapest electricity source. The high efficient PV modules developed in DISC are predestined for rooftop installations, i.e., neutral with respect to land use aspects. A life cycle approach applied in DISC prevents the shifting of environmental or social burdens between impact categories. DISC has a chance to contribute towards mitigating the impacts of climate change, improving energy access and towards bringing Europe back at the forefront of solar cell science, technology and manufacturing

The Exilva flagship project will consist in the upscaling of the Borregaard’s MFC process from the existing pilot plant (50-70 tons/year) to the full scale flagship plant (1000 tons/year) and demonstrate an industrial symbiosis between the biomass/forest industry (Norwegian Spruce) and application industries in a wide range of market segments by developing and commercialising added value (performances vs cost) products in a sustainable way. The ambition of the Exilva project is to make MFC commercially available on large quantities for the first time as well as develop the MFC market further in selected segments. The grand challenges of the Exilva flagship project are twofold: • Technology and process: related to the start-up of the flagship plant the main tasks and challenges will be testing of the new equipment, technology transfer from the pilot plant to the flagship plant, gaining operational experience, establishing the plant organization and quality control, establishing the appropriate process parameters for a stable full scale production of MFC and gaining experience with regards to logistics and handling of the MFC material. • Market: successful market penetration of MFC based products, product performance and cost, standards and regulation. The decision to invest in a first of a kind commercial plant is driven by business opportunities to use MFC in a wide range of market segments and applications and demonstrate that the investment in the flagship will be profitable. Borregaard has started to establish business pipelines towards different end user companies that will develop full products based on MFC formulations.

PULSE-COM aims to explore technological breakthroughs developing and integrating a new class of Photo-Piezo-Actuators to open a radical new future technology. Our vision is based on the use of low cost photo-mobile polymer (PMP) films and a lead-free piezo-composite (PZL) to target their use in innovative new fields never before considered. Starting from phenomenological and modelling aspects of the composite materials, we will fabricate and experimentally characterize Photo-Piezo-Actuators (PMP-PZL) proof of concept devices. The project will address through an ambitious interdisciplinary research to the employment of proper materials and the appropriate optical strategies to increase and tune the absorption of the light and finally to increase the PMP devices efficiency. With the same target electromechanical models and innovative growth processes will guide the optimization of the piezocomposite to improve its performance, and thus its sensitivity when coupled with the PMP. The PMP-PZL device will be integrated into more complex opto-electronic systems through high-risk incremental research to achieve pioneering industrial implementation. Specifically, we target the realization of cutting-edge applications based on photo-activated Meso-scale machines as opto-switches and opto-microvalves, Reconfigurable Optics and Photoenergy Harvesting Systems. Our study can open a new window on the future development of light-driven nanomotors and their potential applications in different areas such as biomedical, environmental and nanoengineering fields.

Products which require complicated material systems and nanoscale structural organization, e.g. third-generation solar cells, are often difficult to develop. This is because electronic properties of bulk semiconductors are often masked or at least strongly superimposed by material interface properties. Additionally these interface properties are also complex and thus make product design difficult. This project aims at solving this problem by offering a nanoscale characterization platform for the European manufacturers of coatings, photovoltaic cells, and semi-conductor circuits. It is proposed to use a combination of scanning microwave microscopes, dielectric resonators, and simulation to measure the material and interface properties of complicated material systems and nano-structures. A metrological system of cross-checks between different instruments, models and simulations with associated error bars is indispensable for obtaining trustworthy results. Scanning microwave measurements will be directly used for three-dimensional characterization of electrical properties of nanostructured semiconductors used in organic and hybrid photovoltaic cells. The objective is to accelerate the development of high efficiency cells and to have measures to predict performances in early stages of prototype production. Where process monitoring of materials with nanostructures is necessary, a dielectric resonator is used to translate insights from scanning microwave microscope measurements to fabrication environments. Such dielectric resonators could be directly integrated in production lines for monitoring thin film deposition processes. An open innovation environment will make the uptake of the results easier for European industry. A database containing exemplary measurement datasets of scanning microwave microscopes will be available in calibrated and raw versions. Simulation results of tip-semiconductor interactions will be made available on the EMMC Modeling Market Place.