Τhe goal of the FURIOUS project is to develop novel versatile polymers based on 2,5-FDCA to enrich the portfolio of bio-based innovative mono-material solutions proposed to replace traditional plastics. The materials will be properly designed from the chemical point of view to satisfy a set of target properties required for three stringent applications, where other bioplastics do not address all the requirements or traditional plastics are still widely employed: biomedical and electronic packaging (where resistance to sterilization and high barrier properties are necessary), automotive sector (where resistance to UV weathering and intrinsic antibacterial properties are the key feature) and underwater devices (where photoreactivity and biodegradability in seawater are requested). To target such a goal, all the well-established synthetic strategies will be used, with particular attention to the exploitation of green processes, to low lifecycle environmental impact polymers and to the minimization of their production cost. FURIOUS material versatility will be also assessed with respect to their processability, which is a further mandatory feature to be checked for real entry on the market. Both well-established technologies, such as injection molding and extrusion, and more innovative ones, such as electrospinning, 3D printing and stereolithography will be validated. Last, but not least, intrinsic recyclability will be imparted to the new furan-based polymers for both greener and mechanical recycling and for novel enzymatic recycling strategies. In the case of packaging, compostability will also be evaluated, while underwater sensor biodegradability in marine environment will be checked being one of the key requested polymer feature. Innovative results of FURIOUS will contribute to the development of Sustainability-by-design database, used to assess and predict the performance of novel materials and to derive a set of guidelines for the end-use applications.

GRECO aims to demonstrate the life cycle and techno-economic feasibility of greener & safer bioplastics value chains for the food packaging sector, based on a safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) strategy. To this aim, innovative bio-based, biodegradable, and recyclable packaging based on new PLA copolymers, coatings, additives and catalysts accompanied by surface treatments will be produced. Regulatory compliance will be demonstrated while contributions to new or modified standards and proper labelling will be proposed. Digital tools will drive the developments from the simulation and modelling scopes, and social sciences and humanities (SSH) will provide relevant information related to social perception and acceptance. All of them will pave the way to facilitate the introduction of the new products into the packaging market sector and our society. Contribution to the Plastics Strategy, the Single-use Plastics Directive (SUP) and the EU Circular Economy Action plan (CEAP) will be ensured. GRECO will introduce the food packaging industry to groundbreaking bio-based, SSbD, and fully circular PLA-based materials, that meet diverse application needs. These alternatives aim to replace fossil-based, complex, and multimaterial structures prevalent in the industry, improving packaging end-of-life through biodegradation in various environments like industrial and home compostability, anaerobic, marine, and soil. The design will ensure recyclability and avoiding of chemical interactions that hinder overall biodegradation.

Nano enabled components are essential key parts for microfluidic applications - mostly in form of nano-enabled surfaces (NES) and nano-enabled membranes (NEMs). However, crucial challenges hinder the transfer of NES and NEMs into commercial microfluidic devices. Current production technologies (e.g. injection moulding) don’t allow large volume upscaling of complex nano-patterned surfaces and the produced microfluidic components need to be handled in single pieces in all subsequent processes. Therefore, subsequent backend processing (nano-coatings, printing of nano-based inks, lamination of NEMs) demands for complex single peace handling operations. This restricts upscaling potential and process throughput. The proposed project NextGenMicrofluidics addresses this challenge with a platform for production of NES and NEMs based microfluidics on large area polymer foils. This approach enables upscaling to high throughput of 1 million devices per year and more. The polymer foil technology is complemented with classic technologies of injection moulding and wafer based glass and silicon processing. These core facilities are combined with essential backend processing steps like high resolution biomolecule printing with the worldwide first roll-to-roll microarray spotter, printing of nano-enabled inks, as well as coating and lamination processes. These unique facilities will be combined and upgraded to a platform for testing of upscaling of microfluidic use cases from TRL4 to TRL7. The services comprise device simulation, mastering of nanostructures, nanomaterial development, material testing, rapid prototyping, device testing, nano-safety assessment and support in regulatory and standardization issues. The platform will be opened for additional use cases from outside of the consortium, and is therefore called Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB). The operation of such use cases will form the basis for self-sufficient operation of the platform after the project duration of 4 years