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.

As stated by the EC, renovation by the private housing sector towards increased energy efficiency is seriously lagging behind. As more than sufficient technological solutions are available, focus must be on removing non-technological barriers. The main barriers relate to fragmentation of the renovation offers, resulting in inefficient or only partial solutions. In addition to financial restrictions and unclear benefits, house-owners do not have a structured way to obtain all the necessary information related to renovation measures. One of the ways to solve this, is the use of ‘1-stop shop concept.’ Many initiatives have already been put into practice. Some of these projects were successful, but several were not. They often lack an understanding of the concerns and demands of the house-owners. REFURB 2.0 will tackle the complex interplay of these barriers through coordinated process organisation, innovation and optimization. REFURB 2.0 will bridge the gap between supply and demand side by: • developing a holistic approach to the renovation process in which technology combinations trigger step-by-step deep energy renovation of existing, private residential buildings towards NZEB-standards. • accommodating the technology solutions to the decision-making psychology and ‘language’ of residential house-owners; this will provide the drivers for empowerment and mobilisation of house-owners for deep renovation. • developing a quality and performance protocol to build trust on the demand side. The above mentioned activities will result in dedicated renovation packages for different market segments and regions in Europe, starting with the private residential sector. A small scale pilot will be carried out in order to validate and demonstrate the REFURB 2.0 solution. This will be followed by a roll-out plan to stimulate EU wide uptake. In addition, a transferability plan will be established for other sectors, whereas the social housing sector will be the first ‘follower.

The objective of the SWEETWOODS project is to demonstrate on an industrial level successful and profitable production of high purity lignin as well as C5 and C6 carbohydrates from hardwood by establishing a biorefinery having throughput capacity 80 bdton/day. Unlike existing biorefinery concepts, SWEETWOODS plant utilizes all the fractions of the biomass feedstock, with min. 95 % of its initial carbon content utilised. The current TRL of the selected fractionation technology is 7, aiming to reach TRL 9 by the end of the project. The efficient fractionation and conversion of biomass is enabled by novel enzymatic solutions. The dried solid lignin and depolymerized lignin are demonstrated in novel applications, namely in elastomer foams for tube insulation, rigid polyurethane foam panels for insulation, and polymer compounds intended for injection moulding. The high purity sugars (at least glucose, xylose and fructose) are demonstrated in novel end use cases, namely in production of bio-IBN, and xylitol production. The environmental and socio-economic performance of the SWEETWOODS plant operation and the developed products are evaluated by performing a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), as well as a viability analysis.

Today’s plastics are either thermoplastics (TPs) composed of polymer chains, recyclable and processable at high throughput yet with poor heat and solvent resistance, or crosslinked thermosets (TSs) made of permanent polymer networks with far better thermomechanical properties and solvent resistance yet essentially intractable and non-recyclable once processed. Vitrimers are a new class of materials, rewarded by the 2015 European Inventor Award, taking benefit of dynamic exchangeable crosslinks and combining the best features of TPs and TSs. By combining enhanced mechanical and chemical performances with abilities to be healed, welded, reprocessed and recycled, vitrimers bear the promise of the next generation of polymer materials and composites with new fields of applications in line with sustainable development and requisites of the plastics circular economy. VITRIMAT will offer a critical training gap between cutting-edge European academic research on vitrimers and industrial developments of daily life products. ESRs will be the first recipients of a pioneering, highly interdisciplinary training program covering the whole value chain of advanced materials currently employed in sectors with high employability and expected growth (e.g. consumer goods, construction, recreational, wind energy, electromobility and automotive industries). VITRIMAT aims at strengthening the European leadership on vitrimers by combining the expertise and technologies of 6 academic partners-pioneers in vitrimers and advanced composite materials - with 1 national technical center and 8 industrial partners (including 2 beneficiaries and 1 SME) that are world leaders in the chemistry, adhesives, thermosets and composites for consumer goods, construction and automotive applications. These sectors represent high employability for future ESRs that will acquire a broad range of advanced and transferable skills within a unique, innovative, multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral training environment.

The EU process industry needs to become less dependent of fossils as source of carbon, and – at the same time - to reduce the greenhouse effect by decarbonizing the economy. Carbon4PUR will tackle the two challenges at the same time by transforming the CO2/CO containing flue gas streams of the energy-intensive industry into higher value intermediates for market-oriented consumer products. The industrially driven, multidisciplinary consortium will develop and demonstrate a novel process based on direct chemical flue gas mixture conversion, avoiding expensive physical separation, thus substantially reducing the carbon footprint, and also contributing to high monetary savings. Both the consortium and the work are organized along the full value chain starting with the provision and conditioning of industrial emissions from a steel to a chemical company in line with the concept of industrial symbiosis, going through the transformation into chemical building blocks which will be further transformed into polymer intermediates and flow into desired sustainable polyurethane applications of rigid foams and coatings. LCA and technology evaluation will be done and replication strategies to transfer the technology to other applications will be elaborated. The distinctive feature of the developed process is avoiding resource-intense separation of the gas components before the synthesis, and developing a chemo-catalytic process to deal directly with the gas mixture instead. The challenge and innovation is coming up with an adjustable process in terms of on-purpose and demand tailor-made production of required products, taking into account all variables at the same time: the available flue gases characteristic from the steel plant, material and process parameters, and the market requirements for the end product, thus flexibly involving the whole value chain with best results and possibly lower the prices.