The EU aims to reduce the overall energy demand and supply energy in a climate-neutral way. For that aim, energy must be sustainable, cost-effective and safe, by boosting innovative technologies. In this sense, the EU describes the Key Strategic Orientation C: “Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems”. Therefore, it is mandatory to develop new energy technologies that are circular, environmentally friendly, affordable, safe and socially positive. By 2030, the EU aims to have a 40-45 % renewable energy share with 2.2 % advanced biofuels by 2030 and to be climate neutral in 2050. BIOVAL is a 36-month action that will create, develop and scale up an integrated energy-driven circular biorefinery with near zero-waste and zero-carbon emissions. It is based on a multi-feedstock concept, allowing the valorization of biogenic CO2 emissions and biomass wastes. The biorefinery also targets a multiproduct operation by the feasible and sustainable production of biofuels (advanced algal Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil-HVO, bio-H2, biogas/CH4, and IPA) and high-added value bioproducts like pigments (e.g., astaxanthin), using microalgae and bacterial gas fermentation as core technologies in a cascade/parallel approach. The biorefinery will be designed by a circular concept to maximize energy and mass integration, targeting zero-waste/carbon emissions production and minimum energy needs. For that aim, computational tools will be significant methodologies to support the design, modelling, optimization and scale-up of the bioprocesses. The process will be assessed in terms of environmental, techno-economic and social impact, considering the regional/local levels too. The biofuels produced will be benchmarked with existing biofuels to target a competitive alternative. The core technologies will be scaled up and validated in relevant environments (TRL5).

VALORISH is a 42-month action that aims to develop a computationally-assisted methodology for the design and implementation of a biorefinery with a cascade approach to valorise waste and by-products from the fishing industry at TRL 5. The target portfolio of products will be fish oil, fish protein hydrolysates, bacteriocins, pigments, vitamins, collagen and calcium-rich powder, targeting food products, additives, supplements and nutraceuticals. The cascade conversion processes will vary with the feedstock heterogeneity, comprising pre-treatment, oil green extraction, proteolytic fermentation (protein hydrolysis), fermentation with hydrolysates as substrate, and a portfolio of downstream processes. The proteolytic fermentation will be guided by computational biology, using models to search new candidate enzyme-producing bacteria. The fish protein hydrolysates obtained in the fermentation will be used, first, as food supplement due to their bioactive properties, and second, as substrate for supporting a second fermentation, to obtain high-value bioproducts, namely bacteriocins and astaxanthin, as food additives, and vitamin B12, as food supplement. Novel genome-scale metabolic models will be used to link substrate composition to the desired bioproducts via inspection of metabolic pathways and selecting optimal microorganisms. In a zero-waste aim, the fermentation side-streams will be valorised (bones by extraction and calcination, and residual biomass by anaerobic digestion). All the bioproducts will be analysed for chemical, nutritional, bioactive and safety properties to comply with EU regulation, and will be included in food/nutraceutical formulations and validated by end users. A mathematical model will be developed to simulate the biorefinery and to support the satisfactory scale-up of the core processes as well as the assessment methodologies (technoeconomic, environmental, standardisation). Social impact and acceptance of the products will be also assessed.

The academic and industrial partners engaged in the OLEFINE project have the joint vision of demonstrating the techno-economic viability and sustainability of biological production of insect pheromones for use as safe and environmentally friendly insecticide substitutes. Biological production of cheaper pheromones will be a market disrupting technology that will allow rapid expansion of pheromone-based pest management products. The partners behind OLEFINE have developed a novel technology for biological production of pheromones using oleaginous yeast cell factories, however the strains, fermentation, and downstream process need to be further optimized to bring the technology to the market. OLEFINE aims to optimize, validate, and commercialize biotech process for production of high-added-value chemicals (insect pheromones) for use as non-toxic insecticide replacements. Cost-efficiency and sustainability of the current process will be lifted in this project by optimizing the yeast biocatalyst and by employing innovative fermentation and downstream processing with cascading of resources. The production cost will be reduced by at least 75% in relation to the current state-of-the-art. The process will be validated in industrial environment for two pheromones (TRL7), techno-economic viability will be estimated and business plans will be prepared. The environmental impact and sustainability will be evaluated by full Life Cycle Analysis. The technology will be brought to the market by OLEFINE industrial partners post project. In summary, OLEFINE will bring new sustainable high-value chemicals to the market and create new business opportunities and jobs in European biotech sector, which is in line with the challenge of the topic.

ONE EARTH aims to develop and assess innovative bio-based solutions for the production of nutraceutical/cosmetic, bioadhesive, agriculture (fertilizers), and aquaculture (fish feed) products by exploiting residual biomass of animal origin. The overall purpose of ONE EARTH is to develop integrated circular value chains by valorising marine biomass for terrestrial products and using terrestrial biomass for aquaculture product production thus promoting a sustainable and "self-reinforcing" carbon cycle. ONE EARTH will obtain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and polypeptides that make up nutraceuticals, cosmetics and fish feed products through the transformation of specific residual biomass, mainly using biotechnological strategies. In particular, cheese whey (CW), i.e., the most abundant liquid waste from dairy industries, will undergo anaerobic acidogenic fermentation processes for the production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), which will be used as a carbon source for the production of PUFAs by culturing pure microbial strains. A massive valorisation of CW carbon will be assured by exploiting CO2-rich gaseous streams from fermentation processes for cultivation of algae and further extractions of PUFA. Moreover, chicken feathers and fish scales will be processed using microbial and enzymatic approaches to obtain polypeptides, while fishbones will be treated with a thermochemical innovative process together with organic residues from other project units to produce Phosphorus-rich fertilizers. Dedicated standard tests in significant environments will be carried out to evaluate the safety and quality of developed products. Consequently, the economic, environmental and social sustainability and viability of the whole proposed integrated circular value chain will be assessed. The compliance with standards and regulations of developed solutions will also be considered to assess the project potential and opportunities to promote industrial initiatives and new business.