Waste-to-value devices - circular production of renewable fuels, chemicals and materials
Horizon Europe
Per project€4M
1 phase
Deadline:2025-10-29
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Strategic Analysis
This call aims to revolutionize waste management and circular economy by developing low-TRL, renewable energy-driven waste-to-value devices. The focus is on converting problematic waste streams (e.g., non-recyclable plastics, flue gases, brines) into high-value fuels, chemicals, and materials using innovative technologies like solar reforming, synthetic biology, and AI-driven computational material science. The project must align with EU policies on circular economy, critical raw materials, and decarbonization, while addressing decentralized, sustainable production and environmental remediation.
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Suggested TRL Range
TRL 1 → 4
Based on programme defaults
Scope Activities (6)
SC1
Development of next generation technologies that turn problematic waste streams (e.g., non- or hard-to-recycle synthetic polymer materials, flue gases, wastewater, seawater desalination brines) into essential building blocks of a future circular economy.
SC2
Focus on technologies with low Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs): solar reforming, synthetic biology devices, brine mining, integrated capture and conversion technologies, microbial-based and photocatalytic remediation processes.
SC3
Exclusion of thermochemical approaches (e.g., pyrolysis, gasification), 'dark' chemical recycling, food and biomass waste, traditional bulk metal waste, glass, paper, cardboard, and mono-PET waste.
SC4
Area 1: Fully integrated waste-to-value devices for converting waste streams into fuels, chemicals, and materials, or for remediation, driven solely by renewable energy sources (e.g., sunlight). Includes solar reforming, synthetic biology devices, integrated capture and conversion technologies, and brine mining technologies.
SC5
Area 2: Advances in computational material science and AI to understand underlying mechanisms enabling sustainable and scalable waste-to-value devices, including catalyst development, interface engineering, and multiscale modeling.
SC6
Area 3: Bottom-up synthetic biology for tailored microbial cell factories to degrade and valorize waste, producing fossil-free fuels, chemicals, and materials from abundantly available building blocks.
Expected Outcomes (8)
EO1
Fully integrated waste-to-value devices reaching TRL 4 within 3–4 years, capable of treating real-life industrial and household waste streams with minimal sorting and pre-treatment.
EO2
Energy- and material-efficient processes that minimize energy, water, chemicals, and land footprint, using environmentally safe and recyclable-by-design materials.
EO3
Devices that create products of higher economic and environmental value compared to the initial waste stream, avoiding down-cycling.
EO4
Robust, easy-to-handle systems independent of large-scale infrastructures, with extended lifetimes for decentralized applications.
EO5
Scientific breakthroughs in computational material science and AI, enabling accurate, less resource-intensive quantum mechanical and AI methods for guiding experimental work.
EO6
Multiscale modeling bridging atomic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic device levels to describe phenomena over different timescales.
EO7
Development of synthetic, fully artificial cells for large-scale biotechnology applications, tailored for carbon fixation or synthetic polymer decomposition.
EO8
Engineered cell-like systems for producing compounds from abundantly available building blocks (e.g., water, carbon oxides) and decomposing synthetic plastic waste into valorizable feedstocks.
Waste-to-value devices - circular production of renewable fuels, chemicals and materials — Horizon Europe | GrantForge