Developing and embedding upcycling technologies into viable business (Processes4Planet partnership) (IA)

Expected Outcome:

Energy Intensive industries will benefit from the following outcomes:

• Prove the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of the upcycling of end-of-life waste materials by process industries in integrated circular schemes – including for supplying the value chains of net zero technologies and components;
• Enable doubling the ratio of secondary raw materials upcycled leading to a significant increase in resource, including energy efficiency and improved carbon lifecycle across the value chain compared to present levels;
• Increase the competitiveness of the European process industry, including by providing new business opportunities and revenue flows for recycling companies benefiting particularly SMEs – including for supplying the value chains of net zero technologies and components;
• Foster the use of digital tools as well as the data sharing, and FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability) digital assets principles.
• As appropriate in one or more projects, contribute to the reconstruction, recovery, circularity and upgrading of industries of Ukraine.

Scope:

The recycling of end-of-life materials into valuable materials that can replace primary raw materials requires integrated systems from the collection to dismantling and separation to their final processing. The technologies and implementation (including logistics and economics) of such circular schemes should be addressed in an integrated way. The innovation needed will depend on the addressed waste category. However, even if the upcycling technologies and implementation may be sector/material specific, the cross-sectorial elements are important and should deserve due attention.

Proposals are expected to address all of the following:

• Develop processes for the upcycling of end-of-life materials in an integrated way, including the development of better novel separation, sorting and processing technologies as well as digitalisation and automation of the processes as necessary;
• Integration of technologies and logistics systems into business models of circular schemes;
• Focus on processes and secondary raw materials which offer the highest additional upcycling potential and accordingly develop novel upcycling technologies and processes including purification technologies;
• Identify the likely impacts of the upcycling solutions with respect to economic and job creation potential, as well as environmental footprint referring to the full set of planetary boundaries including freshwater intake aspects;
• Where relevant, minimise the presence of substances of concern to mitigate the impacts of multiple recycling loops as well as the accumulation of additives and trace materials in secondary resource streams;
• Consider advanced monitoring and sensing along the value chains and improved data completeness, accuracy and interoperability between the process and recycling companies. In this context, digital tools, such as a Digital Product Passport for tracking and tracing of materials throughout the lifecycle of a product should be applied and data sharing should be addressed.

Proposals should include techno-economic and life-cycle assessment of the overall process (including of the carbon footprint) and demonstrate the economic viability of the approach. This can be combined with an analysis of the effect of regulatory changes and demand side stimulation measures.

Projects are encouraged to integrate existing Hubs4Circularity^[1] as nodes in the value chains. Proposals should actively pursue the involvement of all actors in the value chain from the process industry to designers, operators, formulators, recyclers, public authorities, and standardisation actors.

Additionally, a strategy for skills development should be presented associating social partners where relevant. Particular attention should be given to the cooperation with existing initiatives having developed education- and skills activities and outcomes in this area.

Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination, underlining how the proposal will serve the purpose to boost industrial decarbonisation technologies supply chain in Europe.

Under this topic, it is envisaged to include support for the recovery and upgrading of industrial infrastructure in Ukraine, and for this reason at least one proposal meeting the criteria set out in the specific conditions will be funded. However, it is not mandatory to include such support in a proposal.

This topic implements the co-programmed European partnership Processes4Planet.

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[1] Hubs4Circularity (h4c-community.eu), Horizon Europe strategic plan 2025-2027-KI0223326ENN.pdf (page 94)