Development of scalable, safe bio-based surfactants, with an improved sustainability profile
TOPIC ID: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-05
Type of action
HORIZON-JU-IA HORIZON JU Innovation Actions
Type of MGA
HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]
Deadline model
single-stage
Opening date
26 April 2023
Deadline date
20 September 2023 17:00:00 Brussels time
ExpectedOutcome:
Projects are expected to address the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and its action plan, the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (under the ‘EU Zero pollution ambition’), the EU Industrial strategy, the EU Biodiversity strategy 2030, the Sustainable Products Initiative (SPI) as well as and the upcoming transition pathway for the energy-intensive industries ecosystem (including the ’chemicals transition pathway’). In line with the aforementioned policies, successful proposals will contribute to upscaling the production of commercially viable, high-performing, safe and sustainable bio-based surfactants, with an additional focus on feedstock diversification and feedstock (sourcing) sustainability, also by advancing further Circular Bioeconomy concepts.
Project results should contribute to the following expected outcomes:
- Reduction of feedstock imports dependency, including biomass imports, to produce bio-based surfactants at EU level;
- Improvement on feedstock sustainability and reduction of direct and indirect land use impact;
- Improved circularity and resource efficiency via practical application of the circular (bio)economy concept and by diversification of the valorised biomass feedstock;
- Significant improvement of the environmental performance across the value chain, against specified fossil and/or bio-based benchmarks;
- Scaling up of safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD)[1], bio-based surfactants, especially contributing to downstream sectors where sustainability and safety performance challenges are high, namely FMCG household & personal care sectors but also process and manufacturing industries as well as other relevant sectors;
- Social acceptance of circular bio-based solutions and products;
- Facilitation of market uptake of scalable bio-based surfactants & availability of broader range of bio-based products meeting market requirements.
Scope:
Surfactants are often classified by: i) feedstock for synthesis, ii) biodegradability, safety and environmental effects, iii) application and iv) chemical structure (drop-in[2] or dedicated[2]chemical structures). Bio-based surfactants are produced from biomass as high value products, typically for consumer applications [household (45%), personal care (11%)]; while other sectors are characterised by a smaller share, including processing applications (e.g. food, textiles, waste treatment, etc.). Overall, there is market penetration, with an approximately 50% EU bio-based production share (4% CAGR[2])[5]. Therefore, safety and sustainability performance improvements in bio-based surfactants are expected to have cascading impact in existing but also novel markets/applications.
Bio-based surfactants often face limitations for larger uptake such as high costs and niche applications. Moreover, their EU production is at present mainly based on primary biomass (vegetable oils, sugar and starch), bringing land use impacts but also often influencing the degree of feedstock imports. Currently, there is a reported impact on land use, with an index of about 0.6 ha/t of product, whereas the feedstock import dependency is at approximately 68% for the EU bio-based production.[5] In view of the foreseen upscale of the bio-based production capacity, feedstock diversification should be sought. Other challenges are related to wider bio-based surfactants’ production/supply issues and upstream as well as downstream production process challenges, affecting the OPEX (and often CAPEX as well). For applications where surfactants are found in end products, substitution of conventional ones can result into complex re-formulation effects, affecting market uptake by brand-owners, together with an existing uncertainty of steady supply.
Proposals under this topic should:
- Scale up the energy and resource efficient production of anionic and/or cationic, and/or non-ionic and/or microbial bio-based surfactants. Concerning chemical structure, both dedicated[2] and/or drop in[2] structures are in scope[9] [10].
- Address and assess feedstock-sourcing sustainability to produce bio-based surfactants. This could be done by replacing feedstock imported from outside the EU, with sustainably sourced EU feedstock[11], or by scaling up the valorisation of circular EU feedstock sources (e.g., agricultural and agro-industrial waste and residual streams, municipal waste, industrial food waste etc) [12].
- Include in the early design phase, key aspects such as biodegradability, mildness but also other desirable properties (e.g., antimicrobial), as relevant to meeting application-related, technical performance and environmental sustainability criteria. Moreover, testing against those aspects should be included, based on EU standards, as available[13].
- Assess and demonstrate safety benefits, considering both ecotoxicity and human toxicity aspects, while also taking into account the final products/formulations and/or other applications (e.g., process/manufacturing -related applications). End-products should aim to meet all relevant market and regulatory requirements (e.g., in terms of consumers safety and HS&E).
- Integrate a task to perform assessment based on the safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) framework, developed by the European Commission, for assessing the safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials[14]. Under this context, projects are expected to contribute with and develop recommendations that can advance further the application of the SSbD framework[15].
- Analyse and prove techno-economic feasibility as well as commercial viability for the proposed bio-based surfactants, also providing a comparison to fossil-based and/or bio-based benchmarks, where these exist.
- Demonstrate and optimise the ‘robustness’ and impact of the bio-based surfactants by testing them in: i) final products/formulations. Validate therefore the developed bio-based surfactants for formulation (re)design, whilst investigating and understanding the complex physicochemical behaviour of the new surfactant molecules in mixtures/formulations, as well as their potential implications in end-product(s) scale up, performance and (physical, chemical) stability, and/or ii) final production/manufacturing processes, while meeting technical and holistic environmental performance criteria.
Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach and demonstrate the involvement of all concerned key actors, including the involvement of feedstock suppliers, brand owners[2] and any relevant B2B[2] actors.
Proposals should also describe their contribution to the specific CBE JU requirements, presented in section 2.2.3.1, and the cross-cutting elements, highlighted in section 2.2.3.2 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023[18].
Proposals should consider synergies with past and ongoing projects[19].
[1]See documents defining the framework and criteria on: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/advanced-materials-and-chemicals_en.
[2]for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)
[3]for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)
[4]for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)
[5]Spekreijse, J., Lammens, T., Parisi, C., Ronzon, T. and Vis, M., Insights into the European market for bio-based chemicals, EUR 29581 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-01500-0, doi:10.2760/739561, JRC112989.and ‘Road2Bio’ BBI JU project.
[6]Spekreijse, J., Lammens, T., Parisi, C., Ronzon, T. and Vis, M., Insights into the European market for bio-based chemicals, EUR 29581 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-01500-0, doi:10.2760/739561, JRC112989.and ‘Road2Bio’ BBI JU project.
[7]for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)
[8]for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)
[9]Co-production of the in-focus, main production of bio-based surfactants with other bio-based chemicals is also in scope.
[10]As per ’scope‘s introductory part and ’expected outcomes‘ sections, surfactants applicable to end products/formulations and/or processing applications are in scope.
[11]For feedstock origin, refer to section 2.2.3.2 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents).
[12]Feedstock chosen should ensure that there is no competition with food/feed, as well as adhere to environmental sustainability requirements (including biodiversity, etc.) – see also ‘specific requirements’ of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents).
[13]Please advise further European standard EN 17035 ’Surface active agents – Bio-based surfactants – Requirements and test methods’, with this also including recommended criteria and methodologies for determining the degradability of the bio-based surfactants, among other surfactants’ related aspects.
[14]See documents defining the framework and criteria on: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/advanced-materials-and-chemicals_en.
[15]More specifically, provide thresholds that can support the criteria definition and improvements for the assessment SSbD methodologies, including any specificities related with bio-based surfactants. Recommendations should also include identification of data gaps, especially safety, environmental, but also socio-economic factors, as well as priorities for data collection.
[16]for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)
[17]for a description of the term, see annex Glossary in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)
[18]CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents)
[19]Proposals should consider ongoing and past projects, especially under BBI JU as well as H2020 but also HEU (especially Cluster 6). E.g. BBI JU projects CARBOSURF (RIA), PERCAL (RIA), IRRODI (RIA) and WASTE2FUNC (IA-DEMO). See also HEU-CBE JU-IA-03 ’Improve fermentation processes (including downstream purification) to final products’
Topic Eligibility and Documents: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2023-2024/wp-13-general-annexes_horizon-2023-2024_en.pdf
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