Packaging is necessary to transport and protect food and goods and communicate with the end-user. The food packaging industry, agile to follow consumer expectations and societal changes, is nowadays taking the challenge to improve its sustainability and reduce its environmental impact. CelluWiz project will greatly participate to take the challenge by developing, from TRL 3 up to 5, two innovative processes able to produce all-cellulose, recyclable and compostable, multilayer materials for packaging. A consortium of 5 partners, including 3 RTOs and 2 industrial groups from 4 European countries, has been set up to reach the following objectives: -Develop the MFC wet lamination process. This process assembles, without glue, a board with a layer of MicroFibrillated Celluloses, creating a stratified cellulosic material. The MFC layer confers stiffness, lightweighting, barrier to air, grease, contaminants and oxygen. -Develop a specific version of the chromatogeny coating and grafting process for MFC layers. This ultrafast and efficient solvent free chemical grafting process will be fully revised to create a micron size layer of pure cellulose ester which will bring liquid resistance and water vapour barrier. -Produce 3 proofs of concept (Clamshell, Cup, and Tray) showing performances at least equivalent to market references. -Demonstrate the environmental benefits of the innovative processes and materials and their easy integration into the value chain, by performing LCA and LCC and by submitting the project advances to an advisory group composed of stakeholders of the value chain. At the end of the project, small pilot machines will be able to prove that the CelluWiz’ materials can offer a competitive alternative to existing multi-layers plastic materials or multi-materials while being renewable, recyclable/recycled in the paper waste value chain and biodegradable.

The flexible packaging materials’ market is forecast to grow at a three percent rate to 2020 – the main drivers including cost and sustainability – while being dominated mainly by PE and PP. The main drawbacks are that PE and PP are not biodegradable and films are difficult to recycle, not to mention multilayer materials. As an alternative, SHERPACK aims at developing an innovative high barrier, renewable, biodegradable and recyclable flexible paper‐based packaging material, that can be easily converted by heat‐sealing and folding, with improved stiffness and grip, in order to replace materials such as plastics or aluminium foil currently used on the market by an advanced biomaterial. The first market targeted is flexible packaging materials for dry food, evaluated at 1.6 million tons per year and 3.7 billion euros (Europe, 2020). A multidisciplinary and complementary consortium of six partners has been set-up for achieving the objectives, including three RTOs and three industrial groups from five European countries. An advisory group consisting of two major end-users, a retailer and a packaging machine manufacturer is also involved to help define requirements and ensure the relevance of the new material with the value chain. The new material relies on three major innovations that will be developed from TRL 3 up to TRL 5: (i) a wet-lamination process used to add a thin layer of fibre specialty on the cellulosic substrate to provide a superb barrier to contaminants and oxygen; (ii) the formulation of a biodegradable polymer waterborne emulsion and its subsequent coating on the substrate to provide excellent heat sealability and barrier to water vapour; (iii) the specific design and application of a grid to improve the specific stiffness and the grip. The three innovations will then be assembled to deliver two proofs-of-concept. Last but not least, all the developments will be assisted by a Life Cycle Assessment to prove their environmental benefit.

The ZEUS project is focused on advancing the development of innovative, highly efficient and radiation-resistant nanowire solar cells designed for in-orbit solar energy collection. While current space-tested nanowire solar cells offer around 15% efficiency using single-band gap cells, ZEUS aims to significantly enhance this efficiency, potentially reaching up to 47%, by employing triple junction nanowire cells with a carefully selected set of III-V semiconductor materials. To this end, this interdisciplinary project will also optimize nanowire surface passivation schemes to improve voltage and current matching of the solar cell. This project aims to achieve scalability through a peel-off technology that transfers solar cells onto lightweight, flexible substrates (creating a thin film), enabling the creation of large deployable photovoltaic panels. Key objectives include: 1. Enhancing the efficiency of radiation-resistant nanowire solar cells. 2. Scale up wafer size to 100mm^2 and develop modules at a size of 1x1 cm^2. 3. Improving power conversion efficiency in breakthrough wireless power transmission systems based on III-V nanowire MOSFETs. 4. Reducing weight and material usage through nanowire peeling and wafer re-use. Additionally, the project underscores its commitment to environmental sustainability by focusing on two key aspects: decarbonization and the efficient use of critical raw materials. By means of a life cycle assessment of nanowire solar cells, ZEUS seeks to demonstrate the environmental benefits and commercial potential particularly for space energy generation. This research has far-reaching applications, including integrating nanowire-based devices into stretchable polymer films (offering flexibility in solar cells, electronics, detectors, and LEDs), self-powered nodes for IoT or cryogenic electronics. An industrial advisor from Azur Space Solar will help the project with scalability and exploitation strategy.