Today only 4% of the surfactant market share consists out of compounds that are 100% based on biomass (fully bio-based surfactants or biosurfactants), while there is an urgent need for non-hazardous Safe and Sustainable By Design (SSbD) biosurfactants (BSs). The biosurfactant market is expected to grow at a CAGR of between 5.2 and 10.5% between 2022 and 2028. However the diversity of the currently available safe and sustainable biosurfactants is not at all sufficient to meet the market needs: diversity is key. The SURFs UP project aims to bridge this gap by demonstrating optimized and cost-efficient processes for 9 second generation (2G) SSbD biosurfactant products that will be formulated in prototypes in home- and personal care and agrochemical applications. The 2G feedstocks will include wood processing waste (sugars and lignin) and regional food/industrial (processing) waste. The 9 SURFs UP ingredients are: (1) 7 microbial biosurfactants, i.e. 2 drop-in sophorolipids, 2 new-to-market sophorolipid type biosurfactants, 1 new-to-market mannosylerythritol lipid and 2 new-to-market lipopeptides and (2) 2 new-to-market chemically produced BSs from lignin of wood processing waste. These ingredients will be fully characterized (physicochemical properties) and evaluated according to the SSbD Framework criteria and (eco)toxicity testing. The production of SSbD BSs will be scaled up (a.o. in the SURFs UP DEMO plant that will be built) and used to demonstrate prototype formulations in the aforementioned applications. Particular attention will be given to cost-efficient and sustainable production/use of the SSbD SURFs UP biosurfactants, evaluated within full TEAs and LCAs. Finally, SURFs UP will operationalize the EC SSbD Framework for the development of novel BSs and will work on all aspects considering social awareness and acceptance of these products via the organisation of consumer surveys, engaging stakeholders, policy makers and social media tools.

The WASTE2FUNC project aims to resolve supply chain hurdles towards the efficient conversion of food (crop) waste into two types of biobased functional molecules for use in home- and personal care applications: lactic acid and microbial biosurfactants, functionally outperforming or equalling their respective fossil-based and/or 1G bio-based benchmarks. A new and sustainable biomass waste supply chain will be set up, in close interaction with the primary sector, by developing an ‘ad hoc’ registration- and collection system for erratic agricultural biomass waste and integrating this new biomass supply chain with an existing industrially available and continuous food waste stream , currently converted into biogas. This integration is crucial to build viable business cases associated with the WASTE2FUNC supply- and -value chains. The integration of the WASTE2FUNC biomass supply chain with new value chains based on the cost- and eco- efficient conversion of the waste biomass into market ready functional molecules for home- and personal care applications will be demonstrated. The value chains will be set up by (interaction with) all relevant key stakeholders: farmers and their representatives, primary crop-/food processors, food processors and -retailers, food waste collectors, technology owners for bio-based process, scale up facilities, product developers and -retailers in the respective sectors of application (home- and personal care) (B2B and B2C), regulators and last but not least the consumer . This interaction will be key to define benefits required for the farmers, regulatory- and processing hurdles, product developer- and consumer requirements and -constraints. Together with environmental, economic, social and regulatory analyses and constant optimization, performed by the WASTE2FUNC project partners, this will decrease CO2 emissions with at least 20% and increase value from waste with 2-10 fold and create (high tech) jobs for the primary- and downstream sector in Belgium and Europe.

The WaterProof project proposes a resource efficient solution convert CO2 emissions from waste(water) processing into green consumer products. At the heart of the WaterProof concept is an electrochemical process that converts CO2, originating from waste incineration and wastewater processing, to produce formic acid. This reaction is paired with the generation of high-energy oxidants, which are used to remove persistent contaminants from wastewater thereby contributing to a clean water cycle with zero-waste. The energy to run the electrochemical process is provided by waste incineration facility. The formic acid is a feedstock for the production of Acidic Deep Eutectic Solvents (ADES). These ADES are used to extract precious metals from water treatment sludge and incinerator ash. Additionally, the formic acid is used for fish leather tanning to sustainably produce fish leather and will be tested in consumer cleaning products. The WaterProof technology results in a GHG reduction based on CO2 utilization, replacement of fossil feedstock and by industrial electrification. In the WaterProof project, a TRL 6 plant is constructed, including innovative downstream processing. The conversion of CO2 from wastewater treatment and the CO2 captured at a waste incinerator is demonstrated in two consecutive campaigns. To maximize impact of the WaterProof technology, life-cycle assessments and a full business case analysis are initiated in the early stage of the project to provide targets for technology development. A marketing and deployment strategy is developed to ensure social acceptance of the WaterProof technology. Besides the reduction of GHG emissions, WaterProof will have societal impact by, creating awareness trough interaction with policy makers and civil society and the creation of new jobs in innovative fields. By targeting an industry as essential as waste(water) treatment, WaterProof aims to create a concept that can impact society and climate on a big scale.