Proposals under this topic should:

• Develop new or improve existing innovative CCU processing and conversion of circular gaseous carbon emitted from bio-based industry. These conversion steps can include, e.g., intensified use of industrial (bio)technologies tailored to the composition and characteristics of the exhaust emissions from existing and emerging processing of bio-based feedstock.
• Provision for the project integrating ‘safe-and-sustainable-by-design’ generic criteria and framework considerations, in line with the EU Chemicals strategy for sustainability.
• Improve the efficiency and circularity of the bio-based industry to minimise process losses.
• Apply innovative design of circular bio-based products in the scope of CBE, for example safe and sustainable by design bio-based products and solutions for specific new applications, and/or with carbon storage capacity and/or low carbon footprint to substitute non-circular, fossil-based, energy-intensive or carbon-intensive product, and/or replacing toxic and hazardous substances in industrial processes and in final products and/or circular-by design bio-based products to allow for reuse, recycling, composting and biodegradation (in specific environments and conditions).
• Improve the environmental performances of bio-based processes through the capture, fractionation, extraction, and conversion of gaseous carbon from the exhaust flows, and recirculation as much as possible, thus minimising pollutant emissions from the plant.
• Design and apply an integrated monitoring system of the carbon removal potential of the developed technologies, to allow for reporting and verification to be recognised as contributing to EU climate and environmental objectives. The monitoring systems for carbon removal should include factors such as e.g., the storage time in bio-based materials, the risk of storage reversal, the uncertainty of the measurement, or the risk of carbon leakages increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions elsewhere.
• Apply and/or adapt existing/mature or novel digital technologies, provided that they are instrumental to achieving the project’s outcomes and scope, especially to ensure high standards of resource efficiency and environmental protection. Applications of digital technologies that should be considered in the scope are among the following areas i) chemicals, materials and process design & modelling ii) (real-time) process monitoring and optimisation (including environmental performance) iii) predictive maintenance & plant engineering and iv) data analytics and data management of the CCU technologies.