Robust and optimised industrial biotech and chemical/industrial biotech processes

Programme Category

EU Competitive Programmes

Programme Name

Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking

Programme Description

The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) is a €2 billion partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) that funds projects advancing competitive circular bio-based industries in Europe.

CBE JU is operating under the rules of Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme, for the 2021-2031 period. The partnership is building on the success of its predecessor, the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), while addressing the current challenges facing the industry.

Programme Details

Identifier Code

HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-R-03

Call

Robust and optimised industrial biotech and chemical/industrial biotech processes

Summary

Industrial biotech processes often have limitations of scaling up and continuous processing. There is an additional complexity of reduced biocatalyst robustness and poor process metrics, especially when applied in sequence with chemical pre-processing. Industrial biotech processes can be used to replace chemical conversion steps which may pose safety or resource efficiency issues (e.g. necessitating complex reactions with protective groups, hazardous solvents etc.), or may be high in energy demand (heat, pressure) etc. Vice versa, some biotechnological conversion steps can be difficult to scale up because of e.g. substrate inhibition, difficult product removal, co-factor regeneration: in this case, chemical conversion steps can provide improvements.

Detailed Call Description

Proposals under this topic should:

Identify existing, industrially relevant, bio-based process(es) (upstream and conversion steps) and identify the areas of intervention and bottlenecks to improve process flexibility, robustness, techno-economic feasibility and environmental performance. The proposal should consider the case of developing combined processes using biotech and chemical approaches synergistically in order to optimise process and/or (bio)catalyst design for obtaining bio-based products.
Incorporate reactor design (e.g. membrane reactors, small-scale reactors, microfluidics), process design, process control and optimisation as well as catalysis optimisation aspects that are relevant to also enable tandem chemical/biotech processes, and where applicable for optimisation of continuous production approaches (batch2continuous).
Identify, optimize/engineer and test more active and robust microbial hosts and their enzymes, or other (bio)catalysts, against relevant process conditions (including physical and chemical stressors). The projects should also consider integrating the biofoundry and synthetic biology advances;
Ensure and assess productivity, yield, robustness, flexibility of the process.

Overall, modifications and optimisation of the (physico)chemical steps to further optimize chemical/biotech tandem processes are also in scope and could be considered.

Call Total Budget

€10 000 000

Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan

100%

Expected EU Contribution: €5 000 000

Thematic Categories

Energy
Environment and Climate Change
Industry
Research, Technological Development and Innovation

Eligibility for Participation

Central Government
International Organisations
Large Enterprises
Legal Entities
NGOs
Non Profit Organisations
Other Beneficiaries
Parliamentary Bodies
Private Bodies
Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
Semi-governmental organisations
State-owned Enterprises

Eligibility For Participation Notes

For additional specific conditions, which are described in section 2.2.3 in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2023.

Call Opening Date

26/04/2023

Call Closing Date

20/09/2023

EU Contact Point

Contact Info:

https://www.cbe.europa.eu/contact

Email: info@cbe.europa.eu