Author: Admin

Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) has recently approved two follow-up projects within Moonshot, allowing the projects CAPTIN and ARCLATH to continue their research activities and build on the results obtained so far.

CO₂ Capture Processes

In 2020, the CAPTIN project took off seeking to overcome technological limitations in CCU technologies by intensifying CO₂ capture processes. After a year of research, CAPTIN identified a series of challenges that require further investigation.

In the follow-up project CAPTIN-2, these challenges will be tackled using experimental test devices and models developed in the initial project. Moreover, CAPTIN-2 will also carry out a roadmap analysis.

Hydrogen Transportation and Storage

In the same year, the ARCLATH project started research to overcome current drawbacks in hydrogen transportation and storage by developing a radically new transportation and storage concept based on clathrates. Today, ARCLATH has already provided a proof of concept that shows hydrogen can indeed be encapsulated in clathrates under technically and economically relevant conditions, in terms of both pressure and temperature.

A follow-up project, ARCLATH-2, will now maximise the hydrogen storage capacity of the clathrates under similar pressure and temperature conditions. At the same time, ARCLATH-2 will define a practical process of reversible hydrogen storage and delivery based on pressure swing cycling at lab scale.

More to Come

In addition to CAPTIN and ARCLATH, other Moonshot projects have also requested support for a follow-up project. Moreover, a series of entirely new project proposals across the four Moonshot research trajectories has also been backed by dozens of Flemish companies. A final funding decision for all of these additional project proposals will be made by VLAIO in November 2021.

“De chemische procesindustrie is essentieel om een duurzame ontwikkeling van onze maatschappij te garanderen omdat de producten bijdragen aan het invullen van zowat alle maatschappelijke behoeften – van de meest elementaire tot de meest gesofisticeerde.”

In een kort interview in de bijlage FOKUS Industrie bij De Standaard geven Jan Van Havenbergh, Moonshot Manager, en Pieter Nachtergaele van Oleon hun kijk op de verduurzaming van de chemische procesindustrie. Elektrificatie, energie-efficiëntie, het gebruik van hernieuwbare grondstoffen,… Allemaal topics waarrond de afgelopen jaren al heel wat vooruitgang werd geboekt, én waar ook de komende jaren versterkt op ingezet zal worden, onder meer via Moonshot. Want hoewel het laaghangend fruit volgens Jan Van Havenbergh ondertussen geplukt is, blijven er zich nieuwe, innovatieve opportuniteiten aandienen!

Meer weten? Lees dan gratis het artikel op de FOKUS website of grasduin door de volledige bijlage.

Last week, 10 Moonshot project proposals were submitted to VLAIO. Over 60 companies across various industrial sectors expressed their support for one or more of these projects by signing a Letter of Intent.

On 15 June 2021, a new series of 10 Moonshot project proposals was submitted to VLAIO (Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship). In the coming months, all project proposals will pass through a multi-step evaluation procedure to select the most promising and industrially relevant projects. This procedure consists of a peer review by a panel of independent, international academic experts, an exhaustive evaluation by the Moonshot Scientific Advisory Board, and a final decision by the Moonshot Governance Board. A final list of approved projects will be available in November 2021.

To ensure the projects are relevant to Flemish industries and will actively contribute to the reduction of their CO₂ emissions, companies across all sectors were cordially invited to express their support for one or more project proposals by signing a Letter of Intent (LOI). In total, over 60 companies did so, allowing them to follow up on Moonshot projects from a front-row seat, to guide Moonshot research by providing industrial input, to discover innovative technologies in an early stage, and to identify opportunities for the future.

De Vlaamse overheid heeft een opdracht gepubliceerd voor de ontwikkeling van een methodologisch kader voor duurzaamheidsevaluatie binnen Moonshot. Geïnteresseerde organisaties kunnen zich kandidaat stellen voor de opdracht tot 14 juni 2021.

In January and March of this year, 22 project ideas across all four Moonshot Research Trajectories (MOTs) were submitted by Flemish universities and research institutes in the form of 2-pagers. In total, a budget of 59.4 mio EUR was requested for these 22 cSBO projects.

After advice by DB Catalisti (and Flux50 for MOT4) and a decision by BoD Catalisti (and again Flux50 for MOT4), only 11 project ideas remain, totaling a requested budget of 28.8 mio EUR. These 11 project ideas are currently being elaborated into detailed project proposals to be submitted on 15 June 2021 for the final stages of evaluation.

In addition to these new cSBO project proposals, 4 sprint cSBO projects that started in early 2020 have submitted a request to initiate a follow-up project. Finally, one Later Stage Innovation project proposal will also be submitted. These projects too will be evaluated before the end of the year.

Een mooi overzicht van de indrukwekkende klimaatinspanningen die bedrijven, overheden en andere stakeholders uit de sector leveren vindt u in de bijlage “Duurzame Chemie” in De Standaard. Aan bod komen onder meer Moonshot-Manager Jan Van Havenbergh en BlueChem’s Leentje Croes, met verder ook inspirerende artikels over innovatieve bedrijven als Eastman, B4Plastics, InOpSys, INEOS en Alco Bio Fuel, opinies door essenscia en VITO, en nog zoveel meer!

Ontdek de volledige bijlage “Duurzame Chemie” in De Standaard van 30 april 2021 of surf naar de website van Mediaplanet.

In een interview in De Tijd geven o.a. catalyst Luc Van Ginneken en Total’s Walter Vermeiren hun kijk op de elektrificatie van chemische processen en krakers, en dat bijvoorbeeld via het Moonshot-project P2O. Lees het volledige artikel op de website van De Tijd, of klik op de afbeelding hieronder.

Als Moonshot-accountmanager bij VLAIO sta je in voor de sturing en opvolging van het Moonshot-initiatief. Je legt relaties, zoekt verbanden en start innovatieve samenwerkingen tussen bedrijven, universiteiten en kennisinstellingen op. Je bent daarbij de brug tussen bedrijven en kennisinstellingen. Je vormt het eerste aanspreekpunt voor VLAIO en externe actoren. Ook ben je nauw betrokken bij concrete onderzoeks- en innovatieprojecten binnen Moonshot, zowel bij het tot stand komen van de projecten als bij hun evaluatie.

Klaar om de klimaattransitie van de Vlaamse industrie te ondersteunen? Check dan zeker de VLAIO-website voor meer informatie over de jobinhoud, de vele voordelen die VLAIO biedt, en de sollicitatieprocedure. Solliciteren kan tot en met 16 mei 2021. Het Moonshot-team kijkt er alvast naar uit om samen met jou aan de slag te gaan!

To make sure Moonshot research at universities and knowledge institutes will lead to an actual reduction of industrial CO₂ emissions, Moonshot actively involves companies in its operations through, amongst others, industrial Advisory Boards. During these meetings, the academic consortia behind Moonshot projects present the status of their research to interested companies and share relevant results obtained thus far. Meanwhile, participating companies have the opportunity to follow up on Moonshot projects from a front-row seat, guide the research by providing industrial input, discover innovative technologies in an early stage, and identify opportunities for the future.

Between 11 March and 2 April, one Advisory Board meeting was set up for each of the four Moonshot research trajectories (MOTs). All companies that signed a Moonshot Letter of Intent (LOI) were invited to participate. In this first series of meetings, preliminary research results from the Moonshot projects from budget year 2019 were discussed. These innovative projects took off in early 2020 and have now been running for little over a year.

Across the four MOTs, no less than 71 different companies participated in the Advisory Boards. Most of these companies are situated within the broad chemical sector, with additional participants from the other sectors targeted by Moonshot, being petrochemistry, steel and energy. Moreover, companies from other sectors, VLAIO and a number of Flemish spearhead clusters also joined the discussions.

In a spirit of open interaction, companies formulated substantive questions and remarks concerning the presented research results. They were able to actively gauge to what extent the presented projects results could be integrated within their current or future operations. The academic consortia, meanwhile, grasped the opportunity to thoroughly assess the industrial relevance of their research and identify areas of improvement, or even opportunities for potential follow-up projects within Moonshot or beyond.

Following the first Advisory Boards, in-depth bilateral meetings between companies and consortia that wish to engage more intensively will be facilitated by Moonshot. In the fall of this year, a second series of Advisory Board meetings will be organised. During these meetings, the 2019 projects will present their final findings. The 2020 projects, which started their work in March 2021, will also present some preliminary results. Interested companies who have not yet signed a Moonshot LOI, but wish to participate in this second series of meetings, can contact moonshot@catalisti.be for more information.