Systemic large scale eco-innovation to advance circular economy and mineral recovery from organic waste in Europe

SYSTEMIC aspires to demonstrate economically viable Circular Economy business cases for nutrient recovery and recycling from biowaste, thereby realizing a systemic break-through in the re-design of circular supply chains for mineral nutrients. At five Demonstration Plants, Systemic will demonstrate the effective combination of anaerobic digestion with novel nutrient recovery technologies (TRL 7) for producing valuable fertilizers and soil amendments from EU’s most abundant biowaste streams (manure, sewage sludge and food waste). Utilising existing business cases and logistic chains as a starting point, SYSTEMIC will develop enhanced Circular Economy business models and will demonstrate their commercial viability. Results will be transferred to ten Outreach Locations and used to formulate additional business opportunities for producing mineral nutrients and fertilizers for the regional market. Data on the economic performance, environmental benefits, and experiences on innovating within a Circular Economy framework will be made available via a Business Development Package to be used for further application in Europe. Emerging innovation barriers will be encountered along this process and addressed in policy recommendations. Experiences on barriers and opportunities will be synthesized into a roadmap which will facilitate the systemic roll-out of Circular Economy solutions for biowaste in Europe and enhances the economic competiveness of SMEs and industries. Systemic will be implemented as a true market driven and multi-actor public private partnership, where SMEs and industries plan to invest € 13.8 million in cash on top of the € 9.5 million Euro H2020 project budget (€ 7.86 million requested).