TRAMPOLINe- is a joint academic-industrial inter-disciplinary initiative which has the primary goal of training a pool of young researchers in the field of microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) while developing innovative and ready-to-be-applied solutions for tackling global environmental challenges, including contamination of the remaining freshwater sources, unsustainable production processes, anthropogenic CO2 emissions and the transition towards renewable energy environment.

Objectives

The main aim of TRAMPOLINe- is to form a collaborative network that (i) connects leading researchers in the core MET disciplines with SME/large companies, (ii) upgrades the state-of-the-art (SOTA) of METs into prompt industrial adoption, and (iii) trains a set of young researchers to become highly skilled MET scientists.

Activities

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of METs, the upgrading of MET-based cutting-edge technologies calls for international intersectoral cooperation in view of its proper industrial adoption.

The doctoral training is carried out in research groups that are developing progressive technologies and materials for applying METs with active involvement of industrial partners that can support the market adoption of the technologies. The candidates will be developing MET-based technologies focusing especially on bioremediation, desalination, industrial bioproduction, resource recovery and on the production of CO2-based chemicals.

Comprehensive technology development is supported by the work packages dedicated to microbiology of electroactive microorganisms, engineering redox reactions and reactors, innovative materials, MET-based industrial bioproduction

Expected scientific, societal and economic impacts

TRAMPOLINe- goes beyond the expected impacts of MSCA-DN. The impacts will be visible during and also beyond the project in a mid-term when METs become a techno-economically viable alternative to the current technologies.

a)     Scientific impacts: TRAMPOLINe- diversity (inter-sectorial and multidisciplinary) and supervisors experience ensures the creation of high-quality knowledge. Each individual partner is nowadays conducting cutting-edge research and the proposed collaborative actions (i.e. interdisciplinary joint co-supervisions and semesterly meetings with plenty of time reserved for discussions on the DC progress) will boost each of the project’s yield, reinforcing the human capital in research and innovation. The fundamental knowledge on current MET limitations will increase and our emphasis on METs industrialisation will provide innovation outcomes with a strong impact in the industry sector: production of fuels (i.e. ethanol, H2 or methane), efficient EF processes, the development of novel processes for the removal of pollutants (e.g. thiols or organic groundwater compounds) or the bioelectrochemical resource recovery (e.g. NH3, water or H2).

The events will be as open to non-participants of the network as possible and dedicated actions (mini-workshops, roundtables or dissemination corners) will be promoted in the related conferences.

b)     Societal impacts:

TRAMPOLINe- aligns with the current EU research/policy goals: Green Deal, Horizon Europe Missions, MSCA Green Charter, UN Sustainable Development Goals. TRAMPOLINe results will deliver benefits and positive impacts to the society by providing novel sustainable production processes and novel and sustainable alternatives for the treatment of contaminants (e.g. S-species in the biogas upgrading process or the organic contaminants of groundwater, thereby, upgrading human health and ensuring the quality of the environment. Finally, TRAMPOLINe- aligns with all the goals related to circularity since we will boost NH3, water and H2 recovery.

The extensive outreach programme will ensure that the outcomes are adequately and timely delivered to the society. TRAMPOLINe-’s results will be useful to policymakers for the development of new policy instruments for a much more efficient environmental legislation in the field of CO2-utilsation, resource recovery or industrial bioproduction (e.g. legislative decisions with regard to carbon pricing, subsidies for specific technologies, and allocation of research funds, labelling or certifications schemes, etc.)

TRAMPOLINe- international, intersectoral and multidisciplinary consortium is well-known and has many contacts/previous collaborations and it is highly expected that TRAMPOLINe- will origin several post-project international collaborations (inside and/or outside the network) either in increasing the TRL of the produced results or in following up the fundamental research conducted.

c)     Economic impacts: The industrial adoption of METs opens a plethora of novel opportunities for generating innovation-based growth of the industrial sector. In collaboration with the IMC, TRAMPOLINe- will follow a comprehensive PDE to identify and promote the most promising market opportunities among the DC projects. Thus, TRAMPOLINe- paves the way for the diversification of environmental engineering by the development of novel MET-based sustainable solutions and will contribute to EU taking the leadership in the emerging MET-based industry.

TRAMPOLINe- ‘s multidisciplinary spirit will boost the industrial symbiosis between industries of different nature (environmental-materials-biotechnological-electrochemical) such as the use of bioelectrochemical nitrogen recovered as N-source for EF. MET-based technologies require energy and can be linked with the novel concept of the utilisation of renewable energy surplus, thus leveraging investment in research and innovation. EU is moving to higher shares of electricity from renewable energy but while it can provide a low-cost electricity, the issues of intermittency and grid balancing remain due to its inherent variable nature.

In WEO 2018’s New Policies Scenario, 39% of EU electricity production is projected to come from variable renewables by 20401. TRAMPOLINe- will enable the creation of new jobs since engineers will be needed to develop (i.e. design, build, operate, control and optimise) METs.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska Curie grant agreement No. 101167647.

METFILTER is an associate partner.