University of Valladolid

Zaragoza biorefinery. Photo Credit: Urbaser It was announced on June 17 that Graphenea (San Sebastián, Spain) has joined a flagship project, CIRCULAR BIOCARBON. The project has been awarded more than €23 million (approx. $27 million) to develop a first-of-its kind flagship biorefinery, designed to turn the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and sewage sludge (SS) into value-added graphene products, from mechanical moving parts, to night vision cameras and devices for 5G telecommunications. The five-year project, which received full marks from the European Commission, involves 11 partners from five European countries (including Spain, Italy, Denmark, France and Germany) and is said to be a milestone for the whole of Europe owing to its implementation scale (industrial level) as well as to its replicability potential. Coordinated by Urbaser (Madrid, Spain), a global company for environmental management, and Socamex (Valladolid), the water branch of Urbaser, the biorefinery’s OFSMW and SS process lines will be implemented in two locations, namely Zaragoza, Spain, and Sesto San Giovanni, Italy. Construction of the site in Spain will start in 2022 in the facilities of “Alfonso Maíllo” R&D+i center, and in the Center for Urban Waste Treatment of Zaragoza (CTRUZ), owned by the Municipality of Zaragoza and located in the Technological Park for Recycling (PTR). At the end of the project, a commercial-scale biorefinery will be in full operation designed in order to treat all the biowaste produced by a medium-sized city. “CIRCULAR BIOCARBON is a circular economy project, where the first biorefinery for the joint treatment of urban solid waste and sewage sludge at industrial level will be built and exploited,” says Eduardo Fernández, I+D+i Director at Urbaser. “This aims at valorizing the organic fraction of urban solid waste and sewage sludge coming from wastewater treatment plants into value-added products.” “Turning urban waste into graphene provides a double advantage, by reducing environmental impact of the waste, and producing graphene in a scalable and economic manner,” says Amaia Zurutuza of Graphenea. “We will work with partners to develop this technology and implement it at an industrial scale in the new biorefineries.” CIRCULAR BIOCARBON will set the basis for the demonstration, at commercial level, of the feasibility of a biorefinery as a new waste treatment model for cities. It will open up the market for new products and new business frameworks based on a circular vision of waste treatment in cities and help pave the way towards a sustainable bioeconomy. The project has received funding through the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) which was established in 2014, and aims to implement the Strategic Innovation & Research Agenda (SIRA), which was developed by industry in collaboration with the EU to realize a bio-based economy as part of the broader Circular Economy Action Plan for Europe. The CircularBiocarbon project consortium is comprised of partners that bring together a wealth of expertise and experience including Urbaser S.A.U. (Coordinator), Socamex, S.A.U.; CAP Holding S.p.A. (Milan, Italy); CemeCon Scandinavia A/S (Hinnerup, Denmark); Graphenea Semiconductor S.L.U.; Novamont S.p.A. (Novara, Italy); Agro Innovation International (France); ICLEI European Secretariat GMBH (Freiburg, Germany); Fundació Universitària Balmes (Spain); Universidad de Valladolid (Spain); Università Politecnica delle Marche (Ancona, Italy).

European researchers have developed an injectable hydrogel that could help repair and prevent further heart muscle damage after a heart attack. The therapeutic effect of multiple injections of this hydrogel into the cardiac tissue was assessed during the first preclinical study of its kind, demonstrating its efficacy for cardiac tissue remodeling following a heart attack, according to the researchers at CÚRAM, the SFI Research Centre for Medical Devices based at the National University of Ireland Galway, and BIOFORGE Lab, at the University of Valladolid in Spain. The results of their research have just been published in Science Translational Medicine. The regeneration of cardiac tissue following a heart attack is minimal so that the damage caused cannot be repaired by itself. Current treatments lack an effective method to prevent death and subsequent cardiac tissue repair following a heart attack. The hydrogel is based on a family of unique biomaterials, called elastin-like recombinamers, that BIOFORGE-UVa had developed in the search for advanced hydrogels for regenerative medicine. “This project involved the development and testing of an elastin-based hydrogel derived from a naturally occurring biomaterial in the human body,” said lead investigator Abhay Pandit, scientific director of CÚRAM, in a news release. “The hydrogel was developed to mimic the environment around the heart following an infarction and then customized to have the ability to protect and promote regeneration of the cardiac tissue.” The research team, which included members from Ireland, Spain, Sweden, France and Italy, were able to show that if their hydrogel was injected into the heart muscle shortly after a heart attack, it resulted in less cardiac tissue scarring and an increase in the generation of new blood vessels in the area. They were also able to observe the rise in the preservation and survival of cardiomyocytes, a type of cell that allows the heart to beat, in the affected area. “In this study, we employed a model to specifically look at a type of heart attack that has increased in incidence and is not often treated until the acute phase resolves. Scar tissue that forms after the heart attack often remodels negatively, causing future problems like heart failure,” said senior co-author and cardiac surgeon Dr. Mark Da Costa. “The timely injection of this hydrogel appears to change the way the heart muscle heals after a heart attack. There is a significant positive histological, biological and functional recovery of the injured heart muscle. Work is progressing now to deliver this to the sites of injury in different clinical settings and will be followed with translation into a clinical trial.” “This project demonstrates the efficacy of a unique biomaterial-only system able to induce a positive healing effect on cardiac tissue following a heart attack event,” Pandit added. “The functional benefits obtained by the timely injection of the hydrogel supports and highlights the potential use of this treatment in the clinic. The next step will be to develop a prototype for a delivery system for the hydrogel.” The research team also included members from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, the University Paris Est and the University of Milano-Bicocca, Vedano al Lambro, Italy.