D4.1 - Tailored methods and impactful tools for boosting BeBOP circularity opportunities

The aim of this report, "Deliverable 4.1: Tailored Methods and Impactful Tools for Boosting BeBOP Circularity Opportunities," is to provide tailored methods and actionable tools to identify, enhance and validate circularity opportunities within the BeBOP project, particularly focusing on the methanol synthesis value chain. The EU funded BeBOP project aims to develop an innovative biomass-to-methanol plant that could revolutionize the methanol industry. By integrating an electrolysis cell (SOEC), the project could double methanol productivity, achieve over 95% carbon efficiency, and recover high-value components from biomass residues. This could lower methanol production costs to below €250 per ton and prevent over 30 million tons of CO2 emissions annually, creating new market opportunities. The report begins by defining the Circular Economy (CE) principles, i.e., 1. narrowing, 2. slowing, 3. closing, and 4. regenerating resource flows, and distinguishing Circularity Assessments (CA) from the traditional Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), emphasizing how the Circular Assessments solution-oriented approach is able to optimise resource flows. The report’s core provides a detailed overview of the objectives and strategy for a series of six workshops designed to identify the key factors able of improving the scaled-up BeBOP plant’s circularity: i.e. the so-called BeBOP Circularity Workshops. It presents the challenges in applying existing circularity frameworks, which are often product-focused, to an industrial process in its design phase. Furthermore, the methodology involves linking specific BeBOP value chain segments to each different workshop, engaging relevant internal and external stakeholders, applying the four CE principles to define topics of interest, and formulating detailed discussion questions to identify effective circularity levers. The report uses the SOEC unit as an example to illustrate how these CE principles and discussion questions are applied in practice in the workshop concept. These methods support a multi-stakeholder dialogue, grounded in both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and are validated through dedicated workshops. The findings from these workshops are intended to inform strategies for sustainable circularity, which will be further detailed in a subsequent deliverable (D4.2 “Validated strategies for ensuring sustainable circularity plans”).