SYMBIO: Generating the value chains for a more profitable European circular bioeconomy

By mapping resources, technologies, products and markets, and by connecting companies, and modelling business cases, the project’s approach will mean that what is waste for one company can become a resource for another, as project coordinator Ilaria Re of Lombardy Green Chemistry Association, explains.

Industrial symbiosis is a simple yet transformative idea: a by-product from one process becomes feedstock for another. In a world still dominated by linear production models, this shift promises lower costs, fewer emissions, and new revenue streams. What’s not to like? Yet it doesn’t happen as often as it could, especially in the bioeconomy, due to regulatory gaps, limited awareness, and the still-limited use of digital technologies in corporate decision-making processes, which have the potential to make supply chains more resilient and maximise profits.

That is the situation the SYMBIO project is looking to change. “SYMBIO was born from a very simple idea – what is waste for one company can become a resource for another,” says project coordinator Ilaria Re of Lombardy Green Chemistry Association. “This principle is known as industrial symbiosis and is a cornerstone of the circular economy. It makes it possible to drastically reduce waste, valorise biomass and industrial residues and reduce dependence on fossil and non-renewable resources.”

The goal of the project is to make these exchanges reliable and repeatable, especially for bio-based value chains where residues and side streams are rich with unused potential.

At the heart of this approach is the notion of zero-waste business models. As Re explains: “The zero-waste business model means a company can incorporate by-products from its primary production line into its own operations, resulting in an additional production line, or it can make those by-products available to another company, multiplying the added value of production exponentially. The idea is to stretch business models by evaluating alternative routes to maximise the reuse of by-products.”

In practice, that means designing processes so that reuse is planned from the outset, rather than treating waste as an afterthought. This is crucial because the most efficient circular systems are built upstream, not bolted on later and that’s where artificial intelligence enters the SYMBIO picture.

The project’s digital backbone is the Value Chain Generator (VCG.AI®), an AI decision-support tool that connects primary producers, technology providers, and end-users. VCG.AI® helps companies identify suitable feedstocks, evaluate processing technologies, assess input quality and availability, and connect with potential customers and partners – both locally and across borders – while navigating logistical and regulatory constraints. “The AI platform acts as a decision-support tool at the very beginning of the manufacturing process,” says Re. “It’s a co-creation engine for circular value chains.”

Building such a tool requires granular, real-world data. SYMBIO has organised its work across 12 pilot regions in six countries – Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Spain and Belgium. Each offers distinct resource profiles and industrial contexts and has been used to develop a complete picture of the European circular bioeconomy. “Each regional partner collected data on the biomass, technologies, and key industrial players linked to 12 bio-based products that are most relevant on the market now and projected to grow,” Re explains. “They also mapped biomass quantity and quality, conversion technologies (with a focus on demo plants at TRL 6+), and end users basing their business models on existing technologies and adapting final products for multiple purposes,” she continues. “All that data feeds the VCG.AI® so companies can explore viable, localised and cross-regional options.”

The product focus also matters. Early in the project, SYMBIO identified 12 priority bio-based products with the potential to be “game-changers in Europe’s green transition”. These included lactic acid, from agricultural and protein residues, which is the basis of PLA, used in packaging, textiles and 3D printing; Glycerol, with applications in food, pharmaceuticals, textiles and the automotive industry and as a plasticiser in the biopolymer industry, is projected to reach USD 5.1 billion by 2031; Succinic acid, from crop residues and bagasse, is key for resins, polymers and cosmetics, while acetic acid, from lignocellulosic biomass, serves food, cosmetics, textiles and pharma; Adipic acid, a key component in nylon and polyurethanes, can now be sourced from bio-based platforms, thereby reducing fossil fuel dependence.

Other biopolymer candidates include PHAs, biodegradable polymers derived from municipal waste and PLA. The portfolio also features functional molecules, such as 1,3-propanediol, lysine and glutamic acid, for use in feed, food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Finally, furfural (for plastics and agrochemicals) and sorbitol (a glucose-based sweetener and additive) show the broad industrial scope of bio-based chemical platforms.

Using the collected data, SYMBIO has mapped over 550 companies and more than 100 clusters across 12 pilot regions, and then modelled around 50 value chains via VCG.AI®. It calls these Biolinks®, which are the specific linkages among residue owners, technology providers and end users. “These scenarios are now being evaluated through a funnel based on nine criteria spanning economic, environmental and social impacts,” says Re. “By combining scientific methods as multi-criteria decision making analysis and material flow scenarios, we will screen and prioritise promising Biolinks®  and refine them further to develop around 10 replicable and advanced business models for companies to use across Europe.

Crucially, SYMBIO isn’t doing this in a vacuum. From the outset, it convened 12 two-day workshops in each country, mobilising over 200 companies across the targeted value chains. “We explained our approach and engaged with them in evaluating digital tools like VCG.AI® and gathered their inputs, needs and expectations and also discussed the challenges they face at regulatory, economic and technological levels,” says Re.  The workshops helped the project build capacity as well as demystify AI for companies with practical tests, ensuring the resulting models address real-world bottlenecks.

Gathering, centralization of data and people, concept image.

In the project’s second phase, each of the final business models will be backed by life cycle assessment, life cycle costing and a social assessment, with further workshops planned to share results and collect a second round of feedback “to ensure the approach is interesting and feasible in each region.”

For individual firms using SYMBIO’s VCG.AI®, the benefits extend beyond operations, with the idea being to help companies make their corporate social responsibility plans and reports more transparent for customers as well. Better data and clearer supply-chain narratives can improve market positioning, unlock voluntary certifications and ESG performance and even prompt pricing and portfolio reviews as companies discover more profitable and greener revenue streams. “SYMBIO helps companies create these new business opportunities and new commercial partnerships across Europe,” adds Re.

SYMBIO is now midway through its 36-month timeline, having started in January 2024. and running to December 2026. By the end, the project aims to publish the 10 modelled business cases “including quantitative and qualitative assessments of environmental, social and economic impacts, to help companies evaluate and replicate them.” Along the way, the consortium is also publishing reports and overviews, while protecting sensitive raw data obtained through interviews and recognising intellectual-property constraints tied to the VCG.AI® platform.

A key lesson so far has been the bioeconomy sector’s starting point on digital adoption: “Compared to other sectors, the bioeconomy sector is not as up to date in using digital tools, including AI, in daily processes,” says Re. “A clear challenge, therefore, is addressing this situation by raising awareness about how digital tools can become valuable resources that are both affordable and easy to implement.

“That is why we have invested in hands-on engagement and why dissemination and communication will be our key strategy as we roll out the VCG.AI® and the business models,” explains Re. “As part of that push, we will be showcasing the VCG.AI® in an international context at several seminars and workshops across Europe, where we will present practical examples of AI in practice and how to use these business models as case studies.”

After the project ends, SYMBIO’s outputs will live on in two ways. First, the business models, published in IP-safe form, will provide clear, quantified guidance that companies can adapt and replicate. Second, the VCG.AI® platform itself will remain available as a licence-based tool.

Policy is another powerful lever crucial for the scaling up of bioeconomy waste and by-product reuse in Europe, which is why SYMBIO is also planning to present policy recommendations to help clear the structural barriers that currently exist, especially inconsistent definitions that can stall circular flows. “A key objective is clarifying definitions of ‘waste’ and ‘by-product,’ and addressing fragmentation in classification and reuse rules,” Re explains. “Even within a single country, regional differences can determine whether a biomass is classed as a waste or by-product and this constrains what companies can do with it.”

Beyond this classification, gaps in regulation for promising biotech routes (such as fermentation and enzymatic processes) hold back investment. “No regulation means no market, or at least high risk, so companies won’t invest millions in scaling up without certainty,” Re argues. “SYMBIO’s recommendations will quantify the impacts of mature but under-regulated technologies to support smarter, enabling policy in the future.”

The project’s legacy, then, will be practical and systemic, including its set of replicable business models with robust sustainability evidence, the AI platform that companies can use to design circular supply chains from the start and a policy blueprint to unblock scale. SYMBIO will also publish guidance to help firms embed process data more transparently in corporate sustainability reports, because knowing how to communicate greener processes can be as important as implementing them.

So SYMBIO’s vision is to close the loop by designing out waste, connecting the right partners and proving the economics with data. “If we can do that, then the bioeconomy can grow faster on fewer resources,” Re concludes. “European industry needs to move from isolated good intentions to dependable, data-driven practice, so that the old problem of waste delivers greener, more valuable products, systematically and symbiotically.”