INCAR-CSIC (formerly known as Instituto Nacional del Carbón-CSIC) is a research centre that belongs to the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), the largest research organization in Spain, focuses its activities on clean coal technologies and carbon materials for energy and environmental applications, and has previously participated in EU-funded research projects, including the RFCS. INCAR-CSIC comprises three research departments and several supporting technical and administrative units, which will be made available to the project. The Carbon Materials group coordinating the project has internationally recognised expertise in the development of porous carbon and polymer materials with controlled texture and surface chemistry.

  • Główny Instytut Górnictwa (Central Mining Institute): GIG

GIG is a Polish governmental research institute with a 510-strong staff engaged in problems of mining engineering, safety in mines, and environmental protection in the coal sector. Its activities comprise mining engineering, geology and hydrogeology, geophysical engineering, combating natural and technical hazards in the mining industry, upgrading and utilization of minerals and reserves, monitoring and environmental protection of mining areas, especially industrial waste management, certification of equipment and materials. GIG has been involved in over 20 EU-funded over the last 10 years, including HUGE, HUGE2, COGAR, TOPS and Coal2Gas.

BASA is a Spanish company with almost one century of experience in the coal tar sector, with an activity focused on the distillation of coal tar from the coke batteries of Europe´s main steel groups. BASA produces pitch, naphthalene, anthracene, special tars, creosotes and oils in both continuous and discontinuous distillation plants. It has a total coal tar distillation capacity of 120.000 metric tons per year. BASA has also laboratory-scale facilities for the production and exhaustive analysis of coal tar-derived products.

IJL-CNRS is a joint research unit of the Université de Lorraine and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the leading research institution in Europe and fourth in the world. IJL-CNRS is the largest research institute working on materials science in Europe, with extensive equipment and expertise that will be made available to the project. Vanessa Fierro (female) is CNRS Research Director in charge of project management, experimental design and results discussion, and has an extensive background in the area of porous polymer and carbon materials for use in energy and environmental applications.

  • Polska Grupa Górnicza Sp. z o.o. (Polish Mining Group): PGG

PGG is Europe’s largest coal company, employing about 43,000 people. The mining area is located in the Upper Silesian coal basin. PGG extracts coal in 8 underground mines, mainly for energy production. The company produces about 30 million tons of coal annually, accounting for ~39% of the production of this raw mineral in Poland. The applied coal mining and processing technologies, broad knowledge base and competences of PGG afford optimized production processes and a wide range of coal products for the market.

  • Instytut Ekologii Terenów Uprzemysłowionych (Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas): IETU

IETU is an R&D unit under the Polish Ministry of Environment carrying out research and development on environmental challenges posed by industrial/urban areas in the context of circular economy, resource efficiency and adaptation to climate change. One of the leading areas at IETU is environmental microbiology. The Microbiology team (led by Grażyna Płaza, female) has expertise in biosurfactant-producing bacteria, evaluation of microbial activity in contaminated environments, functional/structural characterization of microorganisms, microbiological aspects of remediation and microbial diversity/metagenomic analysis, and has participated in national and international projects both as PIs and co-investigators.

Previous Instytut Chemicznej Przeróbki Węgla (Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal): IChPW

ITPE is an R&D unit supervised by the Polish Ministry of Energy with the mission of performing research and development on low-/zero-emission heat and electrical energy production technologies, including clean coal technologies, carbon capture and storage/utilization systems, as well as energy production from renewable resources. ITPE has been involved in different EU-funded projects (including LIG2LIQ, EESTIVAL, INNOWATREAT, ALTERAMA and COWEST), and possesses specialized analytical equipment to successfully carry out the actions planned in the project.