The vast majority of hydrogen and carbon used today in industry are derived from fossil petroleum sources, most of which are imported into the EU from regions often politically unstable or competitive.

PlasCarb will integrate an established technology (anaerobic digestion) with innovative, low temperature microwave plasma processing and leading edge control of carbon morphology and purification. This project will extend beyond current Best Available Techniques (BAT) in the valorisation of food waste of anaerobic digestion (AD) to generate renewable energy; it will transform the biogas output from AD using innovative low energy microwave plasma to split biogas methane into high value graphitic carbon and renewable hydrogen (RH₂).

The quality and economic value of the carbon and the hydrogen will then be maximised through the integration of high quality research and industrial process engineering expertise. The project will validate at a pilot scale continuous operation of the integrated process for a period of one month; 150 tonnes of mixed food waste will be digested to generate over 25000m³ of biogas. 2400m³ of this biogas will then be transformed into highly graphitic carbon. A decentralised business model will be generated that can be implemented at local levels widely across Europe to facilitate future market uptake.