WASTE2H2 establishes an Advisory Board with leading companies to boost the transformation of plastic waste in clean hydrogen

Moeve, Nalón Innova, Urbaser and Thales will join the new Advisory Board of the European project WASTE2H2, led by CIC energiGUNE and funded by the European Commission’s EIC Pathfinder Open programme. The initiative aims to convert plastic waste into clean hydrogen and net-zero materials.

(Vitoria-Gasteiz, 11 September 2025)

The coordinator of the WASTE2H2 project, CIC energiGUNE, has announced the creation of an Advisory Board made up of benchmark companies in the energy, waste recovery and environmental management sectors. Its purpose is to support the European project WASTE2H2, which seeks to develop a technology for take advantage of plastic waste, enabling its transformation into clean hydrogen and high added-value carbon materials with net-zero emissions.

The companies that will form part of the Advisory Board are Moeve, Nalón Innova, Urbaser and Thales Group, which will contribute expertise in areas such as sustainable energy and waste management, carbon-based innovation, and high-power microwave/RF technologies. “The participation of these companies represents a key boost for the project, which, in addition to developing innovative value-added technologies, will also contribute to Europe’s decarbonisation and clean energy transition,” said Eduardo J. García-Suarez, IKERBASQUE Research Fellow and Principal Investigator at CIC energiGUNE for the WASTE2H2 project.

The Advisory Board will act as an advisory body, providing strategic guidance and strengthening the link between the project’s scientific and technological advances and the needs of industry and society. WASTE2H2 is one of the 53 projects (out of more than 780 submitted) that received European funding through the 2023 EIC Pathfinder Open call, ranking 19th on the main funding list – a clear reflection of its potential and expected impact.

The main goal of WASTE2H2 is to develop a disruptive methodology that combines innovative catalytic systems based on ionic liquids with microwave irradiation. This approach opens the door to the selective production of high-purity clean hydrogen, as well as valuable decarbonised chemical products – carbon-based materials such as activated carbon or carbon nanotubes – using plastic waste as feedstock. In this way, the project not only promotes clean energy generation but also tackles effectively the serious environmental pollution caused by plastic waste.

The WASTE2H2 project is coordinated by CIC energiGUNE and involves Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris (i-CLeHS) as well as companies IoLiTec and Sener.