On 22 and 23 February, the 3rd ROMEO progress meeting of ROMEO was organized in Brussels at the CFCIB (Chambre Française de Commerce et d’ Industrie de Belgique) – Avenue des Arts 8, jointly with the 1st External Advisory Board (EAB) and the 1st Review meeting (M18). The EMH and EVONIK were the organizers. These meetings allowed everyone to meet the new Project Officer, Dr Carmine Marzano, and EC appointed external reviewer, Prof. Annette Juhr, as well as the three external EAB members: Dr. Andreas Geisbauer from Clariant Produkte GmbH; Prof. dr. Freek Kapteijn – Catalysis Engineering – TU Delft; Mr. Herman Bottenberg – Zeton B.V

Undoubtedly, a lot has been done since the 2nd progress meeting in Copenhagen: the 3rd Progress meeting allowed partners to keep up to date with all of that. This has been also a good opportunity to plan the next actions. The preparation of the 1st Review Report (Technical and Financial parts) will be an important issue during the next two months.

The 1st Review Meeting (months 1 to 18) was held in the afternoon of the first day. It offered to the EU Project Officer and the external reviewer the opportunity to appreciate the good progress and the high quality of the work performed by the consortium. After having securing Intellectual Property Rights properly, the ROMEO partners have been also encouraged to publish as largely as possible their results whenever possible in International Conferences, High Impact Journals or even general newspapers… Dissemination / communication on ROMEO research will be an important part of the strategy to increase the outreach of ROMEO results in the future. This enables the general public to take part in this exciting new technology.

A very good dinner held at the classical Belgium Restaurant “Le trappiste” allowed to close the day in the best conditions.

The EAB meeting held on February 23rd in the morning allowed the partners to have an external view on the work carried out. Overall, the comments were very good with a very positive opinion on the quality of the relations that have already been established between partners, an essential condition for the success of this project. It has been addressed, that a loss of technical freedom by coupling membrane and catalysis has to be considered and that the impact on the overall performance has to be considered, especially when setting up the process in an industrial environment. These remarks are surely very valid and will support in promoting and exploiting the ROMEO results during and after the project duration.
Throughout the two days, the presentations generated a lot of discussions. That resulted in a strong team spirit and serious collaboration going on.

This meeting was the opportunity to welcome three new members to the ROMEO project: Lucie Vaamonde who works in the EMG group, Alexander Limper from RWTH Aachen and Jüergen Loipersböeck who has replaced Reinhardt Rauch as representative of Bioenergy2020.