Pilot Infrastructure

Moonshot's Later Stage Innovation (LSI) projects bridge the gap between experimental development and industrial implementation, often referred to as the ‘valley of death’. In practice, LSI projects support research and knowledge institutes in scaling up and validating breakthrough technologies using dedicated pilot‑scale infrastructure. 

Since 2025, a yearly budget of €5 million has been reserved for LSI projects to accelerate the deployment of carbon-neutral technologies and guide the Flemish industry toward carbon‑circularity and CO2‑neutrality.

To date, 5 pilot plants funded through Moonshot Flanders are operational, while a further 8 are currently in the design or development phase. Discover below the pilot infrastructure supported through Moonshot funding. 

Pilot infrastructure in operation

CLARIFY

Commissioned in September 2025 by Ghent University’s LCPE research group, the CLARIFY pilot plant advances mechanical, dissolution, and innovative material‑processing routes for a wide range of plastics and is capable of processing large batches to validate process robustness and product quality. It focuses on pilot-scale de-inking and de-lamination, separating inks and thin barrier layers (such as aluminium) from plastic films to produce a clean polymer fraction that can be reused as high-quality feedstock. The CLARIFY pilot plant officially opened in January 2026.
 

Super-Dry Reforming (SDR)

The SDR pilot plant scales up the super‑dry reforming process, efficiently converting CO2 into pure CO using (bio)methane through an intensified chemical looping technology that transforms up to three CO2 molecules per CH4 molecule. This milestone is crucial for advancing technologies aimed at reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions and tackling climate change. The SDR pilot plant officially opened in September 2024.
 

HyPPr

The Moonshot programme HyPPr enabled the installation of a test production line at KU Leuven’s TRANSfarm for innovative solar hydrogen panels that directly generate green hydrogen from sunlight and water vapor in the air. After the project ended, the technology was further developed and commercialised by the spin‑off Solhyd, which claims that a single panel can now produce up to 250 liters of hydrogen per day, making it significantly more efficient than conventional hydrogen production methods. In 2026, Solhyd teamed up with Nippon Gases, Ether Energy, and SunBuild to build the world’s first solar hydrogen park on a site in Wallonia.
 

PILLAR II

The PILLAR II plant is an integral part of the LignoValue Pilot Plant, Europe’s first and only pilot line dedicated to depolymerising lignin into bio-aromatics. The Pillar II unit is dedicated to preprocessing and liquefying lignin from biomass, such as wood pulp. The liquefied lignin can be fed directly into the LignoValue Pilot, where it is converted into valuable, sustainable bio‑aromatics. In 2026, LignoValue reached an important milestone with a successful continuous run lasting 72 hours, producing nearly two tonnes of lignin‑rich feed. The PILLAR II unit officially opened in 2024.

BIOCON

The BIOCON scale‑up facility converts plant‑based feedstocks into safe and sustainable products through advanced chemical process technologies. It produces refined lignin oil and carbohydrate pulp as high‑value biobased outputs that can be used in a wide range of downstream chemical applications, including adhesives, coatings, foams, surfactants, bioactive compounds, and biofuels. The BIOCON facility currently produces samples at the kilogram scale. Future expansion of the pilot plant will focus on biorefinery reactors, advanced analytics, downstream purification and product synthesis and applications.
 

Pilot infrastructure in development

The following Later Stage Innovation (LSI) projects are currently in the pilot design or development phase.

More about LSI project