In Estonia, the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) funded SWEETWOODS wood valorization flagship project has announced that it has reached its first milestones with industrially representative samples of high purity lignin and wood sugars now available at the tonne scale for testing at novel value chains.
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The SWEETWOODS project is being led by Estonia-based OÜ Graanul Biotech, a subsidiary of Europe’s largest wood pellet producer AS Graanul Invest. The purpose of the flagship demonstration plant, which is being built on a site owned by Graanul Invest adjacent to its Imavere wood pellet plant, is the development and production of biomaterials from low-quality wood residues.
Along with Graanul Biotech, the EUR 43.2 million Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) funded SWEETWOODS project brings together innovation-oriented European partners including Global Bioenergies (France), Tecnaro GmbH (Germany), Armacell International S.A (Luxembourg), Recticel N.V. (Belgium), MetGen Oy (Finland), 2B Srl (Italy), Vertech Group (France), and Spinverse Oy (Finland).
Phase one completed
The first phase of construction works of the flagship was finished during 2020 and, the flagship project is now ready to ship out industrially representative samples of high purity near-native lignin and wood sugars at the tonne scale.
According to Graanul Biotech, the construction of the second phase, where hydrolysis, separation processes, and lignin drying will be established, has started and the company estimates that an industrial supply of novel lignin and sugars will be available in the last quarter of 2022.
The SWEETWOODS novel fractionation demo plant uses sustainable hardwood biomass to demonstrate, on an industrial scale, how novel pre-treatment technology in combination with innovative enzymatic solutions can provide high-quality lignin and wood sugars.
This unique technology converts over 90 percent of hardwood into usable high-quality feedstocks for biomaterials and biochemicals and enables establishing novel bio-based value chains with a low ecological footprint.
The whole fractionation process still needs to be challenged within 24/7 operation at scale, but preliminary performance tests have had very promising results yielding expected high purity lignin and sugars. This means that we have created a strong basis for near term realization of supply of sustainable feedstocks for different biomaterials and biochemicals production to create industry-changing new value chains, where wood as sustainable raw material plays a vital role, said Dr Peep Pitk, R&D Manager at Graanul Biotech.
High purity lignin and wood sugars under evaluation
One of the goals of the SWEETWOODS project is to establish markets for lignin and sugar-based platform chemicals. Consortium partner Tecnaro develops and produces bio-based and biodegradable thermoplastic compounds, composites, and blends. Its product family includes ARBOFORM, a 100 percent bio-based and biodegradable polymer.
Tecnaro confirms that high-purity lignin from the SWEETWOODS project can be used as a substitute for conventional lignin in biocomposite production, offering improved product quality without odour.
These first tests show positive results that novel high purity lignin will allow Tecnaro to enter higher value markets and gain competitive advantage through both sustainability and performance, said Dr Michael Schweizer from Tecnaro.
Polyurethane manufacturer and consortium member Recticel is currently evaluating on lab-scale which depolymerized lignin types are most suitable for incorporation in rigid foam for insulation boards. The most suitable candidates will be further upscaled and screened on a semi-industrial scale.
Another consortium partner Global Bioenergies has successfully scaled up the production of bio-isobutene from residual wood-derived sugars at the tonne scale. The company is also progressing towards the commercialization of renewable cosmetics with the first EU registration of a key cosmetic-grade ingredient derived from fermentative isobutene.
Process LCA
An important part of the project is to evaluate the environmental and socio-economic performance of the SWEETWOODS plant, feedstock, and the developed products. Consortium member 2B from Italy has been working on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the whole wood fractionation process to calculate the environmental impact of the outputs of this process: sugar concentrates and lignin.
The LCA has allowed the identification of the environmental hotspots of the fractionation process, which are useful from an eco-design perspective. The LCA results are currently being compared with other biorefining processes and products to get a numeric estimate of the environmental benefits of the SWEETWOODS flagship technology.
