PRESS RELEASE: Bio4Products unlocks the potential of biomass

In a drive to replace fossil material in a wide variety of end products, Bio4Products is creating four bio-based products for which at least 30% of the original fossil-based stream is substituted with sustainable resources, and which deliver a 75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The project’s technological developments will help the industry unlock the potential of the bioeconomy.

© bio4products

The EU-funded project Bio4Products is showing how bio-resources such as straw, bark, forest residue and sunflower husks can hold the key to a more environmentally friendly future for Europe’s process industry through correct exploitation and move away from the fossil-based materials processing steams.

Bio4Products will demonstrate the integration of these sustainable resources into four end products: roofing material, phenolic resins, sand moulding resins, and engineered wood and natural fibre reinforced products.

The bio-resources have been targeted because they are unsuitable for food production and do not stimulate indirect land use change and there is no commercially viable technology for industry to exploit these resources. Bio4Products aims to target their long-term sustainability by carrying out in-depth assessments of each resource.

Treatment by a state-of-the-art technique called fast pyrolysis will first convert the solid biomass into a bio-oil, while largely preserving the original functionalities. The next step sees the functional groups present in the bio-oil separated by fractionation, obtaining a sugar stream and a lignin stream.

The project will carry out an environmental impact assessment and conduct a detailed economic and market study to develop a strong business case for the four products.

Bio4Products is currently a member of the platform BioWatch – the one-stop-shop for the latest research breakthroughs, news and upcoming events in the bioeconomy sector. As a member of BioWatch, Bio4Products can communicate directly with the research projects they are interested in and receive alerts in response, they are also part of BioWatch’s growing community of stakeholders (policymakers, industry experts, media) within this sector and have open opportunities for future collaborations.

Find out more about Bio4Products: https://bio4products.eu/
on the BioWatch website and get involved: http://library.bioways.eu/library_home

Countries

Netherlands, United Kingdom