Project description
Sustainable material production from cellulose and lignin
Cellulose and lignin constitute abundant natural resources for material production, with the potential to substitute most of the currently used petroleum-based products. However, processing these major components of biomass into value-added products, such as cellulose nanocrystals and lignin nanoparticles, is strongly limited by their insolubility. Furthermore, this biomass conversion process involves the use of large volumes of caustic or toxic chemicals and clean water, and it generates hazardous waste. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ENBIOMECH project plans to produce cellulose nanocrystals and lignin nanoparticles from biomass by employing certain enzymes that should enable solid-state chemical transformations. These reactions allow obtaining materials from solid reagents, eliminating the need for biopolymer solubilisation.
Objective
Cellulose and lignin constitute an unlimited natural resource for materials production, with the potential to substitute most of the currently used petroleum-based products. However, processing biomass into value-added products, such as cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) is strongly limited by the insolubility these biopolymers, and thus generally requires large volumes of caustic or toxic chemicals and clean water, while generating hazardous waste. The ENBIOMECH project will first develop sustainable, environmentally friendly and efficient methods to produce CNCs and LNPs from biomass by employing enzymes in mechanochemical approaches, through which chemical transformations can be achieved in the solid state without solubilization of the biopolymers. Mechanochemistry will thereafter be used to convert the CNCs into a set of self-sorting nanoscale building blocks, by developing new facile methods for covalent surface modification of CNCs. Finally, various solid-state techniques will be investigated to reach new chiral nanoarchitectures from the obtained CNC building blocks, by gaining control over their supramolecular assembly. Switching to mechanochemical methods provides a fast and simple route to materials discovery, thus the ambitious ENBIOMECH project seeks to deliver a strong impact to the field of renewable bio-based materials by offering resource-conserving technologies to researchers and industry, aligned with the EU goals for the development of a green and sustainable economy. This project will bring together the researcher skilled in mechanochemical methods with the leading experts in cellulose chemistry and nanostructured biohybrid materials (supervisors), within a host institution strongly focussed on the development of bio-based materials and dedicated infrastructure ideally suited for supporting the proposed research.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials nanocrystals
- engineering and technology chemical engineering chemical process engineering
- social sciences economics and business economics sustainable economy
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
02150 Espoo
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.