Re-Think All Plastic Packaging

Project Information

ReTAPP

Grant agreement ID: 691414

DOI

10.3030/691414

Project closed

EC signature date 19 November 2015

Start date 1 November 2015

End date 30 April 2018

Funded under

• Horizon 2020 Framework Programme

Total cost

€ 3 340 625,00

EU contribution

€ 2 338 437,50

Coordinated by

METGEN OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ReTAPP (Re-Think All Plastic Packaging)

Reporting period: 2016-11-01 to 2018-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The ReTAPP project demonstrates the production of fructose from wood and prepares the whole value chain for the market introduction of this wood-based fructose, its workup and conversion into RMF (alkoxymethylfurfural). With current methods, especially hardwood is very hard to convert to sugars. Most abundant sugar in wood is glucose which need to be transformed to fructose. The ReTAPP project will make this process technologically and economically feasible with the help of enzymatic solutions. The mixture of fructose and glucose resulting from the enzymatic isomerisation of the wood-based glucose requires workup in order to obtain high fructose syrup. The fructose thus produced can then be converted into RMF and 5-HMF (5-(Hydroxymethyl)furfural), to be used to produce a bio-based plastic PEF (polyethylene furanoate) with enhanced barrier, thermal and mechanical properties over existing packaging materials. The processes will be optimized and demonstrated by the three partners: SEKAB E-Technology AB, provider for the wood-to-sugars technology; Avantium Chemicals BV, world leader in the production of PEF via a joint venture with BASF named SYNVINA; and MetGen Oy, which provides the enzymes to make the processes more economically and environmentally sustainable. The demonstration of the wood-to-fructose value chain enables the market introduction of economically feasible alternative solutions towards changing from fossil based feedstocks to sustainable lignocellulosic based chemicals, materials, fuels and energy, thus improving the environmental impact of society and reducing the CO2 footprint.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Main achievements:
MetGen has developed novel enzyme technology MetZyme® PURECO™, capable of efficiently converting wood-based glucose into fructose even in crude hydrolysates, clearly outperforming existing solutions. The enzyme production has been upscaled to an industrial scale
MetGen has achieved over 50% glucose to fructose conversion and demonstrated the bioconversion in pilot and demonstration scales
SEKAB has demonstrated the production of cellulosic sugars from wood-based feedstocks with over 90% glucose yield from cellulose using their CelluAPP® process and produced in total over 2000 kg wood-based sugars using combination of SEKAB's CelluAPP® and MetGen's MetZyme® SUNO™ hydrolysis technologies
SEKAB has developed and demonstrated a process for the separation of xylose rich liquid streams from the solid cellulose stream in the Biorefinery Demo Plant, improving the conditions for enzymatic hydrolysis
SEKAB has tested and verified the CelluAPP® conversion process to handle pulp chips and even wood chips of larger size and still maintain the process yields, resulting lowered energy consumption during mechanical treatment phase
Avantium has been working on novel glucose/fructose separation technology to be able to make a feed high in fructose from the batches provided by MetGen. This technology should significantly reduce costs as well as lower the environmental burden of glucose/fructose separations
Avantium has developed in-house novel parallel flow equipment for fructose to RMF conversion and generated new intellectual property around novel separation technologies and process to further address the wood-based fructose for the conversion of chemical intermediates
High level techno-economic study shows that an economically sound business case is feasible if established using the assumptions of the ReTAPP project
LCA study indicates that second generation biomass using hardwood as raw material is a better choice than first generation biomass concerning global warming potential

The communication and dissemination activities have utilized to promote the exchange of information between the project and the related community, including potential customers, general public and end-users. These activities are targeted towards efficient market replications of the novel technology solutions developed during the project. In addition, an active promotion of sustainability and positive environmental impact have been at the core of the communication activities. The consortium partners have made great efforts to maximize the opportunities for the exploitation of the project results, and support the introduction of the novel concept developed within the project on national, European and Global markets. The individual and joint networks of the partners are extensive in Europe and in globally, illustrated by the number of collaborating partners in those networks as well as the other EU H2020 projects. The successful dissemination and communication activities have provided new opportunities for commercialization, serving new value chains and enable further exploitation of technology solutions and know-how developed by the ReTAPP consortium.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

A successful execution of ReTAPP has led to several novel enzymatic solutions to market and supply to wood-to-chemicals processes for MetGen, a proprietary wood-to-sugars process technology that can be licensed out for SEKAB and an additional potential 2G biomass feedstock for Avantium. All of the novel technologies developed and implemented during ReTAPP will utilize highly abundant sustainable resources in Europe and generate new jobs in the biorefinery sector. Avantium has the process from fructose onwards. Avantium has developed a novel process for the production of commercial PEF. YXY is the brand name for this cost competitive technology to catalytically convert plant-based materials into biobased chemicals and biobased plastics. In 2016 this technology was transferred to Synvina, a joint venture between Avantium and BASF. This has strong market potential, as some of the world-leading brands like Coca Cola and Danone have already invested in these new packaging solutions. This proprietary process has been proven at pilot scale, as Synvina is now moving to demonstration scale, constructing an up to 50 kton plant in Antwerp by late 2023/early 2024. This opens the road to commercial deployment. In March 2017 Avantium went public with a successful IPO, securing Avantium’s financial contribution to the first commercial YXY plant. SEKAB will have a proprietary optimized wood-to-sugars process technology CelluAPP® that can be licensed out. The CelluAPP® technology is installed and can be demonstrated in the Biorefinery Demo Plant in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden and can further utilized by other projects and clients for covering the need for industrial cellulosic sugars for downstream bio-chemical product developments. The environmental performance of the novel wood-to-fructose value chain introduced in the ReTAPP, when fully optimized, is expected to significantly outperform conventional value chains for the targeted products – for climate change impacts of different chemical building blocks, including lignocellulosic material. From a wider perspective, the switch to modern biobased feedstock allows cutting dependency on finite fossil feedstock and increased sustainability using more resource-efficient biobased technology. Biobased chemicals are expected to grow significantly and increase their market share. Bio-based products and biofuels represent approximately € 57 billion in annual revenue and involve 300,000 jobs. To realize the required shift from fossil based industries to real bioeconomy and biobased industries, there is an urgent demand for biobased chemical, materials and fuels as sustainable and renewable alternatives.

ReTAPP value chain