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EUCAlyptus LIgnin VAlorisation for Advanced Materials and Carbon Fibres

Project description

Lignin waste finds new life as carbon fibres and in bio-based ink

Lignin is a complex organic polymer second in abundance only to cellulose in plants. Millions of tonnes of lignin are produced annually as a by-product of the paper and pulp industry. Lignin has tremendous potential as bio-based natural material for many applications, but processing costs are high and most of it is burned onsite to produce steam for heat and power production. The EUCALIVA project, which received funding from the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking, a public-private partnership between the EU and industry, will create waste valorisation chains for lignin from eucalyptus. The lignin will be used to make carbon fibres and non-wovens as well as bio-based ink.

Objective

Natural resources are being exhausted due to the great demand of their services and the insufficient actions taken for their preservation. Against this background, the use of waste components from industrial activities as raw materials to obtain high value-added products is of great relevance.
Lignin from pulping process is present all over Europe and represents a big source of underexploited material. There is an estimated 70 million tonnes of lignin available from pulping processes worldwide, but much of this is not isolated but burned onsite to provide steam for heat and power production. Until now only about 2% of the lignins available in the pulp and paper industry is commercially used comprising of about 1,000,000 tons/year lignosulphonates originating from sulphite pulping and 104,000 tons/year of kraft lignins produced in the kraft process

Coordinator

CONTACTICA SL
Net EU contribution
€ 274 903,13
Address
CALLE CANCHAL 8 LOCAL 3
28021 Madrid
Spain

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost
€ 392 718,75

Participants (5)