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Sulphur-free production method for non-food biopolymers (dissolving pulp, hemicellulose and lignin)

Project description

A novel biomass processing method on the path to commercialisation

Finland-based company CH-Bioforce Oy has developed a revolutionary technology for converting all biomass components into high-value products in an economically profitable way. The technology is flexible in size and can utilise practically any kind of biomass as feedstock, e.g. wood from birch, pine, spruce and eucalyptus, and even wheat straw or bagasse. It thus offers a renewable and cost-competitive option to replace fossil and food-based raw materials in a wide variety of applications, including in textiles, chemicals and plastics. The aim of the EU-funded CHBTECH project is to enhance the solution's technology maturity from TRL 7 to 9 and prepare the business for scale-up.

Objective

Wood-based biomass is one of the richest sources of bio-chemicals on Earth. Of the main constituents of wood – cellulose (40-50%), hemicellulose (20-30%) and lignin (20-30%) – mainly cellulose/pulp is utilised today. Rest of the biomass is disposed as waste. The main obstacle for wider use and further development of these hemicellulose and lignin is the lack of availability. Furthermore, current fractionation methods (based on Kraft process) use sulphur, which destroys the material properties of valuable bio-chemicals.
CH-Bioforce Oy has developed a sulphur-free biomass fractionation technology, which allows the extraction of all three wood-based biomass constituents in an economically sound way, with extremely high purity, and in industrial scale. Technology is flexible in size, and can utilize practically any kind of wood as raw material, e.g. birch, pine, spruce, eucalyptus, even wheat straw and bagasse. The process works well even with low quality wood, such as sawdust and logging residues, which are not suitable for commonly used pulping processes.
CH-Bioforce´s technology offers a renewable and cost-competitive option to replace fossil and food-based raw materials in a wide variety of applications, e.g in textiles, chemicals, and plastics. Company has conducted an intensive material testing and evaluation for dissolving pulp, polymeric hemicellulose and sulphur-free lignin produced by their pilot plants, and has already attracted several global corporations in energy, pulp&paper, and chemical industries. Business model for CH-Bioforce is to licence its technology to companies, who aim to produce and sell bio-based raw materials. Aim of this proposed project is to develop CH-Bioforce´s technology from current TRL-7 to TRL-9, to prepare the business scale up, and to convince the first customer to make the investment decision by the end of the project.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

CH-BIOFORCE OY
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 1 959 125,00
Address
AHVENTIE 4 A 21
02170 Espoo
Finland

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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
Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

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.

€ 3 061 250,00

Participants (2)

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