Project description DEENESFRITPL Creating greater value for industrial waste by-products The transformation of biomass to valuable materials and energy (biomass valorisation) is a key part of the EU’s strategy for transiting to a circular and climate neutral economy by 2050. To realise their biomass potential, industries are increasingly challenged to introduce efficient fractionation systems and develop commercial products. Against this backdrop, the EU-funded SUBLUBE project plans to leverage a fractionation–hydrolysis process to recover pristine suberin from cork by-products. The process will use supercritical water to convert suberin into highly functional building blocks for lubricants. The project's findings will generate valuable knowledge on the catalytic transformation of agro-industrial waste by-products into value-added products in continuous flow microreactors on a large scale. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Biomass valorization through biorefineries is integral towards the transition to a circular and climate neutral economy by 2050, as envisioned in the European Union Circular Economy Action Plan and in support of the European and Spanish Bioeconomy Strategy and the RIS3 Castilla y Leon Regional Strategy. To realize this, two important challenges need to be addressed: an efficient biomass fractionation system and the development of products close to market. In response to these challenges, the SUBLUBE project aims to recover pristine suberin from cork industry byproducts through a cascaded fractionation-hydrolysis process with supercritical water as reaction media and to convert pristine suberin into highly functionalized biolubricant building block through subcritical water hydrolysis. The research will focus on evaluating the process conditions that would achieve high pristine suberin yields and highly functionalized building blocks in a laboratory scale and pilot scale continuous microreactors. Based from the results obtained, a techno-economic model will be prepared through process modeling and simulation. SUBLUBE is founded upon the integration of applied chemistry, chemical engineering, process fundamentals and materials science as a strategy for forestry products valorization. The findings of this research will benefit the society as a model for scalable biorefineries in continuous microreactors (innovation) that utilizes agro-industrial waste byproducts as resources for the sustainable generation of value added products (pristine suberin, biolubricants). It will lead to additional income streams for the cork processing industry (job creation) while reducing our dependence on vegetable oils and synthetic esters and greenhouse gas emissions. As a whole, this fellowship will support a female foreign researcher in demonstrating ability to work on a project that advances natural product valorization through green and sustainable technologies. Fields of science agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturevegetable growingsocial scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsbioeconomyengineering and technologychemical engineeringsocial scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economyagricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass Keywords Suberin biolubricant hydrolysis subcritical water supercritical fluid cork byproducts microreactors Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2019 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2019 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) Coordinator UNIVERSIDAD DE VALLADOLID Net EU contribution € 172 932,48 Address Plaza santa cruz 8 palacio de santa cruz 47002 Valladolid Spain See on map Region Centro (ES) Castilla y León Valladolid Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
