News

07-11-2019

Call for Participation: LignoValue Pilot

Biorizon co-initiator VITO, VMH and Worley Belgium have joined forces for the design and construction of a continuous pilot plant for the depolymerization of lignin into innovative biobased aromatics in Flanders. Currently they are looking for companies/venture capitalists that want to participate and/or invest.

Bridging the gap between development and implementation

Many studies have shown that lignocellulosic biomass (e.g. wood, straw, corn stover, switch grass, forestry residues including bark as well as waste wood) has tremendous potential for sustainable production of chemicals and fuels, and more specifically biobased aromatics.

An important component of lignocellulosic biomass is lignin, which is the second most abundant renewable carbon source on Earth. Through its aromatic structure and functionalities, lignin exhibits a variety of properties by which it can serve as a renewable feedstock for the production of not only biofuels, but also materials and biobased aromatic specialty chemicals.

Since the lack of reactivity is often a drawback in applying lignin as such, depolymerisation of lignin is used to create new reactive sites, hence resulting in a mixture of small molecules and oligomers. Diverse processes with varying process conditions have been developed, of which many have only been demonstrated at lab scale. The demonstration of available conversion technologies at relevant scale (TRL 5-6) is the next essential step.

Providing companies with significant amounts of bio-aromatics

The LignoValue Pilot plant will allow the production of larger amounts of bio-aromatic fractions, as such allowing companies to take further steps in their application development path. Often the development of applications can only be done at kg scale, if not 100 kg scale, to enable detailed properties’ testing. The pilot meets the needs of various companies that have already expressed an interest in innovative molecules and a willingness to carry out application testing.

Call for Participation

Currently, the project partners are looking for:

1. companies that are interested to participate in the LignoValue pilot plant, both in cash and in kind;
2. venture capitalists that want to invest and thus contribute to the financing of this unique initiative;
3. companies that are willing to receive samples and that want to set up a structural cooperation, e.g. in the field of discussing the desired characteristics and functionalities.

If you want more information about this project, please take a look at the leaflet. If you want to discuss the potential benefits for your organization, please contact: Kelly Servaes, Project Coordinator LignoValue Pilot, via kelly.servaes@vito.be or Roel Vleeschouwers, Business Development Manager, via roel.vleeschouwers@vito.be.

 .