News

07-11-2019

New Project: ‘Doing More With Lignin’

A Dutch consortium led by Vertoro has been granted €1.2 million to investigate the potential of crude lignin oil as a platform for sustainable chemicals and materials. Biorizon co-initiator VITO is one of the consortium partners.

Full value chain for sustainable polyurethane and phenol

A switch from fossil-based to renewable raw materials is necessary to reduce the carbon footprint of the Dutch chemical sector. Bioresidues play an important role in this transition as an emerging feedstock for chemicals and materials. The ‘Doing more with lignin’ project sets out to contribute to this goal by setting up a full value chain at pilot scale for lignin-based materials (polyurethane) and chemicals (phenol). Lignin – obtained from biomass – seems to be a very interesting residue as it is a low-cost and abundant renewable raw material.

Cross campus testing grounds

The ‘Doing more with lignin’ project will utilize existing infrastructure for biobased chemistry at 3 locations in the south of the Netherlands: Brightlands Chemelot Campus Geleen, Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo and Green Chemistry Campus Bergen op Zoom. The project is focused on the further development of an interregional campus eco-system and accompanying key-infrastructure for the conversion of biomass residues to crude lignin oil (CLO) and CLO derived polyurethane and phenol.

Consortium partners

The consortium is hosting scientists and businesses, both cross-campus and cross-borders. Waste management company Attero cooperates with the Bio Treat Center from the Venlo campus to source non-edible biomass residues and process these to a dry, lignin-rich powder. Startup Vertoro and the Chemelot Institute for Science & Technology (InSciTe) will then convert the powder into crude lignin oil (CLO) and CLO-derived phenol in a newly provided InSciTe installation at the Brightlands multipurpose pilot plant in Geleen. The Flemish institute VITO and the start-up company Indresmat finalize this process by producing polyurethane coatings and construction materials from the CLO. The consortium is led by Vertoro, a startup which produces a biobased crude oil from non-edible biomass, as well as oil-derived materials, chemicals and fuels.

Acknowledgements

This €2.9 million project called ‘Doing more with lignin’ officially started 1 October 2019 and is being co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Provinces of Limburg and Brabant in the context of the Operation Program South Netherlands (OPZuid).