News

23-07-2021

PILLAR: Towards unique pilot infrastructure for catalytic processing of wood and lignin

Biorizon co-initiator VITO is partner in the PILLAR project that aims to realise a unique pilot infrastructure platform. This platform for innovative catalytic biorefinery of lignin, wood and by extension any lignocellulosic material, will produce functional biobased aromatics. PILLAR provides technological and economic proof-of-concept data and paves the way towards an industrial scale catalytic biorefinery that transforms biomass into competitive chemicals and materials, resulting in a significant CO2 capture.

Today, Flanders has world-class expertise in the production of bio-aromatics from lignin and lignocellulosic biomass. Technologies for the conversion of wood and lignin into biobased aromatics have been proven at lab scale (TRL 4).
 
The next essential step in this technological development is the demonstration of available conversion technologies at higher scale (TRL 5-6). Yet, suitable process equipment for technology development at higher TRLs is absent and requires a unique custom-made setup differing from state-of-the-art infrastructure.
 
Within the Flemish government’s Moonshot initiative, which supports industries in reducing their CO2 emissions, the Later Stage Innovation project PILLAR aims to realise a unique pilot infrastructure platform. This platform for innovative catalytic biorefinery of lignin, wood and by extension any lignocellulosic material, will produce functional biobased aromatics. 

PILLAR will focus on:

1. a 100 L batch reactor (TRL 5) for ‘lignin-first’ biorefinery technology (PILLAR I; KU Leuven);
2. extension of the LignoValue Pilot catalytic reactor with a multi-purpose feed dissolver and solid feed injection (TRL 6) able to treat/liquify lignin (PILLAR II; VITO). 

Industrial scale catalytic biorefinery

This unique pilot infrastructure will contribute to solving specific questions related to scale-up, e.g. mixing and handling of a lignocellulose slurry, catalyst stability and solvent recycling. This way, PILLAR provides necessary technological and economic proof-of-concept data and paves the way towards an industrial scale catalytic biorefinery that transforms biomass into competitive chemicals and materials, resulting in a significant CO2 capture.

Advisory Board

The many challenges addressed in this project are supported by experienced advisory board members, i.e. Rudy Parton (GF Biochemicals) for the overall project and Kirk Torr (Scion, New Zealand) as well as Elias Feghali (Notre Dame University, Lebanon) for the multipurpose feed dissolver (PILLAR II).

Flemish government’s Moonshot initiative

Moonshot Flanders is an ambitious industrial innovation programme that supports Flemish industries in reducing their CO2 emissions. It is funded by the Flemish government, supported by Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO), and hosted by Catalisti, the spearhead cluster for chemistry and plastics. 

More information

If you want more information about this project, please contact Kelly Servaes at kelly.servaes@vito.be.