News

03-12-2015

Biorizon Event | Next challenge: scale up production

Biorizon inspired many representatives from industry at its second Community Event, held on 17 November. It presented a state of affairs about the progress Biorizon is making along the ‘road to bio-aromatics’, and what challenges lie ahead.

We’ve now started to bridge the river, whereas a year ago we were still studying the construction plans.’ With these words TNO’s Jan Harm Urbanus, one of the research leaders at Biorizon, illustrates the progress that the shared research centre has made over the past year.

Sustainable chemistry

Urbanus was the key speaker at the Biorizon’s second Community Event, held on Tuesday 17 November at the Green Energy Campus in Bergen op Zoom (the Netherlands). Biorizon brings together the expertise of the Netherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the Flemish Institute of Technology and Research (VITO) and the Dutch Green Chemistry Campus. It’s goal: to bring the production of biobased aromatics – or bio-aromatics – for use as raw materials in numerous performance materials, chemicals and coatings, to industrial level. Bio-aromatics are the key to make the chemical industry more sustainable and green and less dependent from the petrochemical industry – nowadays aromatic compounds are still mainly extracted from fossil-based naphta.

‘In December 2014, at our first Community Event, we talked about principle developments in research and practice’, says Urbanus. ‘At our last event, however, we showed our audience that we’ve forced several breakthroughs in proofs of principle, set up several promising business cases and build up an impressive patent portfolio. So, generally, yes: we are convinced that Biorizon is well underway.’

Get partners on board

As it’s a (cross-border) shared research centre, Biorizon relies heavily on the commitment of its partners. Efficient collaboration between main partners like TNO and VITO and the members of the Community is therefore crucial.

About that teamwork, which is lubricated by several Dutch, Flemish and interregional research projects, VITO’s Ludo Diels, research leader lignin-to-bio-aromatics, says the following: ‘It takes quite some time to work together, but once the collaboration is established, it goes fast.’ About the cooperation with industrial partners Diels says that thanks to the results obtained in some early research projects, Biorizon can now discuss the matter with industry in detail. ‘We certainly missed that in the beginning.’

TNO’s Joop Groen agrees with that. ‘Clear and detailed results from several projects make it easier to get partners from industry on board’, he says. ‘Not only to invest in our research but also to let us use their facilities or rely on their expertise.’

Some of Biorizon's Community members

Upscaling

So what’s the current state of affairs? ‘We are presently operating from a deeply business-driven angle’, says Urbanus. ‘Now we have mastered the technique to produce renewable and functional bio-aromatics from both lignin and sugars in the lab, w­­e are working hard to scale things up towards commercial production. Our long-term goal is to have commercial production of bio-aromatics by 2025. You could say that we have begun working with the end in mind.’

The upscaling process is crucial for Biorizon’s success. ‘We are now starting up projects funded by both the Netherlands and Flanders that are all about upscaling’, says Diels. ‘Industry needs upscaling. You can’t work with two grams of material. You need kilograms.’

All kinds of aromatics

Biorizon also recently modified its roadmap, now it has entered the transition period from lab test to pilot projects. Three different program lines have been identified or reassessed. The program line that’s already in the pilot project stadium, is the thermochemical conversion of biomass into benzene, toluene and xylene, so-called BTX. The other two lines are in the lab/bench phase. For the line that uses sugars as feedstock and creates furans and subsequently both new functional and drop-in aromatics, large demo projects are expected from respectively 2020 and 2022. The line that turns lignin into new functional aromatics (both single and mixed) follows a similar time path.

Biorizon Roadmap

Concerning the sugars conversion technology, it’s important to highlight the production of drop-in aromatics, compounds that are already known in existing markets. Urbanus: ‘We aim to deliver both known and new compounds to industry. That’s an important commercial strength.’ Concerning the lignin technology, the fact that the Biorizon roadmap also takes into account mixed aromatics is similarly crucial.

Connection with biorefinery sector

One of the challenges of Biorizon in the coming years will be the realization of large-scale infrastructure for the conversion of biomass, sugars and/or lignin into bio-aromatics. Urbanus: ‘This infrastructure will tap into the ongoing developments within the biorefinery sector and thus connect the loose ends of the value chain from biomass to applications containing aromatic compounds.’ Currently, industrial partners are already receiving small volumes of samples for application tests. ‘The coming years we will be able to provide larger samples through the use of the anticipated unique facilities.’ Biorizon’s overall goal for the next two or three years is to produce several kilograms per hour, for all three program lines, and deliver these large samples to industry.

Many patents filed

The increasing complexity of innovations in the bio-aromatics field makes them virtually unaffordable for individual companies. Combining research efforts and budgets reduces the risk to each participant and shortens the time to market. Moreover, a good patent portfolio can arm participating companies against the interest of competing companies. In the past years, Biorizon has filed a number of patents in every program line of the roadmap and in every step of the conversion process. ‘The furan-to-aromatics process, for example, has yielded several patents’, concludes Urbanus.

MAIA and Waste2Aromatics

Biorizon is continuously involved in several research projects. Two of them got special attention at the Community Event on 17 November.

MAIA Project

Chemstream’s Geert De Roover talked about the MAIA project (Manufacturing of Advanced & Innovative bio-Aromatics) that he coordinates. The overall goal of MAIA is to fully utilize the natural functionality of biomolecules by converting preferably waste wood and flax shives into proto-lignin fractions and a solid cellulose pulp. In MAIA, different Flemish companies work together, such as Sita (for the waste wood) and Cobalin (for the flax shives).  ‘The lignin is converted to a maximized amount of functional aromatics’, says De Roover. ‘The cellulose fraction can be further processed into paper or functional sugars.’ The end users in the MAIA project are big companies like Beaulieu (carpet manufacturing) and Lawter (inks and resins).

Waste2Aromatics Project
Then Sietse Agema from AEB Amsterdam, took over the floor to present the Waste2Aromatics project, that investigates how carbohydrates (sugars) in industrial and municipal waste streams can be used as a source for the production of biobased aromatics. AEB is a company that burns municipal waste into energy. ‘Dutch households together produce over 5 million tons of waste per year’, Agema says. ‘Together with TNO, Attero, Orgaworld and the Dutch Waste Management Association we are looking for better strategies to recover sugars from waste streams and use them as a source of bio-based aromatics, instead of just burning them for energy generation. Plant-based waste, which is still a very large proportion of municipal waste, is a cheap and valuable source for sustainable feedstocks for aromatics. That’s how we try to contribute to the realization of the circular economy.’ A comprehensive management summary with the results of the Waste2Aromatics project is exclusively available to members in the Community Library.

The Biorizon Community: sign up today!

The Biorizon Community has recently passed the milestone of one hundred members – its critical mass is therefore gearing up with its ambitions. Global leaders, SME’s as well as other knowledge and research institutions in the field of feedstock, conversion, equipment, intermediate and end products are invited to join the Community (free of charge) via www.biorizon.eu/community to help realize the transition towards bio-aromatics.

Community members can download the presentations of the 17 November event in the online Biorizon Community Library. Furthermore detailed reports of the breakout sessions are exclusively available to community members. In these sessions two questions were discussed:

  1. What would it take for your organization to consider investing in biobased aromatics?
  2. What is your vision on a successful bio-aromatic business case in the medium term?

To conclude, a comprehensive management summary with the results of the Waste2Aromatics project is exclusively available to members in the Community Library.

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