BIOFOREVER

• To demonstrate 5 lignocellulosic (LC) value chains at pre-industrial scale including 3 new valorisation routes for co-products utilising 4 different cascading biorefinery concepts
• To select optimal feedstocks for the 5 value chains taking into account the quality, composition matrix, price and availability of these feedstocks and their performance in 4 LC biorefinery concepts
• To establish competitive set-ups for a cascading biorefinery process based on 4 different pre-treatment methods including further downstream processing to obtain high-quality fractions (such as cellulose, C5/C6 sugars, specialty sugars, lignin, humins) for conversion into a range of end-products.
• To establish conversion routes from the key intermediate fractions to 5 bio-based building blocks or end products (such as butanol, resin acid, enzymes, FDCA) including valorisation routes for co-products
• To evaluate the techno-economic performance of the value chains in order to define the optimal biorefinery set-ups for scale-up towards commercial plants.
• To demonstrate opportunities for commercial scale follow-up, including analysis of markets and engagement with key stakeholders for different end-products as well as providing insights for the conceptual engineering design of the “winning” value chain

• Direct replication potential of 4 or more biorefinery concepts
• Job creation in the agricultural/forestry sector by sourcing European biomass
• Creation of bio-refinery technologies as export product outside the EU
• Positioning European ports for the transition to renewables driven business
• Competitive biobased products, which can match or outperform existing fossil-based products in terms of cost competitiveness (at par with current sugars) or product performance
• Lignocellulosic value chains based on low carbon and sustainable pre-treatment methods

MetGen is a beneficiary of the BIOFOREVER project.