BIOFOREVER

• Pre-industrial value chains: demonstrate five lignocellulosic (LC) value chains at pre-industrial scale, incorporating three new co-product valorisation routes and four cascading biorefinery concepts.

• Feedstock selection: identify the most suitable feedstocks for each value chain, considering their quality, composition, price, availability and performance across the different biorefinery concepts.

• Cascading biorefinery processes: establish competitive biorefinery configurations using four pre-treatment methods to obtain high-quality fractions, including cellulose, C5/C6 sugars, specialty sugars, lignin and humins.

• Bio-based products and co-product valorisation: develop conversion routes from key intermediate fractions to five bio-based building blocks or end-products, including butanol, resin acid, enzymes and FDCA, while maximising the valorisation of co-products.

• Techno-economic and commercial feasibility: assess the technical and economic performance of the value chains, identify the most promising configurations for commercial scale-up and explore market opportunities through stakeholder engagement and conceptual engineering design.

Results

• Large-scale biorefinery feasibility: demonstrated the technical and economic feasibility of converting European lignocellulosic biomass into high-value bio-based chemicals, fuels and materials.

• Diversification of biomass value chains: established and evaluated value chains using spruce, poplar and waste wood, applying four pre-treatment technologies to produce nine bio-based products, including ethanol, butanol, enzymes, resin acids and specialty sugars.

• Improved sustainability and carbon performance: confirmed through techno-economic assessments and life cycle analyses (LCA) that lignocellulosic feedstocks offered a sustainable alternative to conventional resources, with cellulosic sugars achieving significant CO₂ emission reductions compared with first-generation sugars.

• Optimised biomass utilisation: demonstrated the potential to valorise different biomass fractions, including lignin for energy generation, improving resource efficiency and the overall carbon balance of the processes.

• Promising commercial pathways: identified ethanol production from waste wood as the most economically viable route, with potential applications as both a biofuel and a chemical intermediate.

• Innovative bio-based materials: developed a lignosulfonate-based binder as an alternative to coal tar pitch in aluminium production, offering potential health and environmental benefits through reduced emissions of polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

Impacts

• Replication of biorefinery concepts: created opportunities to replicate at least four biorefinery concepts, supporting the wider adoption of sustainable biomass valorisation across Europe.

• Employment and regional development: stimulated job creation in the European agricultural and forestry sectors through increased demand for locally sourced biomass.

• European technology exports:  strengthed Europe's position in the global bio-based economy by developing innovative biorefinery technologies with export potential beyond the EU.

• Sustainable port development: supported the transformation of European ports towards renewable, bio-based business activities, creating new opportunities linked to the transition away from fossil resources.

• Competitive bio-based products: developed bio-based products capable of matching or outperforming fossil-based alternatives in terms of cost competitiveness and product performance.

• Low-carbon value chains: established sustainable lignocellulosic value chains based on low-carbon pre-treatment methods, reducing the environmental footprint of biomass conversion.