SWEETWOODS

The SWEETWOODS project has six core objectives. It targets to:

• Show the successful and profitable production - on an industrial scale - of high-purity lignin along with penta- and hexa-carbon carbohydrates from hardwood;
• Use all main components of the biomass feedstock while minimising any diversion of carbon content streams to low-value uses;
• Produce high-purity lignin and depolymerised lignin for a range of novel applications, namely elastomer foams for tube insulation, rigid polyurethane foam panels for insulation and polymer compounds intended for injection moulding;
• Produce high-purity sugars - glucose, fructose, xylose and glucosone - for novel end-use cases, namely producing bio-IBN, xylitol and lactic acid;
• Establish markets for lignin and novel sugar-based platform chemicals;
• Evaluate the environmental and socio-economic performance of the SWEETWOODS plant process and of the developed products through a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, as well as a viability analysis.

The SWEETWOODS project expects to deliver the following main impacts.

• Establish new cross-sector interconnections in the bio-based and create new value chains between the wood-based feedstock provider to end-users downstream in the value chain;
• Establish five full new value chains based on developing under-exploited hardwood-based feedstock into value-added end-user products;
• Develop four novel bio-based materials in the areas of insulation foams, injection moulding and biofuels;
• Create a range of new bio-based consumer products including sports mats, insulation panels and replacements for plastic parts;
• Reduce waste from biorefining processes by at least 80 per cent over the current state-of-the-art.

What is the SWEETWOODS project?

MetGen is a beneficiary of the SWEETWOODS project.