SWEETWOODS

• Industrial-scale production: Show the successful and profitable production of high-purity lignin and penta- and hexa-carbon carbohydrates from hardwood.
• Full use of biomass: Use all main components of the feedstock, minimising the diversion of carbon streams to low-value uses.
• Lignin applications: Produce high-purity and depolymerised lignin for novel applications, namely elastomer foams for tube insulation, rigid polyurethane foam panels for insulation and polymer compounds for injection moulding.
• Sugar applications: Produce high-purity sugars (glucose, fructose, xylose and glucosone) for novel end uses, namely bio-isobutene (bio-IBN), xylitol and lactic acid.
• Market creation: Establish markets for lignin and the new sugar-based platform chemicals.
• Sustainability evaluation: Evaluate the environmental and socio-economic performance of the plant process and products through a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment and a viability analysis.

Results

• First-of-its-kind flagship biorefinery: Built and inaugurated the Imavere plant in Estonia, which was commissioned in 2024 and now operates at technology readiness level 8.
• High conversion: Converts more than 90% of the hardwood residue feedstock into valuable bio-based materials, using Sunburst™ pre-treatment.
• Commercial products: Produces Lignova® lignin and wood sugars, which are now used commercially. Lignin-based asphalt has already been laid in road pavements across ten countries in Europe and Japan, and the product portfolio is EPD-certified.
• Enzyme and application research: Published work on a new thermostable endoglucanase, enzymatically treated lignin oligomers (lignopolyols) as a full replacement for commercial polyols in polyurethane foam, and an engineered enzyme for isobutene production.
• Sustainability assessment: Carried out a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of upcycling wood residues, presented at international conferences in 2023 and 2024.

Impacts

• Environmental: Substitutes fossil-based bitumen, phenol and other inputs with wood-based materials, and offers traceable low-carbon road infrastructure solutions.
• Industrial growth and replication: Validates a global replication model for Sunburst® technology, to bring regional biorefineries to areas where residual hardwood is underused, with first commercial-scale biorefinery planned in Latvia.
• New products: The follow-on flagship project WOODCELL is scaling up WoodCell™, a high-purity crystalline cellulose that replaces fossil-based components in packaging, coatings, paints and batteries.
• Regional innovation: The biorefinery is part of an emerging innovation hub in Estonia focused on forestry-based chemicals and materials.

What is the SWEETWOODS project?

MetGen is a beneficiary of the SWEETWOODS project.