Submitted by jonathan on
Launched on 9 July 2014, the first Call for Proposals resulted in the BBI JU approving funding for ten bioeconomy projects worth a total of €120 million. To fund its share of the projects, the European Commission released €50 million of EU public money, which was combined with an industry contribution of €70 million.
Seven research projects focus on replacing fossil-based materials and products with biobased solutions:
- CARBOSURF: Using fermentation processes to produce biosurfactants and speciality carbohydrates
- GreenLight: Producing fibres and polymers from lignin for innovative light-weight applications
- NEWFERT: Nutrient recovery from waste streams and residues for fertilizer production
- PROMINENT: Protein mining of cereal side-streams exploring novel technological concepts
- PROVIDES: New sustainable pulping technologies
- SmartLi: Smart technologies for the conversion of industrial lignins into fibres and polymers
- US4GREENCHEM: Pre-treatment of lignocellulosic feedstock as substrate for sugar based biotechnological applications
Two grants were awarded for demonstration projects:
- PULP2VALUE: Processing underutilized low value sugar beet Pulp into value added products - A biorefinery system for sugar beet pulp that will extract valuable biochemicals for use in detergents, personal care, oil and gas, paints and composites
- ValChem: Value added chemical building blocks and lignin from wood - An economicallyviable process to transform wood into chemicals
One flagship demonstration project will develop a first-of-a-kind value chain:
- FIRST2RUN: Flagship demonstration of an integrated biorefinery for dry crops that will convert underutilised oil crops into oleochemicals