BBI JU awards €17m to biorefinery project

A flagship project aimed at demonstrating the technical, economic and environmental sustainability of a highly innovative, integrated biorefinery has won funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU).

The project, which is being co-ordinated by Italian industrial chemistry firm Novamont and entitled ‘FIRST2RUN’, has been awarded funding worth €17m from the public private partnership.

According to Novamont, low input oilseed cultures e.g. thistle, cultivated on arid and/or marginal land, are used to extract vegetable oils to be converted into biomonomers (primarily pelargonic and azelaic acids) and esters for the formulation of bioproducts such as biolubricants, cosmetics, plasticisers and bioplastics. Byproducts resulting from these manufacturing processes will be further enhanced to obtain animal feed, other value-added chemicals and energy from scraps in order to increase the sustainability of the value chain. Standardisation, certification and dissemination will be integral aspects of the project, as well as a study into the social impact of products deriving from renewable resources.

In addition to Novamont, the project consortium also includes the participation of SIP in the UK, SoliQz in the Netherlands, Biophil in Slovakia, Matrìca in Italy and the University of Bologna in Italy. The project, in which private partners have to date invested over €300m, will also see regeneration in existing industrial plants which are no longer competitive or have already been decommissioned.

Commenting, Novamont’s chief executive Catia Bastioli said: “We are very proud of this achievement which represents yet another important step in the development of Novamont’s integrated biorefinery model, and demonstrates the speed we are able to turn research results into industrial applications and the creation of new markets.

“We believe that the BBI JU, through this first flagship project, can produce a decisive acceleration in the field of circular economy and circular bioeconomy, creating not only new knowledge but also opportunities for economic growth and employment in Europe.”

BBI JU aims to invest €3.7bn in R&I projects between 2014 and 2020.