12/07/2023

COUNTLESS readies lignin-based platform chemicals for the market

In COUNTLESS, 13 partners, coordinated by VITO (Belgium), will take lignin processing to industrial scale, making the production of lignin-based platform chemicals cost-effective and sustainable.

COUNTLESS (Cost-effective production of lignin platform chemicals extending the biobased chemicals portfolio) will deliver pioneering techno-economic demonstration of the first continuous catalytic hydrogenolysis process at demo scale. Project partners will process the lignin-based platform chemicals and demonstrate their applicability and cost-effectiveness. The end-use cases will be tested by industry-leaders Braskem, Soprema, Kastamonu, and Daren Labs, with Bloom Biorenewables and Fibenol supplying the lignin. ifeu contributes a comprehensive sustainability assessment including environmental assessment/LCA, social assessment and regulatory, health and safety analysis to the project.

Renewable products with minimal environmental footprint

Europe´s ambitious sustainability and climate goals can only be achieved through a transition from fossil-based to bio-based chemical building blocks. Using lignin as a bio-based resource, COUNTLESS aims to replace high-impact, non-renewable substances used in different sectors, such as construction materials, cosmetics and chemicals industry, thus substantially reducing the climate impact and dependence on fossil resources of these sectors.

Giving the right technology, bio-based products are no simple substitute for their fossil-based predecessors. In an efficient use of all-natural resources such as plants and wood, bio-based products not only help reduce greenhouse gas emissions but can also offer other advantages such as novel product characteristics and additional product functionalities. Specific examples of innovative products based on lignin include drop-in chemicals, new adhesives, flame retardants, UV absorbers for the personal care sector, polyurethane-based insulation materials and bitumen binders.

To address this challenge, COUNTLESS focuses on an efficient lignin depolymerization process to break the complex polymer down into smaller, more manageable molecules with improved solubility and reactivity. This way, the project unlocks the full potential of lignin as a source of monomeric and oligomeric platform chemicals, which can be used as building blocks in quite literally countless applications serving different market areas. By converting lignin in a clear, repeatable, and defined process, lignin-based materials will become better, cheaper, and more diversified.

To the press release (Englisch)