Cost-effective production of lignin platform chemicals:
Extending the biobased chemicals portfolio
- A CBE JU funded project
- Innovation Action
- 13 partners
- 4-year duration
-
6.9 M EUR total cost
(5.4 M EUR funding)
Europe’sambitious sustainability and climate goals rely heavily on the transition from fossil – based to bio-based chemical building blocks.
Lignin as abundant natural resource has substantial potential to become the starting material to produce functionalized aromatic compounds. Today, only 1-2 % of the annual lignin production is used in chemical conversion. The critical challenge yet to be overcome is the heterogeneous and complex nature of isolated lignins, hampering their full exploitation. To address this challenge, COUNTLESScontributes directly to the increased use of sustainably sourced biomass, a reduction of GHG emissions through improvements in the pilot infrastructure (>50% reduction in GHG emissions and 85% using fully renewable supply) and the development of bio-based high-value products substituting current fossil-based compounds.
COUNTLESS will demonstrate the first catalytic hydrogenolysis process operated in continuous mode at industrially relevant scale for the cost-effective and sustainable production of lignin-based platform chemicals. COUNTLESS will demonstrate their applicability and cost-effectiveness in a variety of end-use cases from bulk to specialty applications.
In the project, the 13 partners cover the entire value chain including feedstock suppliers, technology development experts, well-recognized industry players in several application fields, experts in dissemination, communication and exploitation, and experts in integrated sustainability, environmental, and techno-economic assessments.
