Lignin is one of the main component of the wood we are familiar with. It is a renewable raw material, made as trees grow. Lignin is very interesting for the chemical industry, as it can – at least in theory – replace fossil raw materials such as crude oil, which are currently used. Unfortunately, lignin is a difficult material to process. After all, this complex molecule is what gives wood its resilience and strength. To become useful, it must first be broken up before it can be processed further. Afterwards, it needs be cut into smaller building blocks (called platform molecules) to be usable. However, producing a sunscreen likely needs other platform molecules than an isolation foam. Therefore, the project coordinator VITO has developed an innovative process that can process lignin in a customised way so that the other project partners will each receive those small, tailor-made building blocks that they need to process them into their respective products.

Ultimately, the new applications for lignin must not only be more environmentally friendly, but also economically competitive. With the COUNTLESS project, we will show that bio-based solutions do not need to hide behind their fossil-based predecessors.