Paper pen, bioasphalt, water activated bio shampoo, lignin self-healing elastomer, bio crop coating, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of July 10th

#5 100% biobased chemicals part of EU funded project for Kemira

In Finland, Kemira has joined a four-year EU funded project which aims to develop 100% bio-based chemicals, produced from renewable raw materials. In addition, the project aims to develop new means to improve production efficiency at pulp mills with higher utilization of wood biomass.

The project received EUR 5.9 million (about $6.7 million) funding from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. The total budget of the project is EUR 9.6 million ($10.9 million) and it is one of several undertakings aimed at developing a sustainable bio-based industry sector in Europe.

During the four-year project, Kemira and other project members will conduct demonstration-scale trial runs at a dissolving pulp mill in Europe. Biotechnology company Ecohelix will provide and operate the demonstration unit and Kemira’s role is to assess the technical and economic feasibility of the bio-based offerings produced in the project. The aim is to develop fully bio-based polymeric chemistries for paper and cardboard production to complement and even replace polymers that are derived from petroleum.
More on the story, here.