New flagship EU project focused on replacing toxic solvents with renewable alternatives

In the United Kingdom, ReSolute, the Flagship EU project focused on creating sustainably-sourced alternatives to fossil-based solvents, just launched, is led by Circa Group, and will build a flagship plant to create levoglucosenone, a chemical building block that can be used to produce bio-based solvent Cyrene in one step, using feedstock from non-food renewable biomass.

Cyrene is a bio-based alternative to traditional solvents such as NMP, DCM and DMF, which are under regulatory pressure worldwide due to their toxicity. With a unique property set, including viscosity, surface tension and polarities, Cyrene can be used to produce a range of advanced materials.

The plant will be located in Eastern France and is expected to reach a production capacity of 1,000 tons of Cyrene per year. Engineering work will begin next month and the estimated commissioning date is end of 2022.

ReSolute Partners:

• IAR (FR)
• Circa Sustainable Chemicals BV (BE)
• Merck KGaA, Darmstadt (DE)
• Will & Co (NL)
• University of York (UK)
• Talga Resources (DE)
• Huntsman Specialty Chemicals (CH)
• CPL (UK)
• AgroParisTech (FR)
• PNO Consultants (FR)
• PFA (BE)