Press releases

Most detergents, cosmetics, and clothes, to name just a few products, are manufactured using petroleum, making such everyday items anything but eco-friendly. It is now possible to produce the bio-based and CO2-neutral basic chemicals for such articles with the help of fungi. Fraunhofer research teams are developing fermentation techniques and manufacturing processes to produce them on an industrial scale.

Over the next four years the European UNRAVEL project will demonstrate a sustainable and economically feasible biorefinery for the conversion of second generation biomass into fuels, chemicals and building materials. In their efforts the partnership that comprises research organisations, SMEs and large industry from six European countries are supported by the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) which funds the UNRAVEL project with 3.6 million Euros.

Over the next three years, the eight project partners Axxence, CLIB2021, Fraunhofer CBP, KU Leuven, LXP Group, Phytowelt, UPM and VITO join forces to develop “Aromatics from LIGNin”. Phenolic resins will be applied for the production of high-pressure-laminates as well as natural vanillin for food and beverages. The German project partners will receive 1.3 m EUR from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Using ultrapure lignin from the lignocellulosic biorefinery at the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes CBP in Leuna, researchers at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg (TU HH) have produced lignin-containing aerogels and processed high-porosity insulating boards with excellent insulation properties. The lignin was recovered from beech residual wood at the Fraunhofer CBP using the Organosolv process.

On August 30, 2017, the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB received start-up funding from the Catalyst Fund of the State of New Zealand for their cooperation with SCION, a New Zealand Crown Research Institute focusing on the wood industry and processing. In the future, the two institutes will work together to develop new ideas in the field of bark utilisation in biorefineries and plan joint research projects.

SmartPilots, an INTERREG Europe project co-funded by the European Fund for Regional Development (ERDF), brings together six leading European Shared Pilot Facilities (SPF) specialized in the Key Enabling Technology "Industrial Biotechnology" and bioeconomy, with the aim to discuss and share best funding and operating practices and improve policies in support of such facilities. Enhanced support for Shared Pilot Facilities should substantially improve Europe’s sustainable innovation capacity and is a crucial element in dealing with societal challenges such as developing a sustainable, innovative and knowledge-based economy in Europe, creating jobs and meeting climate targets.

Fuel additives such as isooctane have so far been produced from mineral oil. Commissioned by the French-German company Global Bioenergies, the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes CBP in Leuna will soon be producing biobased additives for gasoline. The source is bio-isobutene, which is obtained biotechnically from sugar.

In order to build an open-access research infrastructure for the forest-based bioeconomy, the project ERIFORE started under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. The ERIFORE consortium will hold its first public workshop on the 6th of September 2016 in Leuna, Germany and is happy to invite research institutions and stakeholders to visit the Fraunhofer CBP pilot plants.