SPIRE, part of Horizon2020, is the European subsidy programme to facilitate the region’s Sustainable Process Industry. Avantium will participate in a 4-year research programme entitled IMPRESS starting in September 2019. Avantium will lead
the IMPRESS consortium consisting of ten industry and academic organisations across Europe. The consortium received a total SPIRE grant of €13 million.
New biorefinery concept
The IMPRESS consortium aims to demonstrate a new biorefinery concept based on integrating novel processes such as Avantium’s Dawn and Mekong technologies for the first time. It also intends to develop new separation and purification methods.
Avantium’s Dawn Technology converts non-food plant-based feedstock into industrial sugars and lignin. The Mekong technology converts these industrial sugars into plant-based MEG. Together, these processes enable the production of nature derived polyesters.
Value chain
The integration of Dawn Technology with the production of plant-based MEG by the Mekong technology will be further improved by using the advanced high throughput R&D systems of Avantium Catalysis. The objective is to create a value chain starting from non-edible biomass to renewable chemicals and materials that meets both economic and sustainability criteria.
Currently, Avantium is running pilot and demonstration facilities for both technologies at Chemical Park Delfzijl, in the Chemport Europe region. In addition to Avantium, the IMPRESS consortium consists of nine leading companies and knowledge institutes across Europe: Sulzer (CH), Knauer (DE), IRCELYON (CNRS, Claude Bernard Lyon 1 university, FR), Lenntech (NL), Vogelbusch Biocommodities (AT), PDC (Process Design Centre, NL), Thinkstep (DE), Aalto University (FI) and South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk, FI).
