UPM’s ValChem project has received EUR 13.1 million funding from the European Union. The project will be done in cooperation with Sekab, METabolic EXplorer and Technische Universität Darmstadt. The total budget of the project is around EUR 18.5 million.
ValChem (Value added chemical building blocks and lignin from wood) is an ambitious project combining the competences of forest, chemical and bio-technology industries to realise a sustainable and innovative integrated process from wood to end products. The aim of the project is to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of an integrated biochemicals process covering the whole value chain from wood raw material to a selected platform chemical and lignin based performance chemicals.
“The ValChem project has a great potential to become another alternative value chain for utilising the European forest resources. Each part of the process – wood-to-sugars for chemical production, production of bio-MPG (mono propylene glycol) from sugars, and production of lignin based performance chemicals – show progress well beyond the state-of-art”, says Dirk Carrez, Executive Director of Bio-based Industries Consortium.
ValChem utilises the existing demonstration plants of the project partners to produce wood-based chemicals that are competitive with fossil alternatives in terms of quality and production costs. The wood raw material will be used as efficiently as possible and only sustainably sourced PEFC and FSC certified wood will be used.
