Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

BIO4ENERGY – THE SWEDISH QUESTFOR SUSTAINABLE SOCIETYJyri-Pekka Mikkola 1,2 , Leif Jönsson 1 , Stellan Marklund 1KN-71 Umeå University, Department of Chemistry, Technical Chemistry,Chemical-Biological Center, Jyri-Pekka.Mikkola@chem.umu.se2 Åbo Akademi University, Department of Chemical Engineering, Laboratory ofIndustrial Chemistry and Reaction Engineering, Process Chemistry CentreAs a symbiosis of universities, research institutes and industry a uniquecollaboration has been launched between researchers and industry. In particular, thecombination of basic research in key areas and applied research resulting in theinteraction of biorefining and energy supply, in symbiosis with a very strong industrialnetworks, provide for unparallel new opportunities. The new centre (Bio4Energy 1 ),unfolding the biggest ever Swedish R&D investment in CleanTech, consists of sevenresearch platforms, each with a strong research profile; together a complete systemis encompassed merging all tools needed to achieve environmentally, societally andclimatically sound energy-focused biorefineries based on non-food, lignocellulosicbiomass. In the feedstock platform, modern biological and biotechnological tools areimplemented to improve for a qualitative and quantitive characterization of thebiomass intended as raw material for the subsequent processes. In the biochemicalplatform, enzymatic and microbial routes coupled to fermentation processes aredeveloped, and in the thermochemical platform, processes based on gasification incollaboration with catalysis and separation platform evolve for the conversion of rawmaterials to products. For maximum efficiency and yield of the processes developedin these platforms, the pretreatment and fractionation platform designs procedures tomake the constituents in the biomass maximally available for further processing. Theoverall efficiency of the processes are subject to optimization in the processintegration platform and the research in the environmental platform.The geographical area possesse large forest resources and extensive forestindustry in technological transition to convert low-cost forest biomass into high-valueproducts. To achieve this goal, it is critical to have a flexible set of technologies foreach biorefinery that can be adapted to specific needs. The concept will be explained.References:[1]. www.bio4energy.seAcknowledgements. The Swedish Energy Agency, Kempe Foundations, Knut & Alice WallenbergFoundation, Umeå University, the Academy of Finland and Åbo Akademi University are gratefullyacknowledged for financial support.21