Successful finalization of the NIBCON project
This interdisciplinary cSBO project ‘NIBCON’ aims at the successful introduction of unique bio-based primary building blocks in future Flemish and European chemical industries. In this way, the project will promote the transition towards a carbon neutral circular bio-economy. It is built around inventive lignocellulose based RCF biorefining and downstream separation technology. The ambition of NIBCON is to further develop this technology in an integrated way towards environmental sustainability, technical scalability and economic feasibility.
The NIBCON project ran from January 2020 until September 2021, involving 8 research groups from KU Leuven, UGent, VUB and VITO. Breakthroughs were realized in several disciplines including advanced analytics, innovative reactor design, tunable catalytic processing, and efficient separations. Also an integrated economic and sustainability assessment, including supply chain optimization, has been performed, demonstrating the potential of the developed innovations. 3 scientific manuscripts were already published (see below), and several additional publications and patent applications are currently being prepared.
Pilot scale equipment is being installed at KULeuven to scale up and derisk labscale innovations within this context. Bringing the developed technology breakthroughs to the market will require collaboration with various actors within the value chain, ranging from feedstock suppliers, to technology providers and bio-based product developers.
The findings of the NIBCON project were summarized in a presentation, which can be accessed via the online portal by all Moonshot advisory board members. A teaser can be found at the link below
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- Identification and quantification of lignin monomers and oligomers from reductive catalytic
fractionation of pine wood with GC× GC–FID/MS. - Reductive catalytic fractionation of pine wood: elucidating and quantifying the molecular structures in the lignin oil
- Perspective on overcoming scale-up hurdles for the reductive catalytic fractionation of lignocellulose biomass
