New biomass transformation pathways

This theme aims to promote new concepts of biomass transformation schemes for a wide range of applications: commodity and specialty chemicals, energy, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, etc. The expected deliverables are efficient processes that maximize the production of target molecules. Three sub-areas have been identified:

• New conversion processes.
• Development of chemistry adapted to the constraints and opportunities of bio-based molecules.
• Improving compatibility between chemistry and biotechnology.

The essential barriers to overcome in these projects include low carbon yields for biomass transformation schemes, higher risks for scaling up and industrializing processes, high product costs, lack of viable transformation pathways for certain biomass fractions, lack of selectivity for chemical transformation, and often no operational compatibility between chemical and biotechnological processes.

The weight of each challenge varies depending on the resource (organic waste, algae, lignocellulose, sugars) and the products obtained from the transformation of these biomass types. For example, the issue of low carbon yields is crucial for biofuel production, which involves low-cost, high-volume products. This has a direct impact on land footprint (or product yield per acre of cultivation) and the energy balances of the process. Therefore, each biomass set, product, and conversion technology requires a specific approach to target the most relevant conversion process.

This research area consists of three targeted projects and will be complemented by projects selected from the program’s call for projects:

Flagship projects:

• OPTISFUEL: innovative strategies to improve the fermentation stage of biofuel production.
• FurFun: enhance the diversity and molecular complexity that can be created from bio-based furan derivatives.
• ElectroMIC: optimization of organic waste biorefinery and production of high-value-added molecules.

Winners of the 2024 call for projects :

• BioMCat: combining biocatalysts and metal supported catalysts for valorizing lignin to aromatic aldehydes in an integrated process.
• MALIGNE: water-soluble enzymatic lignin for high value and sustainable applications.
• PREMIERE LIGNE: pyrolysis, molecular reconstruction and lignin characterization.
• ROSALIND: benchmarking of sono- and photocatalysis for lignin demethylation.
• SmartCoupling: coupling enzymatic and chemistry routes to develop sustainable tools of lignocellulosic biomass transformation into functionalized building blocks.
• WAEster: environmental biorefinery approach for the production of fatty acid esters and co-products from microalgae cultivated on waste fermentation effluents.