Green Pro ‑ Green chemicals from forest and forest products

The project's overall objective is to develop and strengthen the regional forestry industries with its surrounding industry and growth in the region through research targeting new products and processes as an alternative or complement to today.

The project also intends to build a strong research environment in the biorefinery area, making Mid Sweden University and the region better equipped to be a strong player in the field.

The overall hypothesis is to use biomass and biokatalyst system from different yeasts and to create added value products through this process. The project is divided into two parts, one covering biocatalyzed decomposition processes from a process engineering point of view and the other part is the evaluation of a sample of the resulting products in new applications. Project focus will be the study of microbial production of degradation products from different sources of raw materials containing lignin that comes from forestry, forest products and forest industry side streams. The raw material will contribute to new product flows arising both for the supplier of the material and producing industries in the region. Scientific challenges are first to develop analytical methods for the biochemical degradation and optimizing the desired green chemicals that can be included in the next generation of fish feed and biodiesel.

Expected results

Concrete examples of expected results and benefits for the region and participating companies:

1. Develop biochemical processes in an environmentally friendly way

2. Extracting products from the forestry and paper industry materials

3. Customizing a process to pilot scale production of the next generation of fish feed

4. Develop biochemical processes for the production of custom-made substances with biological activity for protection against pests, mold, bacteria and human diseases

5. Develop a forest based locally produced natural tanning agents, for production in industrial scale