Workshop 1

ERIFORE’s first public Workshop with over 60 participants was held at Skyhotel Merseburg near the chemical site of Leuna on September 6^th, 2016. The workshop program started with introductory presentation of ERIFORE project and followed by round-ups of the first outcomes of mapping open access research infrastructures for forest based bioeconomy at European level. The following presentations were given by ERIFORE partners:

• ERIFORE – Building a European research infrastructure for a circular forest bioeconomy, Mika Härkönen, VTT
• Sourcing and availability of biomass, Jean-Michel Carnus, INRA
• Primary processing of biomass as a key step to a successful bioeconomy, Janis Gravitis, LSIWC
• Chemical and biotechnological conversion into biobased precursors for value-added products, Ville Nikkanen, Fraunhofer ICT
• Effective downstream processing, William Mackintosh, SP
• Getting there – Identified needs on the way to a European research infrastructure for circular forest bioeconomy, Franziska Hesser & Barbara Hedeler, Wood K Plus

The purpose of the Workshop was to collect stakeholders’ views on future needs for research and development infrastructures. The afternoon session began with excellent keynote lectures on needs identified by the industry:

• Research & development needs in Biorefinery, Kari Kovasin, Metsä-Fibre
• Drivers, trends and demands in Biotechnology, Joachim Schulze, Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG
• New opportunities for biobased aromatics, Ludo Diels, VITO

Networking during coffee breaks

These keynote talks initiated lively discussion around the topic Forest based biorefinery value chains – how can we reach implementation. Group discussions were organized as a World Café exercise around a set of proposed value chains covering topics from bio- or chemical conversion of sugars to pulp-based and lignin based value chains. Each value chain was assessed in conversation groups composed of consortium members and external participants. Workshop results will be used as guideline for the future work in ERIFORE project.

Group discussions on value chains. Brecht Vanlerberghe (top right) , Christine Roßberg and Marcus Zang moderating and reporting results at the end of the workshop (bottom left).

The Workshop was kindly hosted by Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological processes CBP. FhG CBP focuses on the combination and scale up of biotechnological processes with chemical processes by flexible unit operations. Workshop participants had the opportunity to visit this unique, modular platform having more than 2000 m² of floor space for the development of sustainable processes and products based on renewable resources.

Gerd Unkelbach (top left) and Moritz Leschinsky (top right) guiding a group of ERIFORE Workshop visitors at FhG CBP piloting facilities

In autumn ERIFORE project will continue analyzing value chains and research infrastructure development needs.  The outcome of foresight, concepts and case studies, and bottleneck analysis will be presented and discussed in second ERIFORE workshop.

See you all in ERIFORE’s second Workshop in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 2017!

 

Photos by Ville Nikkanen