NEXT-STEP

NEXT-GEN of sustainable biobased chemical platforms and polymers: Enhancing sustainability in European industry  

Successfully scaling up the sustainable and biodegradable materials is essential for the future growth of European industry. To compete with well-established fossil-based chemicals, biobased alternatives need to solve the triple equation of environmental, safe, economic and societal performance. At the same time it must be economically viable on an industrial scale and possess properties akin or superior to existing petroleum-derived analogues. Few biobased polymers have met this challenge. 

NEXT-STEP will build on the H2020 BioCatPolymers project to demonstrate a sustainable, safe and economically viable production process for a new chemical platform with large scale applications, notably in the bio-based polymer market. NEXT-STEP will use hardwood sugars produced from sustainably managed forest at the flagship plant of the project partner Fibenol. NEXT-STEP has defined ambitious KPIs for its process regarding its economic performances as well as its Biomass and Energy efficiency. 

The new chemical platform, the 3-methyl-d-valerolactone (3MdVL) will improve the sustainability and recyclability of polyurethane (PU) products and unlock new engineering plastic applications for polylactic acid (PLA) co-polymers. Together with its derivate 3-methyl 1,5-pentanediol (3MPD), the 3MdvL can also be used as a biobased polyol component in the traditional PU and other plastic production processes.

NEXT-STEP Activities 

NEXT-STEP will demonstrate the applicability of its chemical platform by demonstrating its use as a feedstock for the production of

• Polylactic acid (PLA) co-polymers for shoe outsole,
• Recyclable Non Isocyanate Polyurethane foams for shoe mid-sole and insulation materials applications.
• Five other applications will be selected for demonstration together with the polymer industry during the project. 

NEXT-STEP will scale-up and demonstrate a sustainable, resource and energy efficient production route for biobased 3MdVL from 2G feedstock. NEXT-STEP will further demonstrate the applicability of 3MdVL as a chemical building block for the economically viable production of Sustainable and Safe by Design (SSbD) end-products.

ACTIVITIES of the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant

Coordination of the WP2

Scale-up partner of the MVL production up to TRL7, in a 2 step approach:

• Fine tuning and scaling up at TRL5 of the ​feedstocks pretreatment (wood residues from Fibenol) and the first production batches of MVL with optimised strain
• Based on the scale-up performances, selection of the most performing feedstock pretreatment and MVL production up to TRL7

PARTNERS

• AIMPLAS, ES (Coordinator) 
• MEVALDI, NL 
• Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, BE 
• Stichting PDC Research Foundation, NL 
• Fibenol, EE 
• Ghent University, BE 
• SAPIENZA Università di Roma, IT 
• CERTECH, BE 
• DBFZ, DE  
• ALTAR, FR 
• ADIDAS, DE 
• Quantis, CH 

SUPPORTED by

The project is supported by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking and its members.

Disclaimer Art 17.3. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CBE JU. Neither the European Union, nor CBE JU can be held responsible for them.