Success story overview

BBI JU EMBRACED project: Moving Europe’s mountain of nappies from landfill to helping create useful bio-based products

15 January 2018

As any parent will tell you, babies use a lot of nappies (diapers) and as the father of a 12 week old, I am now learning directly about the large amount of waste that even a very small baby produces! It is estimated that a child will use between 4,000 and 6,000 nappies and in the UK alone about eight million are thrown away each day, accounting for about three per cent of total household waste.

BBI JU EMBRACED project: Moving Europe’s mountain of nappies from landfill to helping create useful bio-based products

BBI JU Exilva project: Maximising the commercial potential of super-strong microfibrillated cellulose

18 December 2017

A consortium made up of companies, research institutes and consultants has embarked upon an ambitious flagship project to introduce a plant-based cellulose ten-times as strong as steel into widespread use that could one day replace fossil fuel-based alternatives.

BBI JU Exilva project: Maximising the commercial potential of super-strong microfibrillated cellulose

BBI JU PULP2VALUE project: Extracting high value products from sugar beet pulp

21 November 2017

One of the many joys about writing about the business of bio-based is learning more about the varied uses of feedstock. Before speaking to Gerald van Engelen and Harry Raaijmakers of agro-industrial cooperative Royal Cosun, who head up the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertakings (BBI JU’s) demonstration project, PULP2VALUE, I would have said that sugar beet pulp, when added to hay, was a great winter feedstock for horses, but would have struggled to name other uses.

BBI JU PULP2VALUE project: Extracting high value products from sugar beet pulp

Wheat straw waste could be basis for greener chemicals

10 October 2017

The straw leftover from harvested wheat could be turned into bio-based chemicals that offer high greenhouse gas savings and do not compete with food supplies or damage ecosystems. The BBI JU OPTISOCHEM project is creating bio-isobutene with it.

OPTISOCHEM is a BBI JU project converting wheat straw into bio-based chemicals.

Creating value from stony ground

06 October 2017

The BBI JU's project, First2Run, uses marginal land and hardy native plants to produce valuable chemicals for the possible manufacture of a range of products including cosmetics and bioplastics. The goal is to harness the potential of local areas and build a sustainable, profitable and job-creating value chain.