Biorefinery

Production of chemicals from biomass

The research uses different types of biomass, mainly lignocellulose from trees, as a raw material for the production of chemicals. The conversion can be done by both thermochemical and biochemical processes. The focus is on improving processes for the production of platform chemicals, which in turn can be used as starting materials for a wide range of end products.

Biofuel production

Biofuels are needed to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions, along with measures such as more energy efficient vehicles and reduced transport needs. Ethanol, biogas and biohydrogen from lignocellulose and the production of green LPG from the by-product glycerol are the main areas of research.
The department also houses the national process development unit where pilot-scale pretreatment and fermentation can be studied for both batch and continuous processes.

Purification and concentration of macromolecules

The components that are fractionated can originate from existing industrial processes or be produced at the department in one of our pretreatment reactors. The focus of this work is to create resource-efficient separation and fractionation processes that can be implemented in present and future biorefineries.