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Background
to the Action
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| The progressive increase in environmental awareness and in petroleum cost has raised the interest in the development of materials, chemicals, and fuels from renewable raw material sources. The lignocellulosic materials from forest and agroindustry contain some of the most abundant polymers present in Nature, lignin and cellulose, in addition to hemicelluloses, extractives, and a number of minor constituents with potential for special applications. The valorisation of biomass components constitutes a new frontier of economically sustainable and environmentally friendly processes. Trees, annual and perennial plants, recycled fibres, and lignocellulosic side streams from various industries are a renewable source for the development of new chemical and biotechnological production methods for materials, bioenergy, and fine chemicals. The design of such processes benefits from fundamental knowledge, such as new analytical techniques and new biotechnological tools; the raw materials and products being unconventional in many cases. FP0901 aims at developing and evaluating sufficient analytical methods related to forest-based and agroindustrial Biorefineries, which eventually will be applied within novel and existing sustainable Biorefining processes and for products, as well as in state-of-the-art academic research and innovations. The Action will thus strengthen the European state-of-the-art knowledge and hence also the economic dimension in the Biorefinery area. The European forest-based, bioenergy-based and agroindustrial industries will benefit from the Action through the development of sustainable and environmentally benign solutions for novel utilisation of forest and agroindustrial resources and the development of tools for cost effective and sustainable processes and products. The ultimate outcome will thus include novel, environmentally sound, and efficient processes and products from renewable waste materials. Eventually the environment will also benefit from these sound solutions. |
Last
Update: November 16:th by Anders Strand