The VIOBOND consortium will replace fossil resources with renewable lignin in everyday consumer products

Submitted by Arnis Kokorevičs on 15 November, 2021 - 13:23
Versija drukāšanaiVersija drukāšanai

The Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry as a scientific partner will support the construction of a new lignin-based resin production plant.

9 partners from 5 European Union Member States have joined forces in the VIOBOND project worth EUR 35 million to establish a new, unique bio-based resin plant in Latvia. Project was selected in the frame of HORIZON Europe programme for research and innovation and aims to take significant commercialization steps based on the natural wood component lignin, creating industrial technologies for a significant reduction of the share of fossil raw materials in phenol formaldehyde resin, which is currently widely used in in the production of furniture, floor coverings, thermal insulation, sandpaper and other everyday products.

The coordinator of the cross-sectoral project VIOBOND is the Latvijas Finieris Group – a world leader in research, development, and production of high-value-added birch plywood products. Together with 8 partners, the project combines knowledge and experience in lignin, wood processing, energy, engineering and other fields of scientific research and industrial production:

  • Latvijas Finieris (Latvia) – birch plywood production, chemical industry
  • Graanul Biotech (Estonia) – wood processing via fractionation technology and supply of different lignin qualities
  • St1 (Finland) – biorefining, lignin producer
  • Chempolis (Finland) – biorefining, lignin producer
  • Saint-Gobain Finland (Finland) – engineering technologies, resin user
  • Mirka (Finland) – engineering technologies, resin user
  • Pörner Ingenieurgesellshaft (Germany) – engineering technologies
  • Fundacio Universitaria Balmes (Spain) – sustainability assessment
  • Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (Latvia) – analytics, research, and development

 

The process of signing the grant agreement was fully completed on May 18, 2021, formally marking the beginning of the important cooperation. The project will start on September 1st 2021 and will end in August 31st 2026.

 

VIOBOND press release (28.05.2021)

Information in Framework programme Horizon 2020 portal CORDIS

Information in LSIWC portal