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Bio4Energy and partners will be giving talks on next-generation TorrefiedBiomass 1678Torrefied, or roasted, biomass displayed at the Röbäcksdalen pilot facilities, at Umeå, Sweden, where fuel pellets and briquets are made from renewable raw materials. Photo by Anna Strom©.
biorefinery from forest-sourced biomass, and a give guided tour
to pilot facilities for making fuel pellets, during the 2011 Bioenergy Days at Umeå, Sweden, 8 and 9 November.

B4E scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) 8 November will host a guided tour to the SLU pilot plant designed to make fuel pellets from forest-sourced raw materials. A bus chartered by conference organisers Svebio will be departing from the Umeå central bus station, at Vasaplan, at 9.15 am, to visit the pilot facilities at Röbäcksdalen.

The following day B4E leadership will outline plans for creating leading-edge biorefinery, including maximally efficient processes for making biofuels and bio-based chemicals, with a view to phasing out petrochemical products and fossil fuels. Meet the Bio4Energy team at Folkets Hus, downtown Umeå, together with Clas Engström, heading the Processum umbrella organisation for firms and research institutes in biorefinery. Session 9 of the Bioenergy Days starts at 1.30 p.m.

Attachments:
Download this file (Träffa_Bio4energy_på_Bioenergidagarna_i_Umeå,_8-9_november.pdf)Bio4Energy at the 8-9 November Bioenergy Days, at Umeå: Press release in Swedish[ ]149 kB

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What do boron isotopes, carbon dioxide selective membranes and analytic modelsJohanIngri 1606Johan Ingri of Bio4Energy wants to know how boron isotopes distribute in trees. Photo by Anna Strom©.
of energy systems applied to bioenergy have in common? Not much, it
could seem. However, in the research environment Bio4Energy they are inputs to developing a complete biorefinery value chain. To do so scientists work with industry to use forest-sourced biomass with maximal efficiency, devising methods for turning undesirable waste products into renewable energy or bio-based materials with a low environmental impact.

“The view of Bio4Energy is to try to create valuable products” with a minimal environmental impact, B4E programme manager This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.told researchers gathered at a miniconference 25 October.

“We could bring ashes (or other byproducts of forestry or its process industries) back into the ecocycle after modification. This is an important part of Bio4Energy”, he said.
Attachments:
Download this file (AndreaToffolo_AdvancedTechniques4ProcessIntegration_B4EMiniconference_111025.pdf)Advanced techniques for process integration, Andrea Toffolo, October 2011[ ]1099 kB
Download this file (JohanIngri_B4EMiniconference_Relevance_of_BoronIsotopes_251011.pdf)Relevance of boron istopes to biorefinery, Johan Ingri, October 2011[ ]175 kB
Download this file (MingZhou_Catalysis&Separation_B4EMiniconference_251011.pdf)Catalysis and separation, Ming Zhou, October 2011[ ]6163 kB

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Just days after the first Bio4Energy’s 50-delegate-strong “miniconference” 25 October,ThomasGillgren 1635Thomas Gillgren does research to enhance the properites of food packaging. Photo by Anna Strom©.
scientists across that research environment said that they were forming new collaborations across its seven research platforms.

With a good ten researchers joining B4E this autumn, several of whom taking on senior roles, the meeting was designed to provide a forum for scientists across the B4E partner universities at Umeå and Luleå, and the research institute Innventia, to meet and to learn about projects being introduced by new members. Those buzzing around the B4E hub at Umeå, Sweden, where the conference was held, are described here.

“Several people have already got in touch (and want to run research projects) with us”, said This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., a postdoctoral researcher on the B4E Biochemical Platform at Umeå University in northern Sweden. At the meeting here, Winestrand and her recent colleague, postdoctoral researcher This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., described their work to perfect the inside lining of food packaging, using forest-sourced raw materials. These could be polysaccharides, lignin derivatives and “other” substances extracted from lignocellulose, the researchers said.
Attachments:
Download this file (Biomass_characterisation_SylviaLarsson_Bio4Energy_Miniconference_251011.pdf)Biomass flow, sorting, compaction; Sylvia Larsson, October 2011[ ]1094 kB
Download this file (ResearchPerspectives_onInorganicChemistry_inThermalBiomassConversion_RainerBackm)Inorganic chemistry in thermal biomass conversion, Rainer Backman, October 2011[ ]525 kB

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Bio4Energy events. This month Bio4Energy will play host to three KentaroUmeki J-PMikkola_JonasHedlundTime for another Bio4Energy conference. Kentaro Umeki, Jyri-Pekka Mikkola and Jonas Hedlund, all researchers in Bio4Energy, meet in May. Photo by Anna Strom©.
Australian experts on biofuels and biochemicals, as well as some 40
Bio4Energy researchers and a handful of academic representatives of the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education, at B4E’s first Miniconference.

The 25 October conference at Umeå, Sweden, is designed to provide a forum for scientists in the rapidly expanding B4E research environment to meet recent recruits and to be informed of new projects. Moreover, programme researchers are set to discuss future applications for funding under the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, as well as define that which research groups can do to provide added value to industry of participating in B4E.

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LeifJnsson 201011Just back at the office. Leif Jönsson represented Bio4Energy at ISAF in Italy. Photo by Bio4Energy.Bio4Energy in the world. Bio4Energy has a role to spread the word about benefits to the environment and business bottom lines of stakeholders coming together to develop a sustainable biorefinery value chain—and using forest-sourced biomass as raw material in these processes, according to a senior scientist in the B4E research environment.

“In Europe there is generally a focus on agricultural raw materials as a base for developing biofuels (and bioenergy)… We should be showcasing forest-sourced raw materials as a suitable alternative to those types of raw material in biorefinery”, according to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.of Umeå University.

Jönsson is a professor in biotechnology based in northern Sweden and head of the B4E Biochemical Platform. He is just back from representing the research environment at the International Symposium on Alcohol Fuels, given in its 19th edition, in tandem with a European Commission-sponsored biofuels event in Verona, Italy.

Attachments:
Download this file (Abstract_ISAF_LJJ.pdf)Biofuels cluster activities in northern Sweden, Leif Jönsson Abstract, ISAF[ ]106 kB

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The European Union’s executive arm has defined “nanomaterial” as a material
composed of particles that have “internal surface structure in the range betweeHydrogenFuelCellProduction_CoEC191011Production of hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen may be produced using a catalyst made from nanomaterials. Photo by courtesy of the European Commission.n 1
and 100 billionth of a metre (nm), such as computer chips”, in a recommendation published online 18 October.

This has relevance to Bio4Energy since scientists on its Pretreatment and Fractionation Platform conduct research to design new materials using nanotechnology. Moreover researchers on the B4E Catalysis and Separation Platform have used nano-based materials extracted from metals to design membranes or catalysts, for instance to render the production of hydrogen from renewable raw materials more efficient per unit of output. (The latter materials might be considered nano-based composite or porous materials, however.)

The definition, adopted as part of a European Commission recommendation and based on advice from an EU executive’s scientific committees, is not binding per se, but will be enforced as a common standard across specific legislation that the Commission might propose or amend, according to a memo provided to journalists. More specifically, the definition will “primarily be used to identify materials for which special provision (concerning for example risk assessment or ingredient labeling) might apply”.

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An international group of scientists with bearings in Bio4Energy has been JohannesMessingerUmUJohannes Messinger and colleagues will develop tools to turn sunlight and water into "chemical" fuels by using photosynthesis. Photo by courtesy of Umeå University.
awarded a €4.4 (SEK40.3) million grant to develop a membrane by which they hope to produce renewable energy from sunlight and water.

The scientists from the Chemical Biological Centre (KBC), at Umeå University in northern Sweden, won the grant from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, a Swedish fund, a statement from that state-run university said.

With their joint expertise in physics, plant physiology and chemistry, including in catalysis and separation, the researchers aimed to develop processes to underpin the generation of energy carriers such as hydrogen by using sunlight and water in a “highly efficient” photosynthetic process, the statement said. To achieve the conversion, the cross-disciplinary team envisaged developing a membrane, billed as “the Artificial Leave”.

A Chemistry professor with the university, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., is Bio4Energy’s man in the KBC collaboration which can start thanks to the five-year grant.

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Since August this year, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.is in charge of communications at  SorenBack2_911EdBio4Energy Communications expects to work closely with Sören Back, in charge of communications at Processum since August. Photo by courtesy of Sören Back.
of Bio4Energy’s key industrial allies, Processum. This is an umbrella
organisation of biorefinery industry and satellites in the northern Swedish town of Örnsköldsvik. On behalf of Processum, Back will be a strategic partner in the work to bring science developed by B4E to businesses and, in turn, their expertise on industrial processes and needs for development to B4E researchers.

Long in the business, Back started his career in 1976 as a civil engineer with MoDo, a Sweden-based paper and pulp and a logging company which has since turned Finnish and, in 2000, changed its name to M-real. By that time Back had moved from engineering of cellulosic materials into marketing and, subsequently, communications. He works part time as a consultant, chiefly for stakeholders in the forestry, paper and pulp, and biorefinery industries from his base at Örnsköldsvik. At Processum, Back takes over from Jan Bergman, who has moved on to work for the Municipality of Umeå.

Attachments:
Download this file (the_Biorefinery_of_the_Futures_brochure_eng[1].pdf)Biorefinery of the Future_Brochure by Processum[Includes a word from Jyri-Pekka Mikkola of Bio4Energy\'s Catalysis and Separation Platform.]1861 kB

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