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This month Bio4Energry scientists and their associates from nine countries will meet at Luleå, UlrikaRova 2011Ulrika Rova will lead a meeting to design a Bio4Energy Graduate School. Photo by Bio4Energy.
Sweden, to lay down a framework for a B4E Graduate School for doctoral students.
Overarching themes of the courses to be offered, aims and curricula of the graduate school, as well as the number and extent of agreements with foreign academic institutions will be hammered out by the 30-strong group.

Graduate school project leaders at Luleå University of Technology, Sven Molin and Ulrika Rova, expressed optimism that the 1-2 February meeting would produce the stuff of an application to ERASMUS Mundus, a European Union funding scheme for foreign exchange and education on the post-secondary level, the deadline for which expires late April this year.

“The meeting will be a kick-off point for designing the application. We will come up with a rough draft for the structure of examinations, the consortium agreement,... research topics, the structure of the organisation and, of course, the complete framework agreement for the PhD education and the associate partners”, said Molin, a former senior lecturer in Electronics at LTU in northern Sweden.

A complete programme

A grant from ERASMUS Mundus could allow the B4E partners to offer PhD students and researchers from all over the world training in almost every aspect of conducting research across the various links of the biorefinery value chain.

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Today, January 20, Bio4Energy is featured alongside key players in DIFutureEnergy 012Bio4Energy was featured along with key Swedish energy players in a Dagens Industri Future Energy newspaper insert. Photo by Bio4Energy.
the Swedish energy sector in the Swedish daily Dagens Industri, in
its Future Energy insert, under the heading “Green Gold to Replace Fossil Oil”.

B4E teamed up with Umeå University, the B4E lead partner in northern Sweden, and with highly talented researchers of its Chemical Biological Centre, to spread the message about the way in which B4E intends to make a substantial contribution towards creating sustainable biorefinery based on forest-sourced materials or organic waste.

“We have drawn together top-qualified researcher and leading companies in green technology”, Stellan Marklund said in the Future Energy insert of the 90 scientists and some 20 companies that make up B4E. They are spread across northern and central Sweden at Umeå University, Luleå University of Technology, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the research institutes Innventia and the Energy Technology Center at Piteå.

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A Bio4Energy-led research project to seek out the most cost-efficient JoakimLundgrenBio4Energy scientist Joakim Lundgren will be leading a study to identify sites for biofuels' production in Sweden. Photo by Anna Strom©.
sites in Sweden for second-generation biofuels’ production could kick off last month as the Swedish Knowledge Centre for Renewable Transportation Fuels, f3, decided to back it by almost SEK2 million.

As a first leg, the scientists behind it will develop a theoretical model to guide policy makers as they endeavour to match the availability of raw materials for biorefinery—woody biomass or organic waste—with parameters such as availability of land, cost of construction and production, plus ease of access for industry and environmental impacts. This first step will also entail constructing scenarios—snapshots of three likely futures for biofuels’ development in Sweden—based on variables ranging from energy prices, demand for biomass and transport fuels to assumed effects of policies governing the industry.

In Sweden, “full-scale biorefinery [plants in which] to produce biofuels are next to none”, according to project leader This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. of the energy sciences’ division of Luleå University of Technology (LTU) in northern Sweden.

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A year in the making, Bio4Energy wants to thank all of its followers in 2011. Northern forestBio4Energy designs tools and methods for making biofuels and 'green' chemicals from forest-sourced materials. The snap is of a forest in the Swedish part of the boreal belt. Photo by courtesy of Umeå University.

So far the B4E members have been busy building a research environment in bioenergy and biorefinery which links up three universities in northern Sweden, over 20 industrial partners and a handful of research institutes.

This year has seen plans for new research projects being drawn up by the seven B4E platforms dealing with forest-sourced feedstock, thermochemistry, biochemistry and process integration, as well those concerned with pretreatment and fractionation of raw materials, catalysis and separation, or environmental checks and balances.

Further, B4E has liaised with EU and Swedish authorities to spread the word about the potential embedded in the development of sustainable biorefinery based on non-food raw materials, mainly forest-sourced feedstock in the case of B4E, and seen several new cooperations take root.

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As signaled, we publish a round up and presentations of biorefinery development or 'pilot' units in northern Sweden, gleaned from a talks at a meeting 1 December of scientists and representatives of biorefinery industry at Örnsköldsvik, given by Bio4Energy and the Processum Biorefinery Initiative.

Pilot facility for production of biomass from algae at Umeå, Sweden

FranscescoGentili compFranscesco Gentili talks up Umeå pilot facilities for biorefinery of algae. Photo by Bio4Energy.Project leader This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences said the installation would be used to produce a about a kilogramme per day worth of algae-based biomass suitable for making fertilizers, biofuels, bio-based plastics or fish meal. Gentili said production would imply “closing the chain” in terms of removing unwanted emissions to the environment, including gases thought to spur climate change, such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

“It can remove CO2 and NOx, and heavy metals”, he mused. The petroleum company “Preem wants to test the product in its biorefinery” to make biodiesel, said Gentili with reference to a certain line of testing at the pilot installation.

“We have to lower costs so as to show that we can produce [products and be competitive] in northern Sweden”, he said.
Attachments:
Download this file (Algae_Pilot_at_Umeå.pdf)Algae pilot installation at Umeå, December 2011[ ]1005 kB
Download this file (MoRe_Research_Pilot_Facilities_Örnsköldsvik.pdf)MoRe Research pilot installations at Örnsköldsvik, December 2011[ ]333 kB
Download this file (Pilotpresentation_IM_Dec_2011.pdf)Roasting to make green coal: Umeå pilot facilities, December 2011[Presentation by Anders Nordin of UmU and B4E, 1 December 2011]1284 kB
Download this file (Pilot_Plants_at_Piteå.pdf)ETC pilot facilities at Piteå, December 2011[ ]594 kB
Download this file (Processum_Pilots_at_Örnsköldsvik.pdf)Processum pilot park at Örnsköldsvik, December 2011[ ]681 kB
Download this file (Spinning_Pilot_Inst_Domsjö.pdf)Spinning pilot installation at Domsjö, Örnsköldsvik, December 2011[ ]76 kB
Download this file (Torrefaction&drying_pilot_inst_at_Umeå.pdf)Torrefaction and drying pilot installations at Umeå, December 2011[ ]758 kB
Download this file (Woodchipper_Pilots_MIUN.pdf)Wood chipper pilot facilities, MIUN, December 2011[ ]164 kB

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Linking up northern Sweden's biorefinery development facilities could CE SM_BoKllstrand_Inagu_BioBoClas Engström, Stellan Marklund and Västernorrland County Governor Bo Källstrand inaugurate the bioreactor BioBo at MoRe Research in northern Sweden. Photo by Bio4Energy.
produce a "win-win situation" for industry and academia and spur
innovation, a workshop in Sweden for industry people and bioenergy scientists have heard.

If adequately coordinated and explained, the cluster of test sites in northern Sweden could serve as a resource for researchers in Sweden and beyond, according to Clas Engström, Processum Biorefinergy Initiative CEO, and Bio4Energy programme manager This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“What is unique about northern Sweden”, Marklund asked rethorically, sweeping his gaze over the participants of the joint meeting by B4E and Processum at Örnsköldsvik.

“It is those test sites (which) industry can use”, just as can biorefinery and bioenergy researchers, he said;

“If we join together we can create a win-win situation… (that can spur) innovation and put the technologies to good use for society.

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Bioenergy scientists in northern Sweden are about to take a next step in leif jp_at_pilotBio4Energy scientists Leif Jönsson and Jyri-Pekka Mikkola inspect pilot facilities at B4E member firm SEKAB at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. Photo by courtesy of Umeå University.
developing one of the world’s leading research environments in biorefinery by linking up with pulp and paper makers, forestry operators and their processing industries, as well as a biorefinery umbrella organisation in biorefinery research and innovation.

December 1 at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, researchers in Bio4Energy from universities at Luleå and Umeå, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, will be hosting a meeting for north Sweden’s paper and pulp, forestry and biorefinery industries, together with the Processum Biorefinery Initiative.

This organisation runs research and development activities for its 21 industrial member firms in biorefinery of forest-sourced materials. Notably Processum is setting up pilot facilities at Örnsköldsvik by which to test and refine raw materials—generally biomass or waste streams from forestry operations, or other organic waste—with a view to make biofuels or “green” chemicals. Processum also plays host to a state-sponsored ‘Biorefinery of the Future’ project to bring research on bioenergy and
biorefinery to industry. B4E industrial partner SEKAB has summarised the Processum mandate.
Attachments:
Download this file (Fr_L_ClasEngström_trumpet_player_StellanMarklund_BoKällstrand_Photo_by_AnnaStrom)Image_for_press_&_media_Inauguration_of_Processum_Pilot_Park_1December2011[ ]102 kB
Download this file (Pressmeddelande_Morgondagens_biodrivmedel_testas_i_ny_pilotpark.pdf)Biorefinery_Demonstration_Facilities_Launched_at_Örnsköldsvik_B4E_Press_Release[ ]74 kB

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A number of Bio4Energy scientists, and three of its industrial partners, PGardestrm SMarklundPer Gardeström (right) won a grant to study the lives of mitochondria in leaves. Photographed with Stellan Marklund. Photo by Bio4Energy.
have won grants to pay for future research and awards for excellence 
respectively. Two Swedish research funding bodies, Formas and the Swedish Research Council, provided the grants to four professors and several associated colleagues active across the B4E partner universities.

As regards the industrial partners, Biofuels maker Domsjö Fabriker, and Smurfit Kappa, the international pulp and paper group, won awards from RISI, a European industry body. These were presented in Brussels, Belgium, 15 November. Meanwhile, Chemrec, producing bioDME diesel fuel from a waste product of forestry operations, made an international listing of companies seen as forerunners in the development of technologies with a low environmental impact.

Among the B4E researchers granted funding, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., of the B4E Feedstock and Biochemical Platforms, both affiliated with Umeå University in northern Sweden, each received just over two million Swedish kronor (€220,000) from the Swedish Research Council.

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In the Press

Microalgae purify water and produce valuable compounds, Newsexplorer
Timber cities ‘could cut 100bn tons of CO2 emissions by 2100’, The Guardian
Biokol kan bidra till fossilfri järn- och stålproduktion, Industrinyheter.se
Experten förklarar: Så ska grönt flygbränsle framställas i Långsele, SVT Nyheter Västernorrland
Bio4Energy at Umeå University: Nytt sätt att framställa biobaserade produkter, Process Nordic