The ReSolute project – HIGH PERFORMING AND SAFE SOLVENT DERIVED FROM CELLULOSIC FEEDSTOCKS – brings together 11 European partners and was launched on October 15, 2020, online. The project will build and successfully operate a first-of-its-kind flagship plant that will sustainably produce the platform molecule levoglucosenone (LGO) and Cyrene™, a safe, high-performance biosolvent.
The project, which will run for 36 months from October 2020 to September 2023, has a total budget of €23 M and has received funding of €11.6 M from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU) under grant agreement No 887432. The BBI-JU is a public-private partnership supported by the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation Programme and the Bio-Based Industries Consortium (BIC). During the 7 years of the programme (2014-2020), BBI-JU has funded several flagship biorefineries across Europe and ReSolute is one of them.
The plant will be located in the Grand-Est region of France and will convert sawdust and wood waste into Cyrene™ using the FuracellTM process, followed by catalytic hydrogenation. This two-step process produces a bio-based chemical that has great potential to replace NMP, DMF and DMAc in a wide range of application sectors such as pharmaceuticals, wastewater treatment, coatings, energy storage and inks.