Vertoro scales up oil production from lignin

Biobased

Vertoro will process the waste product lignin to produce ‘green oil’ that can be used as a raw material in the production of bioplastics, chemicals and fuel. With a new installation, the company can scale up the production of lignin to 150 liters per day, an essential intermediate step to large-scale production.

Vertoro is a company where enterprising researchers from the university have transformed themselves into researching entrepreneurs. Vertoro focuses on converting lignin to an oil that can be used as a raw material for the production of materials, chemicals and fuels.

Waste product

‘Lignin is what remains of wood as a residual product during the production of paper or manufacturing bio-ethanol’, explains Dannie van Osch, Chief Business Officer at Vertoro. ‘It’s currently a waste product that is being incinerated. After being used to make lignin oil, however, it becomes suitable as a raw material. It is killing two birds with one stone, a win-win for everyone. Burning lignin does result in the release of CO2, but ideally we want to keep it CO2-neutral.’

Thermochemical and chemocatalytical

The Multi Purpose Pilot Plant is suitable for various chemical processes requiring relatively simple interventions. The high-tech installations can handle the thermochemical and chemocatalytical processing of bio-based raw materials in batches of up to one hundred kilograms per day. Specialized employees are on hand to operate the installations.

Brightlands

The installation is part of a pilot plant on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen. Vertoro has grown and now has a team of 11 people based at the campus. Over the past three years, it has been conducting successful tests with different types of lignin-rich materials at the labs at the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Chemelot Institute for Science and Technology (InSciTe) at the campus in Geleen.

‘We’re ready for the next step, proving in practice that lignin can be a good substitute for fossil-fuel based oil. Potential customers want to be able to perform extensive testing. We will be able to produce larger, usable batches faster at the new installation at Brightlands Chemelot Campus, with quantities of up to 150 liters a day. It takes more than a month to achieve this level in the lab. This is an essential intermediate step towards large-scale production.’

Bioplastics

Vertoro is grateful for the opportunity to benefit from the expansion. ‘Definitely’, says Dannie van Osch. ‘This new plant offers so many possibilities. In the labs, we discovered that not only can lignin be used to make oil, it is also a suitable raw material for bioplastics. This is particularly the case when combined with other renewable ingredients. We are also studying the possibility to do our own lignin extraction from wood. Thanks to the installations, we can pioneer and test to our heart’s content.’

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