Partners

SINTEF is an independent non-profit research organization and with more than 2000 employees one of the largest in Northern Europe. SINTEF performs contract research and development for a wide range of both Norwegian and European industry customers and participates as a research partner in a multitude of publicly funded research projects, both at the national and at the European level. For optimal performance in the latter, SINTEF has highly experienced dedicated staff for the administrative handling of EU projects like in Horizon Europe and its predecessors. SINTEF involves in BIONEER with three of its institutes, SINTEF Industry, SINTEF Community, and SINTEF Digital, covering, besides overall project coordination, project aspects within biotechnology and chemical process development, environmental sustainability assessment, and social sustainability assessment, respectively.

Celignis is a spin-off company from the University of Limerick and was formed to commercialize rapid biomass analysis. Celignis holds well-equipped laboratory and highly trained personnel provide high-throughput and accurate biomass analysis and bioprocess development services for bioenergy and biorefinery industry clients around the globe. Celignis is increasingly developing its bespoke bioprocessing (enzymatic hydrolysis, extraction, pretreatment, fermentation etc) solutions and is undertaking targeted international research programmed focused on the development of new IP related to valorization of biomass and process residues. In particular, Celignis has a high focus on development of technologies for the extraction of xylan as a polymer and its modification and functionalization in a wide range of products.

Evonik is one of the world’s leading specialty chemicals companies. Evonik offer solutions for the beauty and personal care market by serving a broad range of markets and applications: active ingredients, skin care, hair care and cleansing, and alternative preservation. By now Evonik produced a wide range of sustainable personal care additives – emulsifiers (i.e., Tagat® derived from rape seed oil or TEGO® Care based on glycerine and fatty acids ) and thickeners (i.e., dermofeel® derived from vegetable oil) and biosurfactants (Rheance® One, Sophance® LA-A, produced by fermentation) and already contributed to the BBI PERFECOAT project as well as to EU Horizon project VALUABLE – for the latter as industry consortium partner for evaluation of products for the personal care market. Role in BIONEER: Evonik will lead WP4. The samples of biobased polymers derived from the BBBs supplied to EVONIK will be tested for the application potential of the products in the personal care sector (skin and hair care). Evonik is also involved in chemical safety assessment building blocks and final products to ensure the development of safe and sustainable products.

The PNO Group (aka PNO Consultants), established in 1984, is a European group, made up of a pool of more than 400 professionals across 9 Member States. Every year, PNO supports more than 3.000 clients in their R&D processes, realizing original data-driven and expert-driven analysis and creating over 300 cutting-edge R&D projects – changing the world for the better. PNO has drafted and successfully executed dissemination and exploitation plans of a great number of European projects in various sectors. In this project, PNO is represented by CIAOTECH S.r.l., the Italian branch of PNO Consultants, specialized in R&D Advisory, Innovation Management and funding procurement, providing consultancy services to private and public organizations. Role in BIONEER: CTEC will lead WP6, carrying out activities aimed at ensuring the successful market uptake of the results, including dissemination, communication, and exploitation.  

MetGen Oy is an innovative biotech SME which designs, develops, supplies, and markets novel enzymatic solutions and technologies around them to meet our customer specific needs. MetGen was found in 2008 and is based in Kaarina, Finland. MetGen’s enzyme products - MetZyme®- are industrial, highly-active, natural catalyst that accelerate chemical reactions. They can survive in harsh industrial environments which enables novel applications and combination with other enzymes. MetGen uses advances in genetic engineering and microbiology to adapt enzymes to harsh industrial conditions and to handle a variety of lignocellulosic substrates. MetGen has invented two disruptive technologies: ENZINE® to develop industrial enzymes and METNIN™ to valorize lignin, to significantly contribute to the economics and sustainability of process industries such as pulp & paper, biofuels and biochemicals. With ENZINE® technology platform, MetGen has achieved successful industrial trials with sector leaders in forest and renewable chemicals and aims to be a widely recognized supplier of industrial enzymes. The lignin refining technology METNIN™ enables the production of tailored and highly functional lignin material for different application areas including packaging, films and foams. Role in BIONEER: MetGen will lead WP3, focusing on the chemical and enzymatic tailoring of carbohydrate-based compounds. Specifically, enzymes developed during the project will be upscaled and supplied to meet the ongoing demand. Additionally, MetGen will employ its METNIN^TM lignin refining process at pilot scale to process and valorize the lignin side stream fractions produced from the lignocellulosic biomass processed in the project.

ÄIO is a biotech start-up creating novel ingredients and sustainable palm oil and animal fat substitutes for food, feed, cosmetic and chemical industries. ÄIO uses a proprietary microorganism (non-GMO) in an optimized fermentation process. Such biotechnology-based lipid production is much less resource-intensive and supports circular economy, as by-products of the local food and wood industries can be used as substrates. This approach also allows a so-called vertical production technology as opposed to the currently mainly applied horizontal agriculture. With this, the land is saved, the diversity of the environment can be preserved, and no additional waste is created in the production process when all the biomass is valued. ÄIO's current product range includes three types of ingredients: encapsulated oil (i.e., inactive oil-rich yeast biomass), carotenoid-rich oil, and solid fat. In addition to the lipids, ÄIO's encapsulated oil contains proteins, sugars, and fibers. All three also contain various carotenoids, which give ÄIO's products their characteristic reddish color and high antioxidant properties. These lipids can be further modified for use in cosmetic and chemical industries. Additionally, higher value products can be achieved via precision fermentation process using engineered microbial strains.

The University of Limerick is an independent, internationally focused university. It was established in 19722 and is located on the west coast of Ireland. The campus enjoys an unspoiled natural environment blended with state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities. UL is renowned for its commitment to excellence in education, research, and innovation.  UL is recognized for its research contributions in areas such as materials science, health sciences, information and communication technologies, and sustainable development. With strong links to business and industry, UL excels at translational research, which aims to accelerate the practical application of academic research to benefit society. UL's principal investigator (PI) in BIONEER, Prof. Maurice N. Collins, is a Materials Scientist and Professor in the School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering with extensive experience in European and Irish national projects. He is a PI in the Science foundation Ireland (SFI) national centre for Advanced Materials (AMBER) and challenge co-lead in the SFI National Bioeconomy centre BiOrbic.  His group works on the cascading principle, whereby higher value applications are preferentially derived from biological resources, this is achieved through the utilisation of waste bioresources to produce advanced engineering materials for automotive, biomedical and energy applications.

Lund University was founded in 1666 and has 40 000 students and 7400 co-workers at sites in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. Lund University is repeatedly ranked among the top 100 universities in the World (Times Higher Educations and QS World University ranking) and has partners in more than 70 countries. The profile of the Biotechnology division (Dept. of Chemistry) which is a part of the engineering faculty is environmental concern, fitting well with the sustainability focus of BIONEER. The research group of Prof. EN Karlsson at the division of Biotechnology dept. of Chemistry, includes around 10 students and postdocs, focusing on valorisation of agriculture and marine resources. A main focus is enzymes for carbohydrate modification, as well as characterization, conversion and process development of biomass and side streams. In addition, ULUND participates in BIONEER with the group of Prof. Ola Wallberg at the Dept. of Chemical Engineering, who is an expert on TEA.  

Remmers Industrielacke is a family driven company in the heart of the German furniture industry. Remmers has developed from a local paint supplier to a technology driven partner of the international furniture and flooring industry. The company offers a broad product range for all kinds of industrial wood coating applications. Its focus is on environmentally friendly technologies like Waterborne- or UV-curable coatings for its customers, including IKEA, who benefit from Remmers excellent technical support for their nowadays and future demands and tailor made commodity solutions. Starting with an early expansion to eastern Europe during the 1980´s, RE supplies industrial customers worldwide with a focus on the common EU market. Industrial surfaces coated with REMM products exceed 250 Mio m² per year.

Helios Resins is a separate business unit of Kansai Helios, one of the world’s leading paint and coatings producers. Today, Helios Resins produces around 70,000 tons of liquid resins annually, including coating and composite resins. Brands − DOMACRYL, DOMOPOL, DOMALKYD, DOMEMUL, DOMOPUR, COLPOLY, COLVINYL and COLGEL have achieved a strong market position and are trusted for their quality and performance which currently serve more than 50 countries worldwide. Helios Resins holds ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, Responsible Care and ISCC Plus certificates and has been recently awarded with EcoVadis Gold label. Role in BIONEER: Helios will develop polymers for coatings industry with low environmental impacts, predominantly low carbon footprint and long service time. The goal is to upgrade existing polymers for coatings in terms of reduction of environmental impacts without compromising the final coating/composite performance. Final products and production process will be scaled up to 50L.

Chalmers University of Technology is a foundation university situated in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. Research and education is conducted in a wide number of areas within life sciences, materials science, information technology, micro-and nanotechnology, environmental sciences and energy. The university hosts about 10,000 students and 3,000 employees (FTEs) and consists of 13 departments. It has a strong tradition for collaboration with industry an extensive infrastructure to support the commercialization of research projects. Chalmers' annual turnover is 4,300 million SEK (approximately 362 million EUR), out of which 70 % is related to research. Around 60 % of the research funding is acquired in competition from external sources.

Tetra Pak Processing Systems AB, belongs to Tetra Pak group. In 2022 Tetra Pak had a net sale of 12.495 € billon and 23.733 persons employed. Tetra Pak is engaged in the business of developing, manufacturing, and selling processing and packaging systems and services, for liquid and other food products, and has many years’ experience, technology, and know-how in such fields. Tetra Pak, as a key player in the food and beverage industry, values the insights and expertise that collaboration with academic institutions brings.

The Faculty of Chemical Technology at the Poznan University of Technology, provides high quality education at various levels, combined with innovative research and development of chemical technology. The Faculty aims to be an important partner of domestic and foreign universities and to face new challenges in close cooperation with the business sector. The development strategy of the Faculty adapts to the changing socio-economic challenges and fits into the overall strategy of the University. Cooperation with the business sector is a priority, with the aim of transferring research results to industry, adapting teaching to the needs of the labour market and involving industry representatives in the educational process. Role in BIONEER: The PUT's role in the project is to facilitate the integration of advanced digital tools into industrial processes. This integration is intended to ensure the seamless integration of technologies such as quantum modelling, flowsheeting and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The PUT's tasks will include optimising process conditions through computational research and analysis, with the objective of increasing the efficiency of scaling unit operations. The PUT will collaborate with the project partners to facilitate information sharing and coordination of activities, as well as regular progress reporting, problem identification and solution proposal. A key deliverable will be the development and delivery of an AI-assisted computational analysis of chemical kinetics report, which will be delivered in month 12 of the project.