Call for partners: RES2PULP: Pulp from residual (fibrous) agricultural waste streams for biobased materials

The agri-food sector is under increasing pressure to implement innovative circular practices, both at the agricultural level to close nutrient cycles, but also at industrial level to deliver circular products. Residues from the agri-food sector have proven to be an interesting source of fibrous material for paper, cardboard, insulation materials and composites. They also contain valuable proteins for food/feed and minerals which should be returned to the land in order to maintain soil fertility. RES2PULP will support farmers and agri-food industries in closing the loop, while at the same time creating new value chains towards the food/feed sector (protein), paper sector (by obtaining a fibre of ‘virgin fibre’ quality) and other sectors in which fibers can be used (e.g. insulation/composites).

Pilot Biorefinery for both proteins and fibres

RES2PULP aims to take this concept one step further by focusing on 2 main challenges:

1. Piloting a biorefinery which is capable of separating a high-quality (feed or even food grade) protein and high-quality (‘virgin fibre’ quality) fibre fraction from the agricultural streams.

2. Exploring new business models which can enable the implementation of the new biorefinery. This includes for example:

• the feasibility of a regional approach in which cooperatives of farmers could supply the biomass to a biorefinery
• the project will aim to create opportunities for feedstock suppliers to become launching customers of the materials produced with their biomass

Project activities include the development of:

• A biorefinery process to extract proteins and a fibrous stream
• A pulping process for production of a high-quality pulp
• Application trials for protein and fibre
• Value chain business model modelling
• LCA evaluation of the value chains developed

Invitation to collaborate

RES2PULP aims to build a consortium which covers the value chain and is looking for:

• Suppliers of agri-waste (grass, plant stems), including farmers, agri-food industries or other organizations which manage land and have fibrous biomass available.
• End-users of the fibre stream in paper, composites or insulation material
• Feed industries interested in applying the protein fraction

Partners can participate by providing both in-cash and in-kind contributions, which are matched with an equal amount of TKI funding in order to obtain a multiplied budget for which WFBR will carry out the project.