Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andrzej Górak
TU Dortmund
Phone: +49 (0)231 755-2323
Email: Andrzej.Gorak@bci.tu-dortmund.de
A highly integrated Europe-wide process chain of biomass conversion from the natural resource to the final commercial product – this is the goal of the large-scale European research project “EuroBioRef”, now funded with 23 million Euro by the EU Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andrzej Górak’s Chair of Fluid Separation of the Faculty Biochemical and Chemical Engineering at Technische Universität Dortmund as well as the company Process Design Center GmbH from Dortmund under the direction of Dr.-Ing. Axel Gottschalk, are among the 28 partners from 14 countries.
The project consortium, coordinated by CNRS, France, will work together for 4 years to overcome the fragmentation in the European biomass industry. Thanks to the fact that stakeholders at all levels, large and small (bio)chemical companies, universities, research institutes and European organisations from different fields of biomass conversion are involved, new synergies, cost savings and improved methods will be the result. Large-scale research, testing, optimisation and demonstration of processes for the production of a range of products, is designed for large and small production units which will allow for flexible use in various European regions. This approach is going to reduce energy and resource consumption considerably. The production of aviation fuels and other chemical products will thus be optimised.
The goals of “EuroBioRef” are ambitious: by means of optimised reaction and separation efficiency, investment cost savings, improved flexibility of plant and natural resources as well as reduced production time and efficient logistics, the economic efficiency is supposed to be increased by 30%, the energy consumption reduced by 30% and waste eliminated.