Petroleum resources currently provide the main raw material used in the production of chemicals including synthetic polymers. In addition to the escalating scarcity of these resources, the harmful impact on human health as well as on environment is motivating the scientific community to develop sustainable alternatives for the chemical industry in general and for the polymer production in particular. In this context, renewable building blocks derived from biomass are considered as attractive and inexhaustible resources, if the cultivation of these later ones is well managed. Some of the key renewable raw materials being used to replace petrochemical feedstocks include plant oils, polysaccharides and other plant cell wall components such as lignin or polysaccharides. Hemicelluloses, which represent 15% to 35% of plants and wood and are the second most abundant natural polymers in the vegetal world after cellulose can be considered as a very interesting and underexploited source of bio-based building blocks for the chemistry and polymer industries. Unlike cellulose, hemicelluloses are composed of different 5- and 6-carbon sugars, have a low degree of polymerisation (50-300), present ramification in the main chain molecule, and are essentially amorphous. The most important classes of hemicellulose belong to (galacto)-glucomannans (G-GM) and arabino-xylans (AX). Recent efforts have been undergone to allow extracting hemicelluloses prior Kraft cooking with a minimum of damage to the fibers used in papermaking. However, despite important efforts, a large fraction of the extracted hemicelluloses-rich material is composed of monomers or low-molecular mass oligomers. Alternatives to add value to this low molecular mass fraction are therefore needed. In this project, we propose the development of i) an efficient recovery process for this low-molecular fraction and ii) the production of polyols through catalytic deoxygenation of the sugars; iii) their oxidation into dicarboxylic acids to be used as renewable building blocks for iv) the synthesis of polyesters and polyurethanes, with the main objective to replace petroleum-based counterparts. Based on previous work carried out for other mono/polysaccharides, the project proposes to study the hydrolysis/hydrogenolysis of soluble hemicelluloses/oligomers/monomers in presence of supported metals as catalysts to produce polyols (C2-C6) having different OH groups and their conversion into polymerisable dicarboxylic acids, depending on the reaction conditions. Depending on the number of remaining carbon atoms in the polyols (breakdown of C-C linkages), the number of OH groups (deoxygenation) and the degree of oxidation of OH into COOH groups, totally different polymers (polyesters or polyurethanes) can be obtained. The most promising conditions for hemicelluloses extraction and purification, their catalytic transformation into polyols then to carboxylic acids and polymerization as polyesters or polyurethanes will be optimized and scaled-up in order to produce enough amounts of materials to be tested in some specific applications (composites, insulating panels, cosmetics, etc). The approach will be completed by (simplified) technical, environmental and economic studies compared to other commercially available polyesters and polyurethanes. The project constitutes thus a coherent ensemble, proposing a new, eco-efficient way of producing bio-sourced commodity products. Although fundamental research aspects constitute the core of the project, the consortium gathers cross-disciplinary partners: IRCELYON, specialized in catalysis; LIST, specialized in polymers and materials science and FCBA, technical center for the forest-related industries which is in strong connection with wood, pulp and paper, and chemistry industry. This will undoubtedly guarantee effective transfer of knowledge created during the project to industry.

The BIOPICK project proposes to develop new uses of particles from the wood to at the micro - and nanoscale to obtain particles with properties to stabilize the water/oil interfaces in water in oil, oil in water et multiple emulsions. The wood will provide a model. It is a challenge which will include new and/or more high value-added applications. This project aims at replacing surfactants which are usually released in the environment, by particles themselves from the biodegradable biomass. It comes here to initiate a global chain more respectful of the environment. BIOPICK also proposes to assess the environmental impact of the project simultaneously to its implementation. In addition to the scientific and technological criteria, this assessment may influence the choice of particles.

MOQAPRO’s main target is a large scale and integrated approach, from forest land to energy mills, of quantity and quality monitoring of the woodchips production chain, due to specific methods and tools development for quality measures and production management. Quality monitoring for woodchips is mainly depending on moisture measurement, at every step of the production chain. Size grading and fermentation measurement are also needed. For quantity aspects, volume and mass have to be precisely known, which is not as easy as it could seems, because of woodchips mass variations, and large scale heap characteristics. Monitoring MWh unit all over this production chain means a permanent measurement of woodchips mass and moisture. Good methods for roadside or platform storage, and quality packing, must be precisely described and estimated. Forest biomass for energy production takes various forms and is changing is characteristics during the production chain. This is why detailed information is needed from harvesting operations and logistics organizations at key steps. Using these data, a specifications document will be elaborated, and on this basis, a specific information system for woodchips storage optimization will be developed. Further, for platform storage monitoring, new methods for woodchips heap visible volume must be tested. The goal is here to adapt technologies to rough storage sites conditions, and to allow automatics and economics frequent measurement, for big scale volume. Two very innovating tools will be developed for moisture measurement. They will be a result of OMICAGE’s previous project first conclusions, due to good results of the demonstrator used in laboratory conditions for dynamic woodchips flow. The measurement principle has been registered in a deposited patent. It is based on electromagnetic waves, and is developed for moisture evaluation at woodchips crushing machine exit system. It’s now necessary to develop this technology for many woodchips types, and various worksites conditions, to get a pre industrial prototype. A second tool is needed for moisture measurement of more important woodchips volume, on static conditions. This tool will be developed with a laboratory prototype first step, using same technologic basis, but with important adaptations. A new prototype, on scale 1 will be tested on worksites conditions, especially on storage platform. In both tools, mass measurement tolls will be integrated in each prototype, allowing Mwh unit monitoring new possibilities. Before all this, and as a complement to the state of art already done, and to the proper expertise of this project partners, investigations will be led in various countries, to identify production methods, monitoring tools which could be adapted to French forest conditions. For further development of industrialization steps, contacts and partnerships will be looked for, especially with forest harvesting and crushing machines constructors. Results of this project are eagerly awaited by many actors of woodchips production chain. It is highly strategic to give innovating solutions for these monitoring aspects, especially on moisture measurement, to allow high industrial scale level of forest biomass energy production, in liable economic conditions.

A good knowledge of the biomass location, its characteristics (quantity and quality) and its mobilization conditions (exploitability, service roads, mobilization costs) is essential to the development of the forest biomass industry. This knowledge is currently insufficient to provide at reasonable costs, the required guarantees on the wood supply and on its sustainability. The demand is however increasing due to a large number of new projects requiring increasingly large biomass volumes. Indeed, the only consistent data available today are those of the National Forest Inventory (NFI), which are nationwide statistics that do not lend themselves to mapping the resource at sub-regional levels such as a supply basin. Up to now, the use of remote sensing data did not meet the precision requirements to take into account stand structure, which is an essential parameter for the quantification and qualification of the forest resource. Recent developments in LiDAR technology (new sensors, GPS and inertial central), combined to other data sources already available (high resolution satellite images, aerial photographs), are now allowing a precise and fine forest description, in terms of both resource characterisation and mobilization conditions. Integrating this technology will provide an innovative response to the challenges of wood mobilization, including that of wood energy. The Foresee project aims to provide new tools for assessing the characteristics and dynamics of the forest resource biomass and the conditions of its mobilization at the supply basins level.