Shared Research Center Biorizon receives €2,5 million start up funding

On 3rd December 2013, TNO, VITO and the Green Chemistry Campus launch Biorizon >> The Way to Aromatics. This Shared Research Center is anticipating the expected growing shortage of aromatics from the petrochemical industry and the widely shared ambition to green the chemical industry. Biorizon has received €2,5 million start up funding that enables them to start working on innovative technologies to develop aromatics out of agro-residuals. Biorizon’s ambition is to become one of the world’s top centers within five years. Currently Biorizon is attracting global leaders as well as SME’s in the fields of feedstock, conversion, equipment and end products to join their Shared Research Center.

“Biorizon’s initial focus will be on the technology development for the production of biobased aromatics for performance materials, chemicals and coatings. In time, laboratory experiments, demo-scale piloting for selected technologies and an extensive knowledge and patent portfolio of innovative process routes and novel products will be delivered as results for the participating companies”, says Florian Graichen from VITO.

The industry’s need for biobased aromatics

Aromatics represent a significant share of our today’s chemical building blocks, not only in

order to create fuel components, base chemicals or polymers, but also to create polymer additives,

colorants, flavors and fragrances. The market for aromatics is growing 5 to 10% annually. Currently virtually all aromatic building blocks are made from fossil oil that will become scarce. Hence, it is important to develop technology to replace the current aromatic petrochemical based building blocks by alternative feedstock. Shale gas and shale oil are rapidly emerging as a new feedstock, and they produce no aromatic compounds contrary to fossil oil and naphta.

Given the global challenges that society is facing with respect to CO2 emissions, pollution, global warming and shortage of suitable fossil oil reserves, new biobased production routes need to be realized urgently to address the ecological andeconomic challenges that humanity and industry are facing. Biorizon   supports the industry by developing new technologies for aromatics from bio-based feedstock.

Initiators: TNO, VITO & Green Chemistry Campus

For the initiators -TNO, VITO and the Green Chemistry Campus – Biorizon is a unique opportunity to accelerate the innovation required and, in doing so, contribute to the realization of the biobased economy as well as to the success of the industry. It also fits in perfectly with the COCI status that VNCI has awarded the Green Chemistry Campus: Center for Open Chemical Innovation. TNO and VITO, both of whom have years of experience with this form of collaboration, are executing the research in close cooperation with the participating companies. TNO and VITO will deploy their knowledge and experience in the field of feedstock, biotech, chemistry, process technology and applications.

Cross-border: from Biobased Delta via Biobase-Europe to ARRR

Biorizon is not confined within the borders of Belgium or the Netherlands. Willem Sederel, Director of Biobased Delta in which Biorizon is established: “Biobased Delta is currently the focus point: the collaboration of businesses, authorities and knowledge institutes in the Southwest-Netherlands. Under the slogan ‘Agro meets Chemistry’ we are working on upgrading agro-residuals in bio-based innovations. Biobase-Europe (Ghent-Terneuzen) is also involved and, over time, we want to bundle and cluster activities within the largest chemical cluster in the world, ARRR (Antwerp-Rotterdam-Rhein-Ruhr). This fits in perfectly with European policy that aims to strengthen these regions according to the principal of smart specialization”.

€2,5 million start up funding

Biorizon is co-financed by TNO, VITO, NV REWIN West-Brabant, the province of Noord-Brabant and the Green Chemistry Campus. Additionally, last month Biorizon has received a subsidy from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Dutch government under the Operational Program South Netherlands (OP-Zuid). The regional development agency NV REWIN West-Brabant has enabled Biorizon to apply for the OP Zuid subsidy. NV REWIN West-Brabant is one of the partners of the Green Chemistry Campus, where Biorizon is located.

To assure the achievement of Biorizon’s goal – commercialization of bio-aromatics business on the short, medium and long-term – Biorizon developed a roadmap, which will be further developed by the participating industrial organizations. The initial roadmap was established with a contribution from REAP (Regional Economic Action Program) and from the Province of North-Brabant.

Interested in participating? Read more. and/or contact Wiebe Logghe via +31 (0)6 30 96 36 95 or w.logghe@greenchemistrycampus.com

Biorizon

Biorizon, previously known as ‘Shared Research Center Biobased Aromatics’, is a cross-border initiative between TNO, VITO and the Green Chemistry Campus and is part of Biobased Delta. Biorizon focuses on the technology development for the production of biobased aromatics for performance materials, chemicals & coatings. The ambition is to become one of the world’s top centers in this field within five years. http://www.biorizon.eu

TNO

TNO is an independent research organization that, on the basis of its expertise and innovations, makes an important contribution to the competitive strength of businesses and organizations, the economy and the quality of society in its entirety. TNO occupies a unique position thanks to its versatility and its capacity to integrate this knowledge. http://www.tno.nl

VITO

As an independent and customer-orientated research organization, VITO provides innovative technological solutions and makes scientifically-based recommendations and provides support to stimulate sustainable development and reinforce the economic and social fabric of Flanders. http://www.vito.be

Green Chemistry Campus

The Green Chemistry Campus, located on the SABIC Innovative Plastics site in Bergen op Zoom is an incubator where businesses accelerate their bio-based innovations on the cutting edge of agro and chemistry. The campus is an initiative of the Province of North Brabant, the Municipality of Bergen op Zoom and NV REWIN West-Brabant. http://www.greenchemistrycampus.com

OP-Zuid

The Operational Program South-Netherlands (OP-Zuid) is a collective programme of subsidies of the Dutch government, the provinces of Limburg, Noord-Brabant and Zeeland, together with the cities of Breda, Tilburg, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven, Helmond, Venlo, Sittard-Geleen, Heerlen and Maastricht. For the execution of the OP-Zuid programme, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has got € 186 million available. It is expected that the total investment value of OP-Zuid will amount to € 660 million in the timeframe 2007 – 2013. The main goal of OP-Zuid is to promote regional competitiveness, a sustainable economic growth and creation of jobs and employment in South-Netherlands. The financial support programmes implement the regional ambition to strengthen South-Netherlands as a European top region in the field of technology.

http://www.op-zuid.nl

For more information on OP-Zuid and the European Regional Development Fund please contact Stimulus Programmamanagement via (0031) (0)40 – 237 01 00 or visit the website www.op-zuid.nl.