The project ran between June 2020 and June 2022.
The project has shown that it is possible to produce high-quality PLA from residual streams from the forest industry. The project’s results with good yields in conversion of glucose to lactic acid, show that we can reach industrial levels from this stream. In subsequent processing, steps that must be carried out to obtain a high-quality, industrial PLA have been identified. The project has produced PLA on a small scale by reactive extrusion. This technology requires less investment than a traditional technology and would therefore be interesting to evaluate on a larger scale.
The goal of producing volumes for further processing proved more challenging than the original plan. This has implied that building knowledge on techno-economic conditions, go-to-market strategies and sustainability analyses have not been implemented. The project therefore ends prematurely without having delivered on the goals for Work Packages 3, 4 and 5. However, the project would like to emphasize that the results from Work Packages 1 and 2, show a high potential regarding producing PLA from forest residual streams and that it would be justified to continue working on a similar project.
Participants
Domsjö fabriker, RISE Processum, Chalmers tekniska högskola, Chalmers Industriteknik, Add North AB, Bervero AB och Kinds Produkter AB.
Budget
The project’s total budget was 5,2 MSEK.