The bioeconomy is a hot topic these days, right up at the top of policy agendas. It involves using renewable natural resources as a raw material. The circular bioeconomy introduces circularity into this concept: using what would otherwise be thrown away, using spent biological resources to regenerate ecosystems and minimising waste.

The ECESP website has a good selection of circular bioeconomy-themed content. This series will shine a spotlight on it.

Circular bioeconomy concept: a project investigating ways to make two biobased compounds more efficiently

EU biorefineries producing bio-based products will be an important part of the circular bio-based economy. This project is contributing to that dynamic.

PROMOFER is funded by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking. It aims to produce circular bio-based products for use in the agriculture, packaging and textiles sectors.

Its main goal is to make the fermentation process involved in producing two of the most commercialised biobased compounds more efficient. These compounds are Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), a flexible, biodegradable and biobased polymer with good thermal and mechanical properties, and 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO), a chemical compound in high demand for a wide range of applications (printing inks, perfumes, fumigants, moistening agents and softening agents). Producing these compounds via fermentation is not new, but current methods are unable to compete with chemical synthesis processes.

2,3-BDO obtained by fermentation will be used as starting material to produce biobased polyurethanes. PROMOFER will demonstrate fermentation technologies to facilitate the large-scale deployment of industrial bio-based systems (PHBV and 2,3-BDO).

PROMOFER will contribute to significant knowledge advancements in biobased waste treatments, improvements of strain capacities, uses of biocatalysts, process designs and downstream processes.

This project is coordinated by AIMPLAS and the Consortium has 13 partners from seven European countries. The project will run for 48 months, until June 2028.

Expected results

The project will explore ways to use low value, renewable feedstocks to make two biobased compounds: starches, whey permeate, industrial wastewater to make PHBV and rice straw, wheat straw and prune waste to make 2,3-BDO.

It aims to improve fermentation processes and downstream purification, solve bottlenecks upstream and downstream and produce high-value applications.