TOPBIO-Valorization of wood waste into TOP quality BIOcarbon for sustainable metallurgical industry

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

The Norwegian Process industry Roadmap lays the foundation for an accelerated utilization of Norwegian biomass resources that would reduce the carbon footprint and targets a 43% reduction of CO2 by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. To enable this transition, metallurgical industry in Norway seeks to substitute large amounts of biobased material for fossil reductants in their processes. Biocarbon produced from biomass materials has great potentials to replace fossil reductants and increase sustainability of metallurgical industry. R&D activities and industry practices are urgently needed to secure production of affordable biocarbon with constant and suitable properties satisfying demands required by metallurgical industries. This project responds to national and regional strategies and goals to exploit local available wood wastes and produce biocarbon with enhanced properties for metal production applications. Conversion of wood waste to high value biocarbon can considerably improve material efficiency and boost development of regional circular economy. Production and upgrading of biocarbon through novel measures will further improve quality of biocarbon for transportation, storage and application. Realization of the objectives of the TOPBIO project can further improve marketability of biocarbon and promote industrial scale utilization for greener metal production. The TOPBIO project aims to produce top quality biocarbon from wood wastes for metallurgical industries through (1) optimised sourcing and leaching of wood wastes with sufficient quality satisfying biocarbon production and (2) densification of biocarbon with novel use of bio-oil as binder to maximize mechanical properties. Anticipated project impacts include reducing high dependence of metal production on fossil reductants, production of low-cost and high-performance biocarbon from sustainable raw feedstocks, boosting development and adaption of novel technologies in the regional and national industry sector.