Work packages

The work in AFORE is divided to interrelated work packages that focus on particular tasks, as summarized below.

WP1 Solid material processing and fractionation technologies
Delivery of the well-characterised solid wood-origin raw materials will be carried out. Innovative pre-processing technologies for primary fractionation of raw materials and novel pulping and matrix opening technologies will be developed. Furthermore, novel extraction processes for the isolation of valuable components from starting or pre-treated solid raw materials will be developed.

WP2 Pulping liquor and wood extracts processing
Separation and fractionation process technologies suitable for recovering wood components from process liquids in existing kraft mills and from liquids derived from novel extraction, pulping and matrix opening processes will be developed.

WP3 Primary product upgrading
Primary products obtained from WP1 and WP2 will be further fractionated and purified for application needs. Primary products will be evaluated for their suitability as starting chemicals or materials for selected bulk or high-value product applications as such or after upgrading by enzymatic, chemical or combinatory technologies. A special focus will be in the development of novel heterogenous catalysts for fast lignin pyrolysis to be further applied in bio-oil, phenols type added-value chemicals and syngas production.

WP4 Selection and up-scaling of potential technologies
The most promising processing and fractionation technologies related to the current kraft pulp mills or in the novel forest biorefineries will be selected and up-scaled for demonstrations in WP6. The selection is based on technological results and on concept evaluation results in other WPs.

WP5 Profitability and sustainability
This work package will assess the profitability and sustainability of the products and processes developed within the AFORE project. It will evaluate the techno-economical feasibility of the processing technologies developed by process simulation models. For potential products and applications it will investigate value chains by market surveys and econometrics in order to define the commercial opportunities by describing foreseen user requirements in relation to product properties (e.g. price, quantity, technical properties). Finally it will identify and assess the environmental effects of the raw materials, processes and products developed for example by Life Cycle Assessment and greenhouse gas emission analysis.

WP6 Demonstration in pilot or mill scale
Demonstration of the selected separation and fractionation processes related to the existing kraft pulp mills and the novel biorefinery systems.