Research institutions:

• Targets / aims

  The Centre aims to develop innovative technology and support industries to realize economic and sustainable conversion of lignocellulosic  biomass and organic residues to transportation fuels, along with added value chemicals, heat and power. 

• Key research areas

  Key research is to increase the effeciency and yields of major process steps within the different value chains, as well as achieving techno-economic insights for the optimal integration within and across value chains and greater understanding of the environmental consequences of the various value chains.

• Bringing major players together

  Bio4Fuels for the first time brings together leading Norwegian research institutions, universities, key national and international partners, major forestry resources owners and regional authority into one common initiative on production of energy carriers from renewable sources.

News from Bio4Fuels

Events

• More about the project

  Norwegian Centre for Sustainable Bio-based Fuels and Energy (Bio4Fuels).
  A Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME) based at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) since 2017.

  Bio4Fuels is a cross-disciplinary research centre involving graduate students, PhD students and research scientists at Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and University of South-Eastern Norway (USN). The Centre has an extensive network of partners from industry, research institutes and academia, both in Norway and abroad, and public bodies.

  The ambition of the Bio4Fuels Centre is to reduce the impact of climate gas emissions from the transport sector through sustainable and economic production of Biofuels. Biomass, in particular low-grade fractions of wood from the forest and waste from agriculture, is a renewable resource that can potentially substitute the use of fossil resources in the transport sector, together with other renewable energy solutions. 

  There are four main biomass-to-products-routes identified for the Centre: 

  • Breaking down the biomass to separate the sugars in the biomass for use in fermentation to produce "Bio-alcohols". This can be blended up to certain levels into existing fuels. 
  • Fermentation of the biomass in the absence of oxygen to produce "Biogas". This Biogas can be upgraded to methane, liquified or converted to hydrogen for use as fuels in transport. 
  • Treatment of the biomass at higher temperatures in the absence of oxygen to produce a liquid "Biooil", which is then upgraded to a substitute Biofuel.
  • Treatment of the biomass at higher temperatures to convert to gas, followed by upgrading of the gas to a substitute Biofuel. 

  In addition to the main routes from biomass to Biofuels, it is also important to convert side streams and byproducts from the processes to products of higher value than fuels. This can be important to help the overall economics of the commercial process. 

  In addition to the research on the processes, Bio4fuels has a significant activity focused on issues related to the sustainability and economics related to the production of biofuels: 

  • Improving the technologies and economics of processes for converting Biomass to Biofuel. 
  • Investigating the sustainability and impact of large-scale use of low-grade Biomass for Biofuels production.
  • Evaluating process concepts and testing the quality of the Biofuels for existing engines.

  The research Centre is organized into five Sub Projects (SP):

  • SP1: Bio-resource, Environment and Climate
  • SP2: Liquefaction Processes
  • SP3: Biochemical Processes
  • SP4: Gasification Processes
  • SP5: Process design and End Use

• Partners

  The Bio4Fuels consortium comprises eight Norwegian academic partners, six international academic partners, 35 partners from industry and NGO's and eight partners representing public bodies. Together the research group adresses the main challenges of the core biomass value chain.

  Research partners:

  	Scientific Contribution	Role in the Centre
  SINTEF	Hydrotreating, Fermentation, Separation, Process Design, Tech. Econ. Evaluation, Combustion, Gasification, Liquefaction	Centre Leader, SP and WP leader
  NMBU	Pretreatment, Enzyme technology, Fermentation, Anaerobic digestion	Host institution, Admin. Leader, Education, SP and WP leader
  NTNU	Environment policy, Combustion, Chemical and Catalytic Conversion, End Use	Education, SP and WP leader
  RISE PFI	Liquefaction, Pretreatment	WP leader
  NIBIO	Environment policy, Anaerobic digestion	Education, WP leader
  USN	Process design, Up-scaling	Education, WP leader
  IFE	Anaerobic digestion	Research Partner

   
  Public bodies:

  Trøndelag County, Innlandet County, Statens Vegvesen

  Framing regulation and fostering industrial development

  
  Industry, NGO's:

  Norges Skogeierforbund (NO)	Lignocellulosics
  Norges Bondelag (NO)	Agri biomass
  Renovasjons- og gjenvinningsetaten, Oslo kommune (NO)	Municipal solid waste
  Zero (NO), NoBio (NO)	NGO
  Equinor (NO)	Feed stock supply, value chains, co-processing
  Statkraft (NO)	Combustion & Stationary energy
  Biozin (NO), Johnson Matthey (UK), BTG-BTL (BE), Steeper (DK), Silva Green Fuel / Statkraft (NO)	Gasification & Pyrolysis
  Biokraft AS (NO), Cambi (NO), Norske Skog Saugbrugs (NO)	Anerobic digestion and Biogas
  Borregaard (NO), UMOE AS (NO), Novozymes (DK)	Biochemical conversion
  Alginor (NO)	Value added Chemicals
  Avinor (NO), Eco-1 (NO), Volvo GTT (SE), LOGE AB (SE)	End users
  Herøya Industri Park (NO)	Piloting & Scale UP
  Innovasjon Norge (NO), Enova (NO)	Innovation Funding agencies

  
  International partners:

  Johnson Matthey (UK), BTG-BTL (BE), Steeper (DK)	Gasification & Pyrolysis
  NeoZeo (SE)	Anerobic digestion and Biogas
  Novozymes (DK)	Biochemical conversion
  LOGE AB (SE)	End users

• Annual reports

  Annual Report 2023	Annual Report 2023 - Brochure
  Annual Report 2022	Annual Report 2022 - Brochure
  Annual Report 2021	Annual Report 2021 - Brochure
  Annual Report 2020	Annual Report 2020 - Brochure
  Annual Report 2019	Annual Report 2019 - Brochure
  Annual Report 2018
  Annual Report 2017

• Newsletters

  Fall 2023

  Summer 2023

Contact the Centre

Duncan Akporiaye

SINTEF

Tel. +47 93 05 91 66

Project manager