Green chemicals from pyrolysis oil for wood protection and wood adhesives

Purpose and goal:

The purpose and goal of the project has been to evaluate the potential of extracting green chemicals from pyrolysis oil from a commercial biochar production facility. The project´s focus is to validate technically and market-wise the green chemicals and propose methods to fractionate, separate and purify them. The project has also investigated the possibility of using pyrolysis oil or fractions thereof as mold protection for wood.

Project has also continuously validated the possibility of a continuation project for further tests and scaling up. Expected results and effects:

The project has identified a number of green biochemicals as potentially interesting for further technical-economic evaluation and scale-up and chemical-technical procedures to isolate these have been tested in the lab with good results. An early evaluation of these green chemicals and process methodology has been done together with a chemical expert and led to a discussion platform for a possible further project with more actors.

The project has also tested pyrolysis oil derivatives as mold protection on lumber with interesting results that will continue in other projects. Approach and implementation:

The project has started from a biocoal plant where sustainability and a good economic outcome from side streams are sought. The focus was to try to extract green chemicals for which there is a strong demand as a substitute for fossil-based chemicals. This has worked well for early results with the actors to develop and analyze the biochar plant and chemical-technical methods for an upcoming project with several possible commercial actors downstream. For the concept of mold protection on wood, the results showed the need for more basic knowledge.