About the BPF
Bio-based economy
Finite supplies of fossil fuels and raw materials, climate change issues and our dependence on oil urge our society to start using renewable, “green” resources for the production of chemicals, materials and fuels. These resources are biological materials such as for agricultural waste or plant materials, which cause less pollution and are available in infinite amounts.
Bioprocesses
The processes used to produce chemicals, materials and fuels out of biomaterials are called bioprocesses. By switching to such processes we can move from a fossil-based economy towards a bio-based economy. Research on bioprocesses is mostly done on a laboratory scale. However, do these processes behave the same way on larger scales? This question has to be dealt with before companies can begin to scale-up new processes and eventually apply them on an industrial scale.
Bioprocess Pilot Facility
Scale-up research is very risky and requires extensive experimentation using advanced equipment. An R&D facility dedicated to bioprocesses scale-up is so complex and expensive that it can only be realized in a broad collaboration. This is why BE-Basic is developing a unique multi-purpose facility where universities, companies and knowledge institutions from all over the world can investigate how production processes respond to large scales and how they can be scaled up. Here, issues that do not occur at laboratory scale can be detected and studied.
Equipment and expertise
The facility has a modular setup. Users themselves select the process to be investigated from the available modules, ranging from various methods of biomass pretreatment, fermentation, recycling and purification to third-generation bioprocesses. As such, the facility is flexible and geared towards the needs of researchers from universities, knowledge institutions and industries, large and small, from the chemical industry to equipment manufacturing. Through BE-Basic, the Bioprocess Pilot Facility will be a centre of bioprocessing expertise. Training opportunities will be available for students, researchers and technologists.
Partners and location
The Bioprocess Pilot Facility will be realised in Delft by a consortium of industrial partners and knowledge institutions led by Delft University of Technology. The BE-Basic partners will perform research at the facility. Small and large companies from the agro, paper and chemical industrial sectors have already expressed interest in using the facility.
