Turku, Finland – July 3, 2024 – At the beginning of July, the LUCRA project partners gathered in Turku for their third consortium meeting, hosted by project partner Boreal Bioproducts (Montinutra Ltd). The meeting served as a platform to update partners on the progress of the different work packages and to discuss the next steps.

The project partners were welcomed in the Aurum building, home of the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Åbo Akademi University and the Department of Chemistry of the University of Turku. The first day of the General Assembly was used to discuss the project progress in some of the different work packages and upcoming deliverables. In the afternoon, the consortium visited the pilot plant and research facilities of Boreal Bioproducts, specialized in biomass fractional extraction of sugar recovery from lignocellulosic biomass, facilitating the steps before bio-succinic acid fermentation.

In the evening, the LUCRA consortium joined a dinner cruise around the Turku archipelago. The ship stopped at Naantali’s old town pier for half an hour, allowing the consortium to explore the colorful waterfront boulevard. 

The second day started with presentations of the rest of the work packages done by the corresponding leaders and ended with a conclusion break-out session. After that, it was time to head back home highly motivated to continue working on the transformation of organic waste into biobased succinic acid and already looking forward to the next project meeting in Birmingham by the end of the year.