As part of the TechTour Circular 2025 event, held in Ghent, Belgium from April 23–24, participants were invited to take part in a guided tour of the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP) – one of Europe’s leading open-access pilot facilities for scaling up biobased processes.
Boreal Bioproducts (Montinutra Ltd), key partner in the LUCRA project, joined the BBEPP tour on site. Together with Tanja Meyer, BBEPP European Project Coordinator and also Project Coordinator of LUCRA, they used the opportunity to spotlight the project’s goals and innovative approach to biomass valorization.
The afternoon visit on April 23 began with an introduction to BBEPP’s mission and its role as a scale-up accelerator, supporting innovators in bridging the gap between lab research and industrial production. A key part of the tour highlighted how BBEPP supports companies in leveraging public funding to scale up innovation. Using Boreal Bioproducts’ involvement in LUCRA as a case study, the presentation illustrated how strategic collaboration with BBEPP can open doors to European funding programs. Boreal’s journey demonstrates the potential of combining technical scale-up support with public funding access, significantly accelerating the commercialization pathway for sustainable technologies.
Participants then had the opportunity to explore the pilot plant during a guided tour, gaining insight into its flexible infrastructure and advanced equipment for fermentation, downstream processing, and biomass fractionation – all designed to accelerate the transition to a circular bioeconomy.
See Jaakko Pajunen, CEO of Boreal Bioproducts, introducing the company and explaining their role in LUCRA in the video.
Boreal Bioproducts, based in Finland, specializes in upcycling woody side streams from the forest industry into low-carbon emission biochemicals for use in the personal care and chemical industries. Their portfolio includes polysaccharides, lignins, and phenolic extracts, contributing to the sustainable transformation of underutilized biomass.
In the LUCRA project, Boreal Bioproducts plays a central role in the fractional extraction of lignocellulosic biomass to recover sugars, which are essential for the fermentation into bio-based succinic acid. In addition, the company is investigating the potential for recovering and valorizing other valuable biomass fractions, further expanding the possibilities for circular use.
Events like TechTour Circular 2025 offer a vital platform for strengthening international cooperation, exchanging knowledge, and increasing the visibility of bio-based innovation. Boreal Bioproducts’ participation – both as an active contributor and as a featured case study – underscores the value of collaboration in moving sustainable technologies forward.
The project is supported by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking and its members.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CBE JU. Neither the European Union nor the CBE JU can be held responsible for them.
This work was also co-funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee grant number 10082169.
