SUPRABIO is one of four research projects developing biorefinery technology that are funded under the European Commission’s Sustainable Biorefineries Call (FP7-2009-BIOREFINERY-CP). Its sister projects are EuroBioRef, BIOCORE and Star-Colibri. The biorefinery projects will co-operate and liaise with the aim to:

• Harmonise procedures for multicriteria sustainability analyses;
• Harmonise biomass characterization protocols; and
• Explore opportunities to organize common training and education acitivities.

The Star-COLIBRI project (Strategic Research Targets for 2020 – Collaboration Initiative on Biorefineries) is a Coordination and Support Action aimed at overcoming fragmentation and promoting cross-fertilisation in the area of biorefineries research. The project will support innovations by speeding up and facilitating industrial exploitation of research results in the biorefinery field, as well as promote coordination in the field of future R&D funding and facilitate the creation of Public-Private Partnerships. Website: www.star-colibri.eu.

The EUROBIOREF project (EUROpean multilevel integrated BIOREFinery design for sustainable biomass processing) targets research, testing, optimisation and demonstration of bio-refinery processes with the dual aim to use all fractions of various biomasses and exploit their potential to produce the highest value possible in an eco-efficient and sustainable way. Moreover, the project attempts to overcome the fragmentation of the whole biomass value chain requiring greater networking, coordination and cooperation among a large variety of actors from biochemical and chemical industry, SMEs, scientific knowledge chain, and European organisations. Website: www.eurobioref.org.

The BIOCORE project (Biocommodity refinery) will conceive and analyse the industrial feasibility of a biorefinery that will allow the conversion of a variety of non-food biomass, including cereal by-products (straws etc.), forestry residues and short rotation woody crops, into 2^nd generation biofuel, chemicals and polymers. In BIOCORE, the biomass feedstock will be used as a source of energetic molecules, but special emphasis will be placed on the use of biomass as a source of renewable carbon for the manufacture of chemicals that will substitute for petrochemicals. Through pilot scaling testing of certain technologies, BIOCORE will be able to demonstrate the industrial feasibility of biorefining in conditions that are close to the market. From a sustainability point of view, BIOCORE will implement multicriteria sustainability studies of the overall concept, which will aim to demonstrate the impacts of BIOCORE with respect to the environment and society. Website: www.biocore-europe.org.

A press release on the biorefinery projects is available here.