From biomass to
polyurethane
building blocks at semi-industrial scale
The Revelance
Aniline is one of the key building blocks of the chemical industry
Produced at multi-million-tonne scale each year, almost all aniline today is made from fossil oil. Life cycle assessment data show that fossil-based aniline production generates 5–6 kg CO₂ -equivalents per kilogram of product– making it a significant contributor to industrial greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.¹
Aniline is a key precursor for MDI-based polyurethanes, which are widely used in insulation panels, foams, coatings and adhesives.
Switching to bio-based aniline offers a direct route to reducing the carbon footprint of these value chains – without compromising material performance.
¹ Winter, Meys & Bardow (2021), Journal of Cleaner Production. Cradle-to-grave, EU/US average.
What we do
Bio4PURConti decouples aniline production from fossil feedstocks
The project uses a well-known industrial microbe and renewable raw materials to produce an intermediate which is further converted to bio-based aniline.
The resulting bio-based aniline is designed as a drop-in, chemically the same as the fossil version, so it can feed straight into existing polyurethane plants, with no need to redesign them.
Why continuous
Bio4PURConti works on a continuous process instead
Most industrial fermentation run in batches, one tank at a time, then stop, empty and clean.
The microbes keep producing over long periods, and their cells are recycled back into the system. The goal is to get far more product from the same reactor over time, to lower both the cost of building a plant and the cost of running it, and to use water and raw materials more carefully.
The consortium will prove the idea step by step, from the laboratory bench up to a semi-industrial tank of 1.5 cubic metres.
10 partners
Key numbers
Partners
Countries
Months
demonstration scale
Millions Funding
How it works
Smarter production strains
An industrially well-known microbe is engineered to reliably convert plant-based sugars into aminobenzoic acid efficiently and keeps doing so during long continuous runs, including when fed with wood-based sugars.
Continuous fermentation with cell recycling
By running fermentation continuously and recycling the cells, we maximise productivity and resource efficiency.
Real-time analytics and control
Advanced analytics, soft sensors and model-based control strategies enable stable, efficient and autonomous continuous fermentation at semi-industrial scale.
Scale-up and demonstration
We take the process from the lab to 150 litres, then to 1.5 cubic metres, and aim to produce at least one tonne of the bio-based building block at that scale.
Safety and sustainability, assessed
An independent Safe and Sustainable by Design study and a full life cycle assessment run alongside the science, measured against fossil aniline as the baseline.
Knowledge exchange and application of results
The lessons feed a Batch2Conti toolbox, so other fermentation processes can follow the same path from batch to continuous.
The bio-based aniline is validated with industrial customers.
Bio-based is not automatically better for the planet
Whether this route lowers emissions depends on the feedstock, the energy it uses and the whole supply chain behind it.
That is why an independent sustainability and life cycle assessment runs through the entire project, led by VTT, comparing the bio-based route against fossil aniline.
The strong environmental targets the project is working towards —including a significant reduction in carbon footprint— will be evaluated during the project.