Purac starts project to produce lactic acid from papermaking waste streams
12 July 2010. Back
to overview
Purac has signed a contract to participate in a
consortium that will develop a process to produce feedstock from
cellulosic waste derived from the pulp and paper industry. This
feedstock is expected to be usable for production of lactic acid.
The other partners in the program are Crown Van Gelder N.V., a
paper producing company, and Bumaga B.V., a development center in
the paper and board industry. The project is part of the
Dutch Biorefinery program and partially funded by the Dutch
Ministries of Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Nature and Food
Quality.
Purac is a partner in this consortium as it develops new
sustainable building blocks for the chemical industry. Purac
already has some important initiatives in this area such as
Lactides for Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) and Succinic Acid. This
initiative will also speed up Purac's program to use alternative
non-food substrates such as agricultural byproducts instead of
sugars, glucose and tapioca starch as substrates for its
fermentation processes.
Fabrizio Rampinelli, CEO of Purac comments: "The participation
of Purac in this project fits the program of Purac in the area of
sustainable chemistry. This program gives us a considerable
opportunity together with our partners, to grow the market for
bio-based chemicals and contribute to a sustainable
economy."