A new research consortium will create value chains from waste biomass in South Africa
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
A newly established initiative in South Africa,
the Biorefinery Research Consortium (BRC), will develop opportunities for the
beneficiation of wastes from forestry, timber, pulp and paper industries (see press
release from the South African Government News Agency, 20/09/2018). The
consortium is a partnership between the Council
for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Tshwane University of Technology, the University of the Witwatersrand and Sekolong
Sa Dimelana (a rural-based bioenterprise).
The BRC will use the recently launched Biorefinery
Industry Development Facility (BIDF) that supports innovation in a range of
industries (including forestry, agro-processing and other biomass-based
industries) at the CSIR's Durban campus (see “The
South African Government launches the Biorefinery Industry Development Facility
in Durban”, 26/3/2018). The consortium has been envisaged with a strong
emphasis on the full value chain and will provide broad access to technical
expertise and the biorefinery demonstration infrastructure of the BIDF.
Figure 1. Bruce Sithole,
CSIR Manager for Forestry Products, at the opening of the BIDF in March 2018 (extracted
from “Mining
forestry waste streams”, SA Forestry online)
The BIDF has developed a novel process to
produce cellulose nanocrystals directly from wood sawdust. The cellulose
nanocrystals produced at the BIDF will be used by other consortium members for
downstream development of various nanocellulose-based products, such as
high-performance composites for packaging and construction sectors and
biopolymers for water filtration and biomedical applications.
