Development of Green Molecules from Lignocellulosic Biomass for Renewable Chemistry

The GreenMol Project is dedicated to the development of building block, intermediate and end use molecules derived from lignocellulosic biomass to promote a full valorization of agroindustrial residues. The targetmolecules are levulinic acid from cellulose, xylose fatty acid esters from hemicellulose, and a molecular nanosupport for controlled release of bioactive molecules from lignin. These molecules should have a highvalue potential, which will be obtained by means chemocatalytic, enzymatic and physicochemical routes.

The Project will be executed in order to study the three lignocellulosic fractions (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) to obtain renewable chemicals with high innovation potential. A R&D consortium based on highlevel experts was constructed with institutions from Brazil (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – National Research Center for Agroenergy and National Research Center for Environment), Germany (Forschungszentrum Jülich), Uruguay (Faculty of Chemistry/University of La República), and Poland (Cracow University of Technology). Raw materials to be used are agroindustrial residues as beet and sugarcane bagasse and woodymaterials from eucalyptus from paper and pulp industry.