About LowCoBio – interview with project coordinator Linda Sandström
05 March 2025, 15:13
LowCoBio aims to accelerate the commercialisation of renewable fuels from bio-oil by addressing two key challenges - improving production processes and solving corrosion problems. We caught up with Linda Sandström at RISE, who is leading the LowCoBio project, to find out more.
How are the current production processes and the challenge of corrosion holding back the commercialisation of renewable fuels made from bio-oil?
"The properties of bio-oils are quite different from those of fossil oils, and fuel production processes need to be adapted accordingly. Corrosion is one aspect that needs to be well understood before large-scale implementation can take place."
Where did the idea for this project come from?
"It came out of discussions between bio-oil and corrosion researchers, where we realised that we needed to learn more from each other and work together to take this area of research forward."
There are seven partners in this project - can you briefly describe your different approaches and expertise?
"We are four academic/research institute partners in this project. RISE, VTT and CNRS all have long experience related to bio-oils, bio-oil upgrading, and technoeconomic evaluation of these processes, while the French Corrosion institute, as the name implies, are corrosion experts who will in this project collaborate with corrosion experts from RISE. Our industrial partners cover the whole value chain. Valmet produces catalytic pyrolysis oil in demo scale, and Envigas produces biocarbon, with pyrolysis oil as a by-product. They will contribute with both actual bio-oils and pyrolysis related expertise to the project. Industeel (subsidiary of ArcelorMittal) is a high-quality steels producer, and they will contribute with expertise related to steel materials.
In addition to the project partners, we also have a strong advisory board, with representatives from both industry and academia."
LowCoBio was only launched at the beginning of this year – what has been going on within the project so far and what will be the main focus in 2025?
"To date, we have selected relevant biomass feedstocks for inclusion in the project. During 2025, these biomasses will be pyrolysed into bio-oils in a screening study, both as received and after various pre-treatments. It is hoped that the pretreatments will both reduce the corrosivity of the bio-oils produced and improve the yield and quality of the final biofuel product."