BioEB is the culmination of more than 20 years of research and development led by Prof. Michel Delmas on lignocellulosic biomass refining
This revolutionary concept is built on the ability of formic acid to refine all non-food biomass material into its 3 components: cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses
It was from the 2000s that a cellulose pulp equivalent to a commercial pulp was produced, from cereal straw, by using formic acid as extraction solvent
Lignin and hemicelluloses were in turn separated without degradation with a major breakthrough discovery for lignin and the concept of vegetal refining
Indeed, from 2003 and for the first time in the scientific world, lignin was described as a set of linear oligomers with homogeneous structures close to the native structure of lignin in plant matter
There followed a period of intensive research on its structural characterization and its possibilities of application in all fields of modern chemistry
In 2010 the European Biocore program, coordinated by INRA, was launched for 4 years with an exceptional partnership of 24 European companies and universities working on cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses extracted from cereal straw mainly
This program has benefited from substantial financial support from the European Union and has been a success in the area
Biocore has elucidated the last lock to be lifted which will guarantee the success of the industrialization of lignocellulosic biomass refining:
Achieve the lowest possible overall energy consumption of the biorefinery
Inspired by Biocore, a new process will be studied and built to solve this energy lock while maintaining the efficiency of the separation, purity and quality of the products
Several years will be necessary to establish a new intellectual property on lignocellulose biomass refining and which will be validated by the filing of 5 patents currently being extended worldwide
It is by combining nearly 20 years of experience in the field of biomass refining and the establishment of this new intellectual property that the family company BioEB was created in July 2018 by :
Michel Delmas, President
Guo-Fang Delmas, Administrative & Financial Manager
Guo-Hua Delmas, Scientific & Technical Manager