UPM-Biofore-Magazine-1-2016-ENG

Technische Universität Darmstadt. The ValChemproject taps into a vast body of expertise covering the forest industry, chemistry and biotechnology. It aims to produce wood-based chemicals that rival oil-basedmaterials in terms of quality and production costs. “The project is a good example of how EU funding supports bioeconomy projects and distributes the risks associated with funding. As we are focusing on a specific product segment, our customers are also involved in the development work from an early stage,” Ovaska says. “Naturally, we cannot rely on public funding, but it does contribute to accelerating our product development and decreasing risks.” Open doors to partners Ovaska praises the solid results that have been achieved through public funding and research collaboration with the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes) and the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). With the help of public funding, Finland has become part of a close- knit international community in the business and research world. “We boast a wealth of expertise in different areas, but we have been fairly ineffective at translating innovations into commercial products and achieving large-scale production. The same applies to the EU as a whole” Ovaska says. “We would like to see the Finnish funding model become more international. We would also gladly open the door to foreign operators, as the largest markets are ultimately abroad. International collaboration would benefit both large and small companies alike."

Innovating a sustainable future

Thanks to its ground-breaking innovations and pioneering R&D, UPM stands at the forefront of the bioeconomy breakthrough.

Heikki Ilvespää , Vice President of Research &Development at UPM confirms that a breakthrough in second-generation biochemicals is the next major target on UPM’s R&D list. “We have made systematic progress in this sector, and we have already launched our first biochemical products such as GrowDex and BioPiva on the market.” One potential application for biochemicals is manufacturing plastics from renewable rawmaterials. The pulp derived fromwood can be broken down into sugars, which can be processed further into chemical building blocks. In the future, materials produced in this way could be used to manufacture virtually any product that is currently made out of plastic, such as beverage bottles for the soft drink industry. UPM is also doing research on biofibrils and lignin. The GrowDex cell culture medium, for example, which is based on biofibrils, is an intriguing new area of research. It’s a product meant for biomedical research that can be used to grow different kinds of human cells.

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