10 project partners, 8 participating countries from Europe, over 5 years of research, 4 new developed bio-based products - these figures briefly summarise the success story of the Dendromass4Europe (D4EU) research project. Since mid-2017, the research team led by Prof. Norbert Weber from the TU Dresden, Chair of Forest Policy and Forest Resource Economics, has been working to replace fossil materials with more environmentally friendly, bio-based materials using poplars. However, the focus was not on niche products, but on objects that are frequently used and that sometimes have to meet high practical requirements. The project will soon come to an end. The most important research results and the finished products will be presented at a final conference on 5 October 2022 in Brussels.  

Poplar wood and bark for furniture, decking and packaging materials

The raw material for the innovative products comes from poplars grown in agricultural tree cultures (so-called short rotation plantations). The fast-growing trees are currently growing and flourishing on more than 1,300 hectares in the northwest of Slovakia - in the immediate vicinity of the IKEA Industry plant. What is new here is that both the wood and the bark (dendromass) flow into the production processes. This is because the bark was previously used at best in combustion to generate process heat in factories. Now this former waste product is being used in packaging and wood plastic composites (WPC). Over the past five years, seven different institutes at TU Dresden have been researching the scientific fundamentals. In addition to studies on the genetics and growth characteristics of different poplar varieties, the TU Dresden is supporting the project primarily with research contributions in soil science, logistics, wood chemistry and fibre technology. Meanwhile, the project partners from industry produced and tested many prototypes. Now, shortly before the end of the research project in November this year, the effort is paying off: The developments have reached product maturity. Some products, such as the fully compostable BIOFORM® plant pots from the company Pulp-Tec, are even already successfully established on the market and are in demand from a large number of customers. Other products have only just been developed. For example, the Czech project partner TerrainEco was also able to announce a breakthrough in recent weeks: The process in which poplar bark is processed into fancy decking boards and fences made of WPC is now ready for use. Until now, the production of WPC used the valuable and thus rather expensive raw material wood, which can now be partially replaced. As part of the project, TerrainEco has been working on a composite material with poplar bark that can be produced more cheaply and also has a better ecological balance. Now production of the poplar-based WPC can start for sale in building materials stores and DIY markets.

Project results presented at final conference in Brussels

Over the past five and a half years, more than 40 experts from science and industry have contributed to the successful conclusion of the Dendromass4Europe research project. The research results and new products will be presented to a broad public at a final conference on 5 October. Under the title "CrOpportunity - Perennial Crops for Bioeconomy", not only the final results of D4EU but also remarkable interim results from the GRACE and MISCOMAR+ projects will be presented. Like D4EU, these research projects aim to ensure sustainable feedstock production for the bioeconomy using perennial biomass crops on agricultural soils. Instead of poplars, however, the focus here is on miscanthus grasses. The conference is affiliated with the EU Bioeconomy Conference 2022. These are the best conditions for getting the right contacts from politics, science and practice excited about poplars and their many uses.

Funding

This project has received funding from the Biobased Industries Joint Undertaking (JU) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 745874. The JU receives support from the 22 European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Bio-based Industries Consortium.

Detailed information on CrOpportunity and the programme as well as the link to register for the final conference can be found at https://www.dendromass4europe.eu/events/. The contributions will be published on the D4EU website after the conference - as always in the downloads section: https://www.dendromass4europe.eu/about-the-project/downloads/. There you can already find many publications and research results published so far for further reading, research or inspiration.

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Facebook:           https://www.facebook.com/dendromass4europe/
Youtube:             https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDwx7ijn3dGWRY3emfvtXbw

© Sandra Liebal

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Sandra Liebal , Dipl. Forstw., M.A. Umwelt und Bildung

Project "Dendromass 4 Europe"

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