Piloting at Borregaard’s Biorefinery Demo

Alginor recently completed its first four-week piloting run in Borregaards facility “Biorefinery Demo”. There will be more piloting runs in the future.

The facility launched in 2013 and had a total cost of NOK 135 million, whereof NOK 58 million was financed by Innovation Norway. The facility has been used for the development of Borregaard’s BALI process.

The piloting has shown very promising results both upstream (production of starting materials) and downstream (biorefining). The facility is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and the tests have provided Alginor with valuable insights regarding choice of equipment. Additionally, the test runs have produced alginate and cellulose from kelp stipes for internal analysis. The piloting has been financed with funds from DACOTA, Eurostars and AORTA II projects, which are all funded by the European Union.

The biorefinery Borregaard sees the potential in every raw material fraction and operates at the highest level in terms total utilisation of sustainable raw materials. Instead of producing one product, Borregaard processes wood into a wide range of products. In this regard, Borregaard is a model for Alginor’s biorefining process for kelp.