The BIOPICK project proposes to develop new uses of particles from the wood to at the micro - and nanoscale to obtain particles with properties to stabilize the water/oil interfaces in water in oil, oil in water et multiple emulsions. The wood will provide a model. It is a challenge which will include new and/or more high value-added applications. This project aims at replacing surfactants which are usually released in the environment, by particles themselves from the biodegradable biomass. It comes here to initiate a global chain more respectful of the environment. BIOPICK also proposes to assess the environmental impact of the project simultaneously to its implementation. In addition to the scientific and technological criteria, this assessment may influence the choice of particles.

Petroleum resources currently provide the main raw material used in the production of chemicals including synthetic polymers. In addition to the escalating scarcity of these resources, the harmful impact on human health as well as on environment is motivating the scientific community to develop sustainable alternatives for the chemical industry in general and for the polymer production in particular. In this context, renewable building blocks derived from biomass are considered as attractive and inexhaustible resources, if the cultivation of these later ones is well managed. Some of the key renewable raw materials being used to replace petrochemical feedstocks include plant oils, polysaccharides and other plant cell wall components such as lignin or polysaccharides. Hemicelluloses, which represent 15% to 35% of plants and wood and are the second most abundant natural polymers in the vegetal world after cellulose can be considered as a very interesting and underexploited source of bio-based building blocks for the chemistry and polymer industries. Unlike cellulose, hemicelluloses are composed of different 5- and 6-carbon sugars, have a low degree of polymerisation (50-300), present ramification in the main chain molecule, and are essentially amorphous. The most important classes of hemicellulose belong to (galacto)-glucomannans (G-GM) and arabino-xylans (AX). Recent efforts have been undergone to allow extracting hemicelluloses prior Kraft cooking with a minimum of damage to the fibers used in papermaking. However, despite important efforts, a large fraction of the extracted hemicelluloses-rich material is composed of monomers or low-molecular mass oligomers. Alternatives to add value to this low molecular mass fraction are therefore needed. In this project, we propose the development of i) an efficient recovery process for this low-molecular fraction and ii) the production of polyols through catalytic deoxygenation of the sugars; iii) their oxidation into dicarboxylic acids to be used as renewable building blocks for iv) the synthesis of polyesters and polyurethanes, with the main objective to replace petroleum-based counterparts. Based on previous work carried out for other mono/polysaccharides, the project proposes to study the hydrolysis/hydrogenolysis of soluble hemicelluloses/oligomers/monomers in presence of supported metals as catalysts to produce polyols (C2-C6) having different OH groups and their conversion into polymerisable dicarboxylic acids, depending on the reaction conditions. Depending on the number of remaining carbon atoms in the polyols (breakdown of C-C linkages), the number of OH groups (deoxygenation) and the degree of oxidation of OH into COOH groups, totally different polymers (polyesters or polyurethanes) can be obtained. The most promising conditions for hemicelluloses extraction and purification, their catalytic transformation into polyols then to carboxylic acids and polymerization as polyesters or polyurethanes will be optimized and scaled-up in order to produce enough amounts of materials to be tested in some specific applications (composites, insulating panels, cosmetics, etc). The approach will be completed by (simplified) technical, environmental and economic studies compared to other commercially available polyesters and polyurethanes. The project constitutes thus a coherent ensemble, proposing a new, eco-efficient way of producing bio-sourced commodity products. Although fundamental research aspects constitute the core of the project, the consortium gathers cross-disciplinary partners: IRCELYON, specialized in catalysis; LIST, specialized in polymers and materials science and FCBA, technical center for the forest-related industries which is in strong connection with wood, pulp and paper, and chemistry industry. This will undoubtedly guarantee effective transfer of knowledge created during the project to industry.

MOQAPRO’s main target is a large scale and integrated approach, from forest land to energy mills, of quantity and quality monitoring of the woodchips production chain, due to specific methods and tools development for quality measures and production management. Quality monitoring for woodchips is mainly depending on moisture measurement, at every step of the production chain. Size grading and fermentation measurement are also needed. For quantity aspects, volume and mass have to be precisely known, which is not as easy as it could seems, because of woodchips mass variations, and large scale heap characteristics. Monitoring MWh unit all over this production chain means a permanent measurement of woodchips mass and moisture. Good methods for roadside or platform storage, and quality packing, must be precisely described and estimated. Forest biomass for energy production takes various forms and is changing is characteristics during the production chain. This is why detailed information is needed from harvesting operations and logistics organizations at key steps. Using these data, a specifications document will be elaborated, and on this basis, a specific information system for woodchips storage optimization will be developed. Further, for platform storage monitoring, new methods for woodchips heap visible volume must be tested. The goal is here to adapt technologies to rough storage sites conditions, and to allow automatics and economics frequent measurement, for big scale volume. Two very innovating tools will be developed for moisture measurement. They will be a result of OMICAGE’s previous project first conclusions, due to good results of the demonstrator used in laboratory conditions for dynamic woodchips flow. The measurement principle has been registered in a deposited patent. It is based on electromagnetic waves, and is developed for moisture evaluation at woodchips crushing machine exit system. It’s now necessary to develop this technology for many woodchips types, and various worksites conditions, to get a pre industrial prototype. A second tool is needed for moisture measurement of more important woodchips volume, on static conditions. This tool will be developed with a laboratory prototype first step, using same technologic basis, but with important adaptations. A new prototype, on scale 1 will be tested on worksites conditions, especially on storage platform. In both tools, mass measurement tolls will be integrated in each prototype, allowing Mwh unit monitoring new possibilities. Before all this, and as a complement to the state of art already done, and to the proper expertise of this project partners, investigations will be led in various countries, to identify production methods, monitoring tools which could be adapted to French forest conditions. For further development of industrialization steps, contacts and partnerships will be looked for, especially with forest harvesting and crushing machines constructors. Results of this project are eagerly awaited by many actors of woodchips production chain. It is highly strategic to give innovating solutions for these monitoring aspects, especially on moisture measurement, to allow high industrial scale level of forest biomass energy production, in liable economic conditions.

"Decisions related to forest management can have long-term, sometimes irreversible impacts on logging.It is therefore essential to be able to get the tools and knowledge necessary to improve the decisions in order to preserve the resources and think about their exploitation at a plot or massif level in a sustainable way.Practically speaking, forest management comes in two different scales:- The implementation of a forest management plan, which sets up the silvicultural trends and thus shapes the landscape accordingly.- The practical implementation of this forest management plan through the cutting of the trees which will have been marked.The ""marteloscope"" allows to simulate the cutting decisions and foresee the final result.A marteloscope is a forest plot on which all the trees are inventoried and numbered. While covering the plot, the forest operator carries out a simulation of a cutting decision so called tree marking by writing down the number of the trees he chooses to cut down depending on his own selection criteria or on contract documents (compulsory specifications).Then this operation can be entered onto a computer program which enables the user to see the consequences on the plot and even process and analyze the data through different aspects: economical, ecological, the risks taken….The concept of the marteloscope and its uses may vary widely between countries in Europe. Each partner has an interest in this type of approach as long as the methodology and the resulting applications are rationalized. In addition, digitizing marteloscopes, besides its attractive and modern aspects, will enable to have a panel of examples usable by all partners as well as other users outside the project (other training organizations or institutions in other countries ...).The goal of the HAMMER (standing for Harvesting with Marteloscope Methodology in a European Ring) project is to build a collection of digitized marteloscopes, made from existing marteloscopes and conducted in each participating country, with different characteristics according to their origin: regular or irregular silviculture, Nordic type with evergreen slow growth species, deciduous forests, Mediterranean vegetation ...). It will be useful for: - The learners in forestry education and whatever their status: general education and lifelong training or apprenticeship. - The training needs of professionals from the wood industry.Together with the EPL of Bazas located in France, two Spanish forestry schools in Galicia (Antioquia and Sergude), the University of Tampere in Finland, the Vocational Forestry School of Ormea Baruffi in Italy and the training organization Forest Wallonne in Belgium are involved in the project. FCBA, a French Technological Institute will also be a partner in the project.The work programme includes various activities: - Some intellectual outputs such as a website, a virtual platform of marteloscopes called HAMMER and the elaboration of training reference documents based on the use of the HAMMER tool.- The mobility of 96 learners from general education, lifelong training or apprenticeship in order to contribute to the development of the tool including the elaboration of real marteloscopes (inventory data collection). The learners will also contribute to testing the validity of the tool. - The mobility of professionals to appreciate the potential of the HAMMER platform and think about its uses and development for the players in the wood industry. - Activities to promote the tool and disseminate the results: a final meeting with the presentation of the results, the participation in professional events (conferences, exhibitions, lectures...), the presentation of the HAMMER tool through professional and forestry education networks.All the actions will be conducted within the training already offered in the forestry schools. They will strengthen and improve the existing methods.In addition to providing a training support for an attractive and modern forestry educational system, we can observe from the elaboration stage and the beginning of the development of this project that it strenghtens the relations between the training centers and the professionals: closer relations, inter-knowledge ...Finally, elements for further development of the HAMMER tool are multiple and varied. This allows to consider with confidence the post project period concerning the sustainability of the action: parallel projects are under discussion with partners.Other impacts are also expected, since these actions will promote and develop professional skills in forest management (e.g. forest owners) as well as logging (e.g. harvest machine operators). All these initiatives are in accordance with the improvement of local employment."