A new starting point for powerful lignin promotion : Eurolignin and linked activities

The International Lignin Institute (ILI) was created in 1991 as a new platform for promotion of lignin utilisations. For a few years, the activity was based on informal information exchange, such as Newsletters, international conferences (Forums) and Workshops, as well as in the proceedings of these events. Considerable work has also been carried out in project initiations where ILI acted as a matchmaker. During this time, in various Workshops the positioning of ILI was discussed with ILI members and other participants, in order to identify the needs of the stakeholders in the lignin field. This resulted in the creation of various projects. Among others, ILI succeeded to establish a strong partnership with the Dutch Research Institute ATO-DLO (now A&F), which led to a project proposal for a concerted action project financed by the European Union, that has now become the thematic network EUROLIGNIN. This network collects and organises four types of data: 1. production situation of existing and new lignin types (lignosulphonates, Kraft lignins, sulphur-free lignins from Soda pulping of non wood plants, as well as from steam explosion, hydrolysis for ethanol production, oxygen and organosolv pulping processes), 2. application and market data on existing and new utilisations, identification of critical limiting factors and recommendations on research needs in different selected market sectors (materials, health, biocides, animal feed, crops cultivation), 3. development of analytical norms for key characterisation methods of lignin (protocols, round robins and reference samples), 4. project promotion (setting up of new research projects as recommended by the results of the network) and dissemination of results. Being at mid-term of this network project, it is time to think about the more general context of lignin promotion and about how to multiply the very promising results of Eurolignin in a near future. During the General Assembly of ILI on November 2003 in Copenhagen, these topics were discussed extensively. The ILI management tries now to put in place actions corresponding to the wishes and suggestions made at this meeting: upgrading of the information packages available to members, project promotion and support of their start-up, increasing of the network and establishment of links to other networks in the biomass field, membership promotion (call for new participants)