The SOLRESS project was officially launched during its kick-off meeting held on 10–11 September 2025 in Valencia, Spain, marking a major milestone for the development of safe, sustainable, and high-performance bio-based solvents for European industries. Funded by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) with €7 million under a total budget of €9.1 million, SOLRESS will run for 48 months under the coordination of AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Centre (Spain).
A Successful Start Toward Industrial Transformation
The project aims to radically shift the origin of several widely used solvents (such as ethyl acetate, ethyl lactate, butyl acetate, 2-MeTHF, and GVL) from fossil-based resources toward second-generation biomass feedstocks. These include post-consumer coffee grounds and lignocellulosic residues, two promising sources for a more circular approach to chemicals.
SOLRESS will demonstrate how these bio-based solvents can reach industrial purity standards and be validated in key industrial applications such as paints and coatings, cosmetics, and material processing.
A Triple Ambition for Sustainability and Competitiveness
The project’s ambition is threefold:
- Replace fossil-based raw materials with sustainable bio-based feedstocks for key solvents.
- Provide Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) alternatives to hazardous solvents such as NMP, THF, CCl₄, or toluene.
- Strengthen industrial competitiveness and sustainability across the entire value chain.
A Collaborative European Ecosystem
The project unites 17 partners from 9 countries and mobilises the strengths of large companies, SMEs, research organisations, and clusters across Europe. This consortium will work jointly on biomass valorisation, fermentation, solvent synthesis, purification, and validation in real industrial settings.
SOLRESS represents an important step toward safer industrial chemistry, supporting the EU Green Deal, Circular Economy Action Plan, and climate objectives.
