2022-Finland-Nordic-Bioproducts-Group

DARIO FORNERIS: OK, so good morning-- sorry, adjust this. OK, so thank you. Next slide, please. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking to change slide? Thank you so much.

OK, so hello, everyone. My name is Dario Forneris, Business Design Leader at Nordic Bioproducts Group. We are a spin-off from Aalto University founded in 2019 to commercialize radical technologies to reduce the use of energy, water, and harmful chemicals.

Our operation is driven by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in chemical engineering, business development designed to maximize the scale of our results. Next slide, please.

So we combine in our group a deep know-how of thermochemistry and biotechnology to enable a new way of looking at maximizing the value of biomass. Next slide, please.

So our key focus is to develop a wide range of high-value bioproducts from biomass of different sources like kraft pulp, agrofibers, agricultural residues, and even recycled textile. Next slide, please.

So the technological engine behind everything that we do is a unique patented technology, a hydrolysis process called AaltoCell, a technology that was originally invented-- originally developed to produce Microcrystalline Cellulose from kraft pulp. MCC is cellulose powder in crystalline form that has an established and growing market of about $1 billion within food and pharma and cosmetics primarily. And it's a binder or rheology modifier.

As you can see, our process is particularly efficient and offers considerably lower carbon footprint compared to current technologies. Next slide, please.

OK, so what we soon realized is that AaltoCell technology was not only disrupting the current MCC market by bringing a superior process, but really opening a new landscape for the utilization of different raw materials while creating new product applications. So these new product applications can span from like paints and glues to biocomposites, always to lower the carbon footprint of these products.

Now, with our MCC derivatives, we can also provide new properties and features in already existing product applications like cosmetics, for instance, or food. Next slide, please.

OK, so now a vital aspect of AaltoCell hydrolysis process is that, fundamentally, it creates two valuable products-- the microcrystalline cellulose from the cellulose fractions, like presented before, but also C5 and C6 sugars from the M cellulose part of the raw material. So we can basically think of our technology as a very sharp knife able to separate cleanly pure ingredients from any heterogeneous raw material. Next slide. Thank you.

So the fact that we can actually separate, let's say, feasibly the C5 and C6 sugars from this heterogeneous raw material while generating a valuable product from the cellulose part is actually quite a game changer for biotechnology in general. Next slide, please.

Because, with synthetic biology, we can, in fact, engineer strains to produce for a wide variety of products, like bioplastic or platform chemicals, enzymes, and much more, from sugars, so from the sugar raw material. But, until today, industrial biotechnology has, in fact, struggle with heterogeneous raw material as source of sugars because the biological efficiency is too low to have a feasible process. Next slide.

So what we can see here forming with AaltoCell is really a new concept for a factory where cellulose-based products are produced parallel to sugar stream as feedstock for a wide variety of end products, a unit where basically we're combining thermochemistry and biotechnology working together. And the biomass is fully transformed into valuable products. Next slide.

So we're currently busy in setting up our first pilot facility powered by AaltoCell not far from Helsinki in Lappeenranta. We will not only scale up AaltoCell process there and the C5 and C6 sugars utilization, but also our Norratex technology for the direct dissolution of cellulose fiber-- cellulose into textile fibers.

We're as well currently setting up our own Innovation Center in Otaniemi called [INAUDIBLE] where we take on challenging R&D projects, combining our unique way of working and our technologies. We are openly inviting all companies interested in utilizing or researching sustainable bioproducts with microcrystalline cellulose or C5 and C6 sugars to contact us. We all know it takes a lot of synergy to create the sustainability impact that we are all seeking.

Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for the support with the changing the slide, [INAUDIBLE].

[APPLAUSE]