Betulin pilot plant Betulin Lab of Latvijas Finieris is opened
The first in Latvia and one of the few in Europe - on 5 May, the betulin extraction pilot plant Betulin Lab of Latvijas Finieris Group was officially opened. The pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries are just some of the areas where betulin's excellent antibacterial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties could be widely used in the near future. "A project that features the development of Europe's Green Deal, bioeconomy and the potential of the forest sector," emphasizes Jānis Ciems, CEO of Latvijas Finieris, acknowledging that Betulin Lab is an example of successful science and business cooperation. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia Krišjānis Kariņš also emphasized this during the opening ceremony: "A great example of how scientists, in cooperation with manufacturers, create new technologies in Latvia and develop high-quality products for international market, strengthening the reindustrialisation of our economy - the development of export-oriented production."
More than 900,000 m3 of birch logs enter the Group's mills each year. About 1/3 of this volume becomes the final product - plywood. The rest consists of various by-products of the production process - sawdust, technological chips, sanding dust, as well as birch bark. The goal of the company is to develop, in cooperation with industry partners, the possibilities of further processing of these by-products and increase of added value, so that they are primarily used in the production of wood products and only at the end of the life cycle - in energy. The production of high-purity betulin from birch processing by-products is one such development, in which approximately 2 million euros have been invested since 2016. Slightly more than 770 thousand of them are co-financed by the European Union Structural Funds within the framework of the Forest Sector Competence Center project.
Since the first day, the idea of obtaining birch bark extract on an industrial scale has been implemented in close cooperation with the leading Baltic wood science center - Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry and its biorefining laboratory scientists Jānis Rižikovs and Aigars Pāže, who have researched birch bark many years. Initially scaling the results to a pilot plant at the industrial level, a new unit of the Group “Betulin Lab” was established, where experimental technologies developed for several years for the production of extraction raw material - crushed birch bark, as well as for obtaining betulin of different purity were installed. According to worldwide research, its most promising applications are in the medical, cosmetic and food industries, especially in food supplements.
"The first kilograms of betulin have already been produced and there is an active search for customers. For example, in Latvia, betulin is already used for the production of food supplements, as well as negotiations are underway with several local cosmetics manufacturers. As a separate product on the market, we also offer our extraction raw material - crushed birch bark, one of the first customers of which is a pharmaceutical company in Germany, ” reveals Māris Būmanis, a member of the Executive Board of Latvijas Finieris. At the same time, he emphasizes that the goal of Betulin Lab is not standardized production, but product development projects with customers, adapting the production and use of betulin to the unique specifics of each partner.
More about the properties of betulin and the possibilities offered by Betulin Lab: www.betulin-lab.com