Futurity Bio-Ventures has emerged as a pioneering force in New Zealand’s primary industry, garnering global recognition through its technological advancements and innovative solutions. Here we delve into the intricacies of Futurity’s technology and how it has elevated the company’s prominence on a global scale.

When it comes to inventing alternative processes to create chemicals and materials out of wood, Futurity has it down.

Through research and innovation over the past five years, Futurity has created a final product that makes use of waste from the forestry industry as a replacement to petrochemicals, which are known to emit tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Rupert Paterson, Dr Gaetano Dedual and Jacob Kohn came together to create Futurity after recognising the potential of New Zealand’s extensive forestry resources to create high-value renewable chemicals.

The wood-based chemical lignin is produced by wood waste pulp and paper mills and can be swapped out petrochemicals.

“Futurity Bio-Ventures has validated technology that enables lignin (25 percent of a tree) to be used effectively in its initial target markets of insulation, packaging, and construction,” says Jacob Kohn, CEO of Futurity.

“The technology has a much wider scope of products such as cosmetics, textiles, flavours and fragrances.”

The use of lignin will replace plastic with paper and cardboard, ultimately creating a circular resource for pulp and paper mills.

Read more: Futurity, the Kiwi company doing their part to help the planet

Kohn estimates that New Zealand has around 15 million tonnes of low-grade logs and waste woods that could be used to serve these markets that are valued at around $36 billion USD.

By making use of these waste woods, Kohn estimates that it has the potential to add $13 billion to New Zealand’s wood product sector and create 17 times more value than current log exports.

“It could also provide solutions to capture value from waste wood and enable better forestry and land use practices, including diversified tree species, retirement of land into permanent native forests, and selective harvesting techniques that encourage biodiversity for climate and economic resilience.”

So how did Futurity get to the forefront of New Zealand’s primary industry?

Quite simply, the technology stood out from the rest.

Futurity has partnered up with Finland technology leader MetGen Oyd to make this idea happen.

“MetGen has developed an enzyme-based technology that breaks down lignin into three distinct molecular weight sizes called LIGNO™, thus reducing the natural variation. Each of these sizes possesses unique performance properties, which provide advantages in different end applications, enabling FBV to focus on different markets where these advantages can be reliably realised by industry in a carbon reducing and cost effective manner,” explains Kohn.

This technology has caught the eye of the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund, committing more than $600,000 in Futurity’s study of creating high value renewable chemical from wood derived lignin.

“This proof-of-concept work is the first step in achieving our larger mission of creating more sustainable solutions from by-products in the forestry industry,” adds Kohn.

And as the Asia Pacific region is the world’s largest consumer of chemicals, Futurity’s role in creating this alternative is vital with New Zealand being “strategically located to serve these markets”.

“Importantly, the world is transitioning to achieving similar outcomes as the aforementioned initiatives, and New Zealand must play its part where it can provide competitive, high quality and low footprint materials and chemicals,” he says.

This is only the beginning for Futurity to create a systems to better utilise waste wood and enable a bio-economy.

“By unlocking the building block chemicals in wood, we can leave fossil fuels in the

ground and provide higher value products and jobs to our primary industries,” says Kohn.

“With continual support we are confident we can achieve our deployment strategy and put NZ on the map as a source of high value renewable chemical and lignin production.”