About us

Leading the Transition to the Green Bioeconomy 

A new infrastructure for bioprocessing playing an important role in the transition to the green bioeconomy, with biofuel and biogas as a basis for new industries. 

The National Bioprocessing and Fermentation Centre, NBioC, is a new national infrastructure that is in development for fermentation processes and a key resource for both research communities and business development within the bioeconomy.  

The fermentation processes transform algae, yeast and bacteria bioresources for a variety of purposes such as food, feed, chemicals and biofuels, while the infrastructure makes it possible to further develop important research on gas fermentation in Norway, such as producing biomass in a way that helps to solve climate challenges without competing with food production. New technology will make it possible to exploit the rich biomass and biogas resources in Norway.  

Funded by the Research Council of Norway, the infrastructure supports research on fermentation and is a national centre of competence for research and development, piloting and upscaling, with the possibility of pilot testing and scaling up up to industrial level operations. 

NBioC is also a national partnership providing an integrated environment for research, development and innovation on fermentation, linking existing infrastructures at partner research institutions and competence, on biomass treatment, enzyme discovery and biogas production. 

Who we are 

NBioC is comprised of research institions and universities working in close collaboration with industry. With NBioC's expertise and infrastructure spread across Norway, we are well-positioned to provide excellence in services, expertise, facilities and learning opportunities both within Norway and to international clients.  

NBioC is funded by the Research Council of Norway through its FORINFRA program.  

Goals 

The overall goal of NBioC is to develop an infrastructure supporting research in Norway for development of new resources and new products as part of the bioeconomy.  

In addition, NBioC will focus on the following goals to guide its activities: 

• To enable the use of a broad range of sustainable feedstocks including gasses by developing new fermentation processes, process  optimisation, and scale up through modelling from laboratory to pilot and industrial scale,
• To produce biomass, food/feed ingredients, chemicals and enzymes through gas and traditional fermentation,
• To become a centre of expertise in fermentation-based processes and industrial biotechnology to ensure the further development of core research and competence and support research from TRL2 to TRL6 and fast track to innovation 

The diagram below illustrates the various aspects of the Centre from: 

• upstream and downstream processing
• scaling up
• modelling
• education and knowledge sharing