• UNRAVEL
    Research project at Celignis





UNRAVEL

"UNique Refinery Approach to Valorise European Lignocellulosics"


ProgrammeCBE-JU, Horizon Europe, BBI.2017.R2
CategoryResearch and Innovation Action (RIA)
StatusCompleted
Period2018 - 2022
Partners13
Budget€3.72m
LinksWebsite, Cordis, CBE-JU, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook

The UNRAVEL project (UNique Refinery Approach to Valorise European Lignocellulosics) is funded with 3.6 million euros by the Biomass Based Industries Joint Undertaking and will run from June 2018 until May 2022.

The project addresses topic 2017.R2 of the 2017 BBI Work Programme - "Innovative technologies for the pre-treatment and serparation of lignocellulosic feedstock and complex composition streams into valuable fractions while maintaining key characteristics".

It focuses on the demonstration, at pilot-scale, of the FABIOLA pretreatment process for the production of (fine) chemicals, fuels and high-value lignin applications through an economically-feasible biorefinery concept for lignocellulosic biomass conversion.

Celignis is leader of Work Package 2 which concerns the detailed analysis of selected feedstocks, with a particular focus on extractives composition, and the optimisation of a pre-extraction process that could improve the yields and product qualities in subsequent pre-treatment. Intial studies have shown that this pre-extraction is particularly effective in increasing the homogeneity of the feedstock composition and the purity of biorefinery products.

Celignis will also work on finding key chemicals within the extractives that may warrant separation and recovery and consider appropriate means for doing this. Our work will also involve developing a suite of NIR models for key inputs, intermediates, and outputs of the process.

A range of residual feedstocks, including forestry residues (e.g. bark) and agricultural residues such as wheat straw and nutshells, will be tested. The potential availability of these residues is substantial with estimates of around 180 Mton per year for the EU-27. The UNRAVEL project will take these second generation biomass feedstocks as point of departure for valorisation not only as biofuels for transport, but also as chemicals and high-value lignin applications in building materials.

The high ambition and innovative character of the UNRAVEL project is underpinned by the fact that all conversion steps of the biomass into valuable products will be demonstrated at pilot-scale in an industrially relevant environment. For example, the optimised biomass fractionation and conversion technologies pilot fractionation experiments will be performed in a 400 litre reactor, which will guarantee the viability of novel processes for future applications at industrial scale.


UNRAVEL has 10 project partners, as listed below:

Partner Type Country
1 Fraunhofer (coordinator) RTO Germany
2 ECN (part of TNO) RTO The Netherlands
3 Celignis SME Ireland
4 MetGen SME Finland
5 Soprema Large Enterprise France
6 IFEU SME Germany
7 EURIDA Natural Person Germany
8 CNRS RTO France
9 Sappi Europe Large Enterprise Belgium
10 Max-Planck RTO Germany


For further information on UNRAVEL, please refer to the project website, its page on the BBI website, and its Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook pages.

Other Celignis Research Projects Funded by the CBE-JU

Current Projects


PERFECOAT, a RIA project funded by the BBI JU, targets the development of novel sustainable coatings that will ultimately be available to the public. Celignis is responsible for the extraction and modification of polymers (xylan and chitosan) that will be used as binders in these coatings. Further info...BIONEER, is an Innovation Action project funded by the CBE-JU, under topic HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-06 (Selective, Sustainable Production Routes Towards Bio-Based Alternatives To Fossil-Based Chemical Building Blocks). This project will start in May 2024 with Celignis, an SME partner and full industry BIC member, playing a leading role in the scaled-up (1 m3) production of platform chemicals. Further info...PROMOFER, is an Innovation Action project funded by the CBE-JU, under topic HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-03 (Improve Fermentation Processes (Including Downstream Purification) To Final Bio-Based Products). This project will start in June 2024 with Celignis, an SME partner and full industry BIC member, playing a pivotal role in the project. Our core activities include undertaking the pre-treatment and hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass at scaled-up (TRL7, 1 m3) volumes. The resulting sugars are then provided to other partners for downstream fermentations. Further info...MANUREFINERY, is an Innovation Action project funded by the CBE-JU, under topic HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-01 (Small Scale Biorefining In Rural Areas). This project will start in September 2024 with Celignis, an SME partner and full industry BIC member, involved in the analysis of feedstocks and products of the process. We are also contributing towards the technoeconomic analysis (TEA) of the technologies. Further info...

Completed Projects


The BIOrescue project was focused on developing technologies to convert spent mushroom compost, a problematic waste of the mushroom industry, to high value products. Within the project Celignis undertook a compositional profiling study of the feedstocks and developed rapid analysis models for these and process outputs. Further info...VAMOS concerns the construction and operation of a demonstration-scale biorefinery producing lactic acid from the paper fraction of municipal waste. In the project Celignis will develop custom NIR models for the rapid at-line on-site analysis of the feedstock and process outputs. Further info...

Other Celignis Research Projects Funded by the Horizon Programme

Current Projects


Enxylascope aims at bioprospecting and producing a novel set of xylan debranching enzymes, thereby demonstrating its ability to make xylan a key ingredient in a variety of consumer products. Celignis is playing a key role, being the technical lead and responsible for the extraction and modification of xylan from biomass. Further info...This demo project involves innovative superheated steam processing of unwanted bush and invasive biomass into high-value, clean-burning, low-cost solid biofuel. Celignis will analyse feedstocks, and process outputs, and use our QTOF-LC/MS system to profile the steam condensate for high value chemicals. We will then develop a method to recover target constituents. Further info...BIO4AFRICA will empower smallholder farmers by creating value from locally available biomass. Celignis is analysing a wide range of biomass feedstocks, from a number of African countries, and providing recommendations regarding the most suitable ones, under the best conditions, for the given processing technology. We also analyse the outputs of the various processes. Further info...

Completed Projects


DIBANET was an FP7 research project, written and coordinated by Celignis founder Dan Hayes, that concerned the production of second generation biofuels from biomass feedstocks in Europe and Latin America. The advances in the state of the art of biomass analysis made in DIBANET led to the formation of Celignis. Further info...The focus of ENABLING was on supporting the spreading of best practices and innovation in the provision of biomass for the Bio-Based Industry (BBI). Celignis played a key role in the project with regards to stressing the importance of biomass composition in terms of evaluating feedstock and technology suitability. Further info...Celignis was the sole partner in SAPHIRE. The project, funded by the European Union's INNOSUP programme, concerned the production of high-value hydrogels from lignocellulosic residues. These are expected to have applications in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors. Further info...This was a Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship (MCSA-IF) involving Celignis's Lalitha in which algae were used to recover nutrients from anaerobic digestion (AD) process streams. Further info...

Other Celignis Research Projects

Current Projects


Celignis is the sole partner in STEAME, a project funded by the Irish Research Council and focused on the development of technologies to make anaerobic digestion more financially viable in Ireland. Further info...

Celignis News Articles on UNRAVEL

December 4th 2019

Celignis Personnel Representing UNRAVEL Project at BBI-JU Stakeholder Forum


Come join us at the project's exhibition stand at this Brussels event

Celignis's Lalitha and Dan are, together with Andre Zomeren (from coordinator TNO), today representing the BBI project UNRAVEL at the BBI JU Stakeholder Forum 2019 being held at the Egg Congress and Meeting Center in Brussels. This event provides BBI projects' partners the opportunity to meet each other, and the wider public, to facilitate collaboration opportunities and commercial progress of the technologies being developed.

We are happy to discuss with you the advances made by partner TNO on the project's FABIOLA pretreatment/fractionation progress and by Celignis on the characterisation and removal of extractives, targeting recovery and purification of an identified high value component, and on the rapid analysis models developed by Celignis for the inputs and outputs of the process. We will also be happy to discuss the important work in the project being done by other partners.

We are located at Stand 5C so come say hello!

Click here to read more about the UNRAVEL project.

February 5th 2019

Celignis Hosting the Month 9 Review Meeting of BBI Project UNRAVEL


We are delighted to welcome the 9 other project partners to Limerick.

Over the next two days Celignis will be hosting the other 9 project partners of the Biomass Based Industries Joint Undertaking project UNRAVEL in Limerick for the month 9 review meeting.

UNRAVEL addresses topic 2017.R2 of the 2017 BBI Work Programme - "Innovative technologies for the pre-treatment and serparation of lignocellulosic feedstock and complex composition streams into valuable fractions while maintaining key characteristics".

Celignis is leader of Work Package 2 which concerns the detailed analysis of selected feedstocks, with a particular focus on extractives composition, and the optimisation of a pre-extraction process that could improve the yields and product qualities in subsequent pre-treatment. Intial studies have shown that this pre-extraction is particularly effective in increasing the homogeneity of the feedstock composition and the purity of biorefinery products.

Click here to read more about our involvement in UNRAVEL.



June 12th 2018

Our New BBI Project Kicks Off!


UNRAVEL partners met in The Netherlands to launch the project.

The headquarters of project partners ECN (now part of TNO) was the venue for the kick-off of new research project UNRAVEL. This project is funded by the Biomass Based Industries Joint Undertaking and will run from June 2018 until May 2022.

The project addresses topic 2017.R2 of the 2017 BBI Work Programme - "Innovative technologies for the pre-treatment and serparation of lignocellulosic feedstock and complex composition streams into valuable fractions while maintaining key characteristics". Celignis is leader of Work Package 2 which concerns the detailed analysis of selected feedstocks, with a particular focus on extractives composition, and the optimisation of a pre-extraction process that could improve the yields and product qualities in subsequent pre-treatment.

The kick-off meeting took place between June 12-13 in Petten, The Netherlands and involved all 10 project partners.

Click here for more information on the project and Celignis's involvement.





...