BBI Projects at Celignis
The Biomass Based Industries Joint Undertaking of Horizon 2020 is a €3.7 billion public-private partnership between the EU and the Bio-based Industries Consortium. It is driven by the Vision and Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) developed by the industry. The undertaking has the following three main focus areas:
- Feedstock: foster a sustainable biomass supply with increased productivity and building new supply chains.
- Biorefineries: optimise efficient processing through Reseach and Development and demonstrate their efficiency and economic viability at large-scale demo/flagship biorefineries.
- Markets, products and policies: develop markets for bio-based products and optimise policy frameworks.
The undertaking expects the following benefits to result for Europe as a result of the implementation of its funding programme:
- Develop the potential of waste as well as agriculture and forestry residues.
- Diversify and grow farmers’ incomes: up to 40% additional margins with existing residues.
- Replace at least 30% of oil-based chemicals and materials with bio-based and biodegradable ones by 2030.
- Create a competitive bio-based infrastructure in Europe, boosting job creation, 80% of which will be in rural and underdeveloped areas.
- Deliver bio-based products that are comparable and/or superior to fossil-based products in terms of price, performance, availability and environmental benefits.
- The new bio-based products resulting from the BBI will on average reduce CO2 emissions by at least 50% compared to their fossil alternatives.
Below are listed the BBI projects that Celignis are currently involved in. We are also open to collaborating in future calls.
BIOrescue
Celignis is currently participating in a collaborative EU
research project, entitled BIOrescue, that is part-funded by
the Biomass Based Industries Joint Undertaking of
Horizon
2020. This project evaluates ways to valorise the compost
residues from mushroom production. Celignis's roles in BIOrescue include the following: - Compositional analysis of feedstocks and process intermediates and outputs.
- The development of rapid analysis models, using near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, for compositional analysis at several stages in the process scheme.
- The scoping of additional suitable undertuilised seasonal feedstocks for co-feeding with spent mushroom compost in a proposed biorefinery based on the BIOrescue technologies.
- The development of new algorithms, using software such as Octave and R-Studio and involving advanced intelligent regression techniques, to further improve the accuracy of Celignis's NIR models.
BIOrescue has 10 project partners, as listed below:
| 1 | CENER (coordinator) | RTO | Spain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Monaghan Mushrooms | Large Enterprise | Ireland |
| 3 | UNINA | University | Italy |
| 4 | MetGen | SME | Finland |
| 5 | Zabala Innovation Consulting | SME | Spain |
| 6 | Greenovate Europe | SME | Belgium |
| 7 | Max Planck Institute of Polymer Research | RTO | Germany |
| 8 | Celignis | SME | Ireland |
| 9 | Imperial College of London | University | UK |
| 10 | C-TECH Innovation | SME | UK |
BIOrescue runs from Sept 2016 to August 2019 and has a budget of €3.7m. Please refer to the project's website for further information.
UNRAVEL
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:
| 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.
Celignis Pitches for 2018
We consider that our expertise in detailed and accurate biomass analysis, as well as our ability to advance the state of the art in rapid biomass analysis through our NIR models, makes us valuable partners in consortia for future BBI projects.We see huge potential within the topics of the 2018 BBI calls for the development and refinement of our models, as well as the potential for the development of targeted models for individual feedstocks or process conditions.
Our analytical expertise also covers the following: extractives (we are leading a WP on this in the UNRAVEL BBI project); proteins; oligomers (IC-MS system); inhibitors; anaerobic digestion; thermal properties; seaweed; lipids; and lignin.
Click here to see our pitches for specific roles in some of the 2018 topics.
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