UNRAVEL

The UNRAVEL Project aims to develop an innovative lignocellulosic value chain and has the following specific objectives:

• Develop a pre-extraction process optimised for mixed lignocellulosic biomass streams;
• Achieve at least 80 percent delignification, 90 percent glucan recovery, 80 percent yield of monomeric hemicellulose sugars and less than 1 percent solvent loss;
• Achieve at least 95 percent lignin recovery and 99 percent (non-condensed) solvent recovery from the liquor;
• Develop an economically viable process for purifying the hemicellulose hydrolysate to ferment the hemicellulose sugars effectively into chemical building blocks;
• Achieve over 90 percent sugar conversion, over 20 percent reduction of hydrolysis time and 20 percent reduction of enzyme dosage compared to cellulose alone;
• Demonstrate the low inhibitory effect of the C5 and C6 hydrolysate in fermentation;
• Activate and depolymerise lignin from the FABIOLATM process
• Establish a series of high-value lignin applications;
• Show a 30 percent reduction in operating expenses through lower overall energy consumption and costs as compared with a benchmark pre-treatment process;
• Demonstrate an overall reduction of at least 15 percent in the carbon footprint compared with the state-of-the-art bio-based operation.

As well as its contribution to the overall BBI-JU goals and Key Performance Indicators, the UNRAVEL project aims to have the following impacts:

• Creating a new cross-sector interconnection between the forestry, pulp and paper industries, the biotechnology industry and the building and construction material industry;
• Establishing a new value chain using a mixture of hardwood wood chips, forest residues and bark, as well as straw and nut shells, to produce extractives, lignin-based polyols and chemical building blocks for the sugar fractions;
• Reducing operational expenditure by at least 30 percent through a series of process improvements, principally by reducing operating temperatures. This reduction will also reduce the carbon footprint of the operation;
• Lowering  the overall environmental impact of biorefineries by reducing emissions and increasing the efficiency resource and chemical use;
• Stimulate innovation through international and cross-sector collaboration.

MetGen is a beneficiary of the UNRAVEL project.