News

📢 Following our joint Interreg France–Wallonie–Vlaanderen workshop, bringing together the sister projects VALCELMAT, COMPOVERT and OBIWAN, we’re pleased to share the presentations from our inspiring day in Tourcoing! 🌱🌍♻️ From cellulose modification and plant-fibre composites to circular biorefineries and industrial-scale organics recovery, our speakers explored a wide range of innovations and opportunities for connecting value chains in a circular and bio-based economy. �

🚀 Presentation of vADer model at SFGP 2026 in Clermont-Ferrand. 🔬The team from Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC) - UniLaSalle represented the OBIWAN project at the SFGP 2026 conference. Sorosh Samiei presented a poster on the vADer model which is designed to derive the full stoichiometry of anaerobic digestion (from process control to monitoring and the rigour of mass balances). Its key advantage is that it uses inputs characterised at a level close to that of th

🌱Our partner Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC) / UniLaSalle offers an internship position of 6 months at their premises in Beauvais, starting from February 1st 2027. 🎓 The position is open to engineering or master students (process, environmental, chemical biotech) with lab experience, knowledge of anaerobic digestion and C1 in French or English. Interested to join the OBIWAN Project and operate a pilot-scale anaerobic digester, analyze the biogas composition an

💥Connecting value chains for a circular and bio-based economy Last Thursday, the sister projects VALCELMAT, COMPOVERT and OBIWAN came together in Tourcoing for a joint Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen workshop dedicated to exploring cross-border opportunities for a more circular and bio-based economy. 🌱🌍♻️ The day brought together expertise, ideas and perspectives from research, industry and the innovation ecosystem, creating valuable opportunities to exchange knowledge

To mark this weekend's Science Festival (Fête de la Science, 8-11 October 2026) at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne, our UTC partners Xiaojun Liu, Thierry Ribeiro and Sorosh Samiei had the pleasure of hosting two talks entitled ‘From peelings to biogas: the magic of anaerobic digestion’. In front of an audience of around twenty participants, they traced the evolution of the anaerobic digestion sector and shared an overview of their research work in the framework of

Bridging Regions, Connecting Value Chains: Cross-border Solutions for a Circular and Bio-Based Economy The 2nd OBIWAN workshop was organized jointly with our sister projects VALCELMAT and COMPOVERT on 08/10/2026 at the premises of our associated partner EuraMaterials in Tourcoing (France). During the workshop, the participants were introduced to our cross-border activities and discussions were held about the challenges and opportunities which lay ahead for connecting the valu

The countdown is on! The sister projects VALCELMAT, COMPOVERT and OBIWAN are looking forward to welcoming you next week for our joint Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen workshop on connecting value chains in a circular and bio-based economy. 🎤 Discover our programme and speakers: Frédéric Merle - EuraMaterials Joël David - Interreg Region Hauts-de-France, introducing the Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen programme Alexis Spalletta & Patrick Martin - Université d'Artois, p

Our joint Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen workshop, bringing together the sister projects ValCelMat, COMPOVERT and OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project, is taking shape — and we’re excited to share the final programme with you! Across the day, we’ll explore cross-border innovation and the challenges and opportunities of connecting value chains in a circular and bio-based economy, with contributions from: 🔹 MERLE FREDERIC – EuraMaterials 🔹 Joël DAVID – Interreg Région Hauts-de-F

The sister projects ValCelMat, COMPOVERT and OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project are making the final arrangements to welcome you to their joint workshop where we will introduce you to our cross-border activities and discuss about the challenges and opportunities which lay ahead for connecting the value chains in a circular and bio-based economy! ☘️🌍♻️💡🤝 📅 When? Thursday 08/10/2026, 10:00 - 16:30 (CET) 🌍 Where? EuraMaterials (Tourcoing, France) Meet our speakers: - Alexis Spa

The Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen sister projects ValCelMat, COMPOVERT and OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project are pleased to invite you to their joint workshop where we will introduce you to our cross-border activities and discuss about the challenges and opportunities which lay ahead for connecting the value chains in a circular and bio-based economy! ☘️🌍♻️💡🤝 We are pleased to introduce you already to two of our guest speakers: - Christophe Sence - Responsible for busines

📝 A new OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project related publication by Hamed Hoorijani is out! Partners from Ghent University under the lead of prof. Kevin Van Geem and prof. Yi Ouyang (Laboratory for Chemical Technology) have made a publication on the mechanisms, challenges and emerging directions related to the modeling of catalyst particle evolution in gas-solid reactors with CFD-DEM. This work provides insight into modeling gas-solid catalytic processes and underscores the urgent n

🎬 Our second series of guest lectures - joint Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen edition - has now been transformed into a webinar and published on our website! 🤝 These guest lectures were a joint effort from the sister projects OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project, ValCelMat and COMPOVERT to familiarize both researchers from our project consortia and external interested parties with the research domains and specific activities of these three projects and their partners. ☘️ Intere

🔗🗺️Bridging Regions, Connecting Value Chains: Cross-border Solutions for a Circular and Bio-Based Economy ☘️🌍♻️💡🤝 📢The Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen sister projects ValCelMat, COMPOVERT and OBIWAN are pleased to invite you to their joint workshop where we will introduce you to our cross-border activities and discuss about the challenges and opportunities which lay ahead for connecting the value chains in a circular and bio-based economy! 📅 When? Thursday 08/10/20

🎬 Presentation at C1Chem conference on the behavior of carbon catalysts during methane pyrolysis Earlier this month, Iliyas Melnikov (Ghent University) represented the OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project at the C1Chem conference in Le Touquet Paris-Plage where he focused on his work related to the behavior of carbon catalysts during methane pyrolysis. He explored how this behavior evolves throughout the process and, more importantly, what drives these transient changes. The confere

📰 A novel Versatile reaction scheme for modeling Anaerobic Digestion with Elemental balance Rigor (vADEr) The team from Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC) - UniLaSalle represented the OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project during IWA AD19 - Valencia 2026. During this conference, organized by the International Water Association in Valencia (Spain), Sorosh Samiei presented a poster on the results from his first year of intense doctoral work. It was a great pleasure to exchange

🌍 Innovating Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow! 💥The OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project was represented by Iliyas Melnikov at the RRB22 Conference in Leuven. He participated with both a poster presentation, giving an overview of the whole project, and an oral presentation, focussing on his own achievements so far. Participation to the RRB Renewable Resources & Biorefineries conference was a joint effort of the sister projects OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project, ValCelMat and COMPOVERT t

🌍 Innovating Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow! 💥 The Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen sister projects OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project, ValCelMat and COMPOVERT are featured in the latest RRB Renewable Resources & Biorefineries newsletter! 👉 Link to the newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eTGrD-FQ From Monday 1 June until Wednesday 3 June, the 22nd edition of the International Conference on Renewable Resources & Biorefineries will take place in Leuven, Belgium, organized by Ghent Un

🎉 Our OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project has been highlighted in the 2025 Annual Report of VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship! OBIWAN is one of the Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen projects for which partner Ghent University received cofinancing from VLAIO as well as from Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen. 💫 Link to the annual report (see p. 21): Click here #InterregFWVL #hydrogen #biogas #sustainability

💥 Last week, we had our first workshop for the OBIWAN Interreg FWVL Project in Ghent, followed by the official inauguration of the ETFB set-up at the Laboratory for Chemical Technology (Ghent University). 👏 Thanks to all our speakers - Joris Thybaut (OBIWAN coordinator), Julien Estager (COMPOVERT), Sofie Verschraegen (ValCelMat), Ben De Waele (Fluxys), Isabel Francois (WaterstofNet) and Simon De Langhe (Ghent University) - for their contributions! 💫 Congratulations to Kevi

Harnessing the Force - Innovative Hydrogen Production The first OBIWAN workshop was linked to the OBIWAN kick-off with the official inauguration of the Electrothermal Fluidized Bed (ETFB) reactor. The central theme of the workshop was "hydrogen production".