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Molecules Webinar | Efficient Technology for the Pretreatment of Biomass
4 Nov 2021, 14:00 (CET)
New Pretreatment Technologies, Pretreatment Mechanisms, Biomass Fractionation for Biorefinery, Pretreatment Modeling, Environmental Assessment, Energy Assessment, Economic Assessment, Life Cycle Assessment, Molecules
Welcome from the Chair
21th Molecules Webinar
Efficient Technology for the Pretreatment of Biomass
Biomass represents one of the most abundant biological resources, including agricultural and forestry residues, herbaceous and woody crops, manure, sewage sludge, the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid waste, animal by-products, and algae (third-generation biomass).
Although it is the most promising feedstock for biofuels or bioproducts generation, considering its availability and low/zero cost, its complex structure restricts its transformation, accompanied by low conversion yields and productivities. In order to overcome the structural and compositional barriers for converting biomass into bioproducts, an efficient fractionation via pretreatment is needed.
Several pretreatment methods such as mechanical, physicochemical, thermal, and biological have been developed to improve the biomass transformation process efficiencies, rates, and yields. However, their high cost and specific energy requirements are often barriers to the process economy, and thus remain the main challenges for scaling-up the whole process. Thus, the development of an efficient, low-cost and environmentally friendly pretreatment approach is still an important challenge.
This Webinar will present new trends and recent developments in biomass pretreatment technologies towards bioproducts or biofuels production.
Date: 4 November 2021
Time: 2:00pm CET | 9:00am EDT | 9:00pm CST Asia
Webinar ID: 882 2574 0065
Webinar Secretariat: molecules.webinar@mdpi.com
Chair
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Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya·BarcelonaTech, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology, Spain
Dr. Ivet Ferrer is a Full Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya·BarcelonaTech. Currently, she leads the Research Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology (GEMMA-UPC). Her main research topic is the optimization of biomass anaerobic digestion by applying pretreatments and co-digestion. She has also addressed the implementation and assessment of low-tech digesters for rural areas. Her research is now focused on the recovery of resources from waste streams, including high-value bioproducts and biogas.
Invited Speakers
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INRAE, Montpellier University, LBE, Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, France
Dr. Hélène Carrère is an INRAE Research Director. She joined INRAE in 1994 to work on separation processes in Microbiology and Food Process Engineering unit. She moved to Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology in 2001 where her research activities focus on the study and development of pretreatments to improve the performance of anaerobic digestion and fermentation for the recovery of resources from various feedstocks (e.g., sewage sludge, lignocellulosic biomass, manure, food waste, etc.). She is an associate editor of the Waste Management journal. In 2018, she was listed in top 1% most cited authors in cross field category (Clarivate Analytics).
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University of Campinas, (UNICAMP), School of Chemical Engineering, Brazil
Dr. Aline Carvalho da Costa is an Associate Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering of the University of Campinas and conducts research in the production of bioproducts and biofuels from renewable sources within the biorefinery concept. Among her main research areas are bioprocess modeling and optimization as well as first and second generation ethanol production with an emphasis on pre-treatment technologies, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation.
Webinar Content
On Thursday, 4 November 2021, MDPI and the Journal Molecules organized the 21st webinar on Molecules. The webinar was chaired by Prof. Dr. Ivet Ferrer from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and gave an overview on “Efficient Technologies for the Pretreatment of Biomass”.
Two well-known researchers in the field shared their expertise on “Pretreatments for anaerobic digestion: state of the art” (Dr. Hélène Carrère, INRAE-LBE, France) and “Biomass fractionation for biorefineries” (Dr. Aline da Costa, UNICAMP, Brazil). Q&A sessions were conducted to answer any questions submitted by live online audience.
The webinar was offered via Zoom, and registration was required for attendance. The full recording can be found below. To stay updated on upcoming Molecules webinars organized by MDPI, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.
Program
Speaker/Presentation |
Time in CET |
Prof. Dr. Ivet Ferrer Chair Introduction |
2:00 - 2:10 pm |
Dr. Hèlène Carrère Pretreatments for Anaerobic Digestion: State of the Art |
2:10 - 2:45 pm |
Dr. Aline Carvalho da Costa Biomass Fractionation for Biorefineries |
2:45 - 3:20 pm |
Q&A |
3:20 - 3:45 pm |
Closing of Webinar |
3:45 - 4:00 pm |
Relevant SI
Efficient Technology for the Pretreatment of Biomass III
Guest Editors: Dr. Ivet Ferrer, Dr. Georgia Antonopoulou, Dr. Leonidas Matsakas & Dr. Nuriye Altınay Perendeci
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021