Conference Description
Switching from a non-renewable fossil-based economy to a bioeconomy relying on biomass utilization is the challenging industrial revolution that humanity must achieve to address the needs of an ever-growing global population, while limiting global warming. Terrestrial and aquatic biomass offers a wide variety of valuable components such as lignins, (hemi)celluloses, other (poly)saccharides, proteins, secondary metabolites, that could be used for the production of biobased bulk, fine and specialty chemicals, polymers and transportation fuels. Biorefineries, which consist in the development of individual biomass process streams that convert primary biomass components into end products and the effective integration of these streams, are the core elements of the bioeconomy concept. This GRC will look at how scientists and engineers can overcome, through transdisciplinary approaches, the fundamental challenges that these biorefineries are facing today.
This GRC aims at gathering international experts in the following science and engineering activities to foster the development of sustainable biomass conversion process into valuable chemicals and materials: i) chemical/biological/mechanical strategies to deconstruct or fractionate lignocellulose and (micro)algae into individual biomass components, ii) increasing the selectivity and efficiency of chemical, biological or hybrid catalysts for biomass conversion technologies, iii) selective lignin conversions that provide narrow compositional ranges of aromatic and aliphatic building blocks; iv) selective polysaccharides conversion that provide building blocks and solvents; v) genetic engineer of plants to increase their susceptibility to deconstruction methods and as factories to produce natural and non-natural chemicals; vi) engineering microorganisms (molecular and synthetic biology) to access natural and non-natural building blocks or end products from biomass; vii) developing chemical/biological/mechanical sustainable processes that convert biomass-derived building blocks into end products (fine chemicals, functional additives, polymers/materials); and viii) designing cost-efficient processes for the extraction/purification of biomass components, building blocks and end products.
The topics, speakers, and discussion leaders for the conference sessions are displayed below. The conference chair is currently developing their detailed program, which will include the complete meeting schedule, as well as the talk titles for all speakers. The detailed program will be available by January 30, 2021. Please check back for updates.
Biorefinery and Bioeconomy Concepts
Discussion Leaders
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Honorine Katir (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France)
Speakers
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Eric Olivier (FPInnovations, Canada)
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Ed de Jong (Avantium, The Netherlands)
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Corinne Scown (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
Biorefinery Processes Applied to Terrestrial Biomass and Micro-Algae
Discussion Leaders
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Maureen McCann (Purdue University, USA)
Speakers
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Sonja Salmon (North Carolina State University, USA)
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Konstantinos Triantafyllidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)
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Madeleine Bussemaker (University of Surrey, United Kingdom)
Lignin Upgrading
Discussion Leaders
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Seema Singh (Sandia National Laboratories, USA)
Speakers
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Jeremy Luterbacher (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
Hemicellulose and Cellulose Upgrading
Discussion Leaders
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Katalin Barta (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
Speakers
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Gil Garnier (Monash University, Australia)
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Karine Vigier (Université de Poitiers, France)
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Youssef Habibi (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Luxembourg)
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Chunlin Xu (Åbo Akademi University, Finland)
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Carl Houtman (Forest Products Laboratory, USDA Forest Service, USA)
Downstream Process and Process Intensification
Discussion Leaders
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Sankar Nair (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Speakers
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Andrew Wilson (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)
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Marianthi Ierapetritou (University of Delaware, USA)
Biocatalysts and Heterogeneous Catalysts for Biomass Conversion
Discussion Leaders
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Michael Bott (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)
Speakers
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Tim Bugg (University of Warwick, United Kingdom)
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Adam Lee (RMIT University, Australia)
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Rafael Luque (Universidad de Cordoba, Spain)
Whole Cell and Plant-Based Chemicals/Materials Production Platform
Discussion Leaders
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Gregg Beckham (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)
Speakers
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Jenny Mortimer (University of Adelaide, Australia / Joint BioEnergy Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
Biomass-Derived Sustainable Polymers and Materials
Discussion Leaders
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Alessandro Pellis (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria)
Speakers
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Sylvain Caillol (Institut Charles Gerhardt, France)
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Joseph Stanzione (Rowan University, USA)
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Karin Odelius (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)
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John Warner (Warner-Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, USA)
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Megan Robertson (University of Houston, USA)
Biomass-Derived Interfacial Chemicals and Green Solvents
Discussion Leaders
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George John (The City College of New York, USA)
Speakers
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Jason Camp (Circa Group, United Kingdom)
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Thomas Farmer (University of York, United Kingdom)
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Richard Gross (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA)