The highlight of this year’s public ABC-Salt Research Consortium activities, writes Daniel Nowakowski of Aston University, was the midterm review and the Expert Workshop on Hydrotreatment of Bio-liquids was delivered in the form of an on-line webinar on 15 October, 2020.
The main objectives of the Expert Workshop on Hydrotreatment of Bio-liquids were to:
– Identify technical “bottlenecks” and challenges in bio-liquids upgrading at different levels (from molecular to process level)
– Identify non-technical challenges
– Promote the EU Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge “Secure, clean and efficient energy” projects
– Engage participants with the ABC-Salt Research Consortium
– Foster networking, knowledge exchange and future collaboration between workshop participants
The workshop agenda was arranged around four activities and is given in more detail below:
1. Opening and the ABC-Salt presentation by the Project Coordinator
2. Keynote presentation on the EU Research and Innovation Policy in Bioenergy
3. Presentations by industrial and academic stakeholders
4. Discussion panel – Q&A session and interactive discussion
Workshop/webinar agenda is presented in more details below:
– Introduction & ABC-Salt project presentation; Prof. Erik Heeres (University of Groningen/ABC-Salt Project Coordinator – Netherlands)
– Presentation on EU Research and Innovation Policy in Bioenergy; Dr Maria Georgiadou (European Commission – DG RTD)
– Presentations by industrial stakeholders:
Pyrolysis oil as starting point for the bioliquids refinery; Ing. Gerhard Muggen (BTG Bioliquids BV – Netherlands)
Hydrofaction® Renewable Crude Oil: Upgrading pathways to finished fuels and refinery integration; Dr Julie Katerine Rodríguez (Steeper Energy – Canada)
Polyester monomers via hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis of sugars and CO2 with and without H2; Prof. Gert-Jan Gruter (Avantium – Netherlands)
– Presentations by scientific stakeholders
Challenges in hydrotreating pyrolysis liquids; Dr Robbie Venderbosch (BTG Biomass Technology Group BV – Netherlands)
Laboratory Developments in Hydrotreatment of HTL Biocrude; Dr Doug Elliott (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – USA)
Structure sensitivity in hydrogenation of sugars; Prof. Dmitry Murzin (Åbo Akademi – Finland)
– Q & A session / Discussion panel
The recording of the successfully delivered workshop/webinar with 185 people registered and 92 attended is now available via the ABC-Salt YouTube channel which can be reviewed here: click here
The Spring School 2021, hosted by DLR in Stuttgart (Germany) from 17th and 19th March 2021, will focus on the 2nd Generation of Biofuels; the main theme of this public activity will be “How to optimise the output of your research project?”
This event will be designed for postgraduate students (Master and PhD) and early-stage post-doctoral researchers, who are currently working on different topics relating to the production of the second generation of biofuels.
In addition, people from other scientific disciplines such as social science, policy-making and similar are also encouraged to participate.
A dedicated Spring School 2021 information and registration is available via a dedicated website: click here
