Scientific Program

Conference Series Ltd invites all the participants across the globe to attend 14th World Bioenergy Congress and Expo London, UK.

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Scientific Program Day 1
Scientific Program Day 2

Day 1 :

Keynote Forum

Grace N Ijoma

Institute for the Development of Energy for African Sustainability

Keynote: Comparative evaluation of enzyme production efficiency of monocultures and paired interactions of fungi on different agricultural substrates

Time : 09:00AM

Conference Series Bioenergy 2019 International Conference Keynote Speaker Grace N Ijoma photo
Biography:

Dr. Grace N Ijoma is a senior lecturer of Biotechnology at the Pearson Institute of Higher Education and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Africa. Her PhD focused on antagonistic interspecific interactions amongst fungi. Previous paper presentation of portions of this work was presented at 8th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology. Houston Texas, USA in 2016 and was judged first place paper. She is eclectic in her research interests and has a keen interest in several areas including Bioprospecting of niche environments, Food Microbiology, Environmental and Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (particularly Fermentation technology and process optimization), Microbial enzymes and biodegradation of xenobiotic compounds including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides and synthetic dyes, Ground water quality research and Microbial treatment of industrial waste water, Solid waste management. She is currently supervising undergraduate and post graduate research projects designed towards industrially relevant applications

Abstract:

There is a renewed interest in finding sustainable energy sources with particular focus on agricultural waste residues. The justification for this perspective is that this eliminates the need to cultivate already scarce land mass and has the added advantage of utilizing agricultural residues that otherwise would have presented problems of waste management. However, the use of agricultural waste residue is significantly hindered by the difficulty in degradation of lignocellulose components of its structure. Ligninolytic fungi have the ability to degrade these agricultural waste residues but enzymes employed in the degradation process are produced in limited quantities and more often during the secondary metabolism by these organisms. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: The objective of this study was to investigate a strategy that could improve the production of these enzymes and likely accelerate the organisms into secondary phase enzyme production mode. Dual culture combinations of 10 fungi that had previously demonstrated the ability to produce ligninolytic enzymes were cultivated on PDA to ascertain their interspecific interaction and also on three agricultural residues, corn cob, sugarcane bagasse and wheat straw. Spectrophotometric analysis of the enzyme activities of laccase (Lacc), manganese peroxidase (MnP) and lignin peroxidase (LiP) demonstrated that observed antagonistic invasions yielded an increased enzyme activity in dual cultures on all the substrates. Findings: The highest ligninolytic enzyme production was observed in invasion/replacement interactions that involved Trichoderma sp. KN10 with average mean value in MnP production was approximately 1.46 U/ml compared to all monocultures of 0.055 U/ml. Similarly, Lacc mean value was 0.10 U/ml compared to monocultures value of 0.05 U/ml. This study demonstrated and proved that antagonistic invasion by some fungi in co-culture, although dependent on substrate affinity, can increase production of one or more of the three enzymes laccase, lignin peroxidase and manganese peroxidase. 

Keynote Forum

Muhammad Usman

Former Director General of Agricultural Research System, Pakistan

Keynote: Bioenergy is the powerful tool on the poverty reduction and hunger in the world particularly South Asia

Time : 09:30AM

Conference Series Bioenergy 2019 International Conference Keynote Speaker Muhammad Usman photo
Biography:

Muhammad Usman former Director General of Agricultural Research System, Government of Pakistan who retired from service after a spotless career of about 35 years with senior level experience on research and development of integrated agricultural production, industries, food and beverage, bioenergy on a sustainable way. He is basically an agricultural scientist with specialization of agricultural, food and biochemistry working on the yield and quality of various products and published several research papers. He is considered as the senior most scientist in the world, always participated in the international conferences as a keynote speech, renowned speaker, organizing committee member as well as moderator of the conferences around the world. He established Prominent Agro Based Industries, Agro Based Industries and Consultancy SDN BHD in Malaysia and Foundation for Rural Development in Pakistan with primary aim to work on integrated agricultural project for rural development through improvement in agriculture and consultancy services to the farmers at Malaysia.

Abstract:

The role of bioenergy on the poverty alleviation in the developing countries of the world like South Asia were studied and reported that bioenergy can be produced from plant, plant derived materials, renewable in nature, derived from biomass and used directly for heating known as biomass fuels. Biomass can also be used directly for heating or power known as biomass fuel. Biomass is a biological material derived from living organism including plants and animals, known as agricultural biomass. As per report in Pakistan, a single cow is sufficient to provide a whole family with their milk and energy needs as biogas generated from the dung of cow. This is not only the cheapest source of energy but also an important alternative to replace the costly item like furnace oil, coal, natural gas used for non-renewable energy. It means, bioenergy is the basic need of our life, main source of poverty and without energy life is almost impossible. In view of the importance of bioenergy, the developing counties are still facing energy crises due to dense population and highly dependent on non-renewable energy. Although, a great potential of bioenergy is available. As reported, due to lack of energy nearly one billion people go to bed hungry each night. Keeping in view the importance of bioenergy, it is necessary that the potential of bioenergy may be commercialized to increase the income, reduce the energy crises as well as poverty in the developing countries of the world. It is concluded that bioenergy is the powerful tool on the poverty reduction and hunger in the world.
 

 

Keynote Forum

Bor-Yann Chen

National I-Lan University, Taiwan

Keynote: Exploring optimal supplement strategy of polyphenolics-abundant herbal extracts for bioenergy stimulation in microbial fuel cells

Time : 10:00 AM

Conference Series Bioenergy 2019 International Conference Keynote Speaker Bor-Yann Chen photo
Biography:

Bor-Yann Chen has expertise in biomass energy and bioremediation for biotechnology. His serial studies focused on applications in wastewater decolorization, bioremediation engineering, environmental toxicology and biofuel cells. He has completed PhD from University of California, Irvine in 1995 and used to be NRC awarded Research Associate to work in NRMRL/US EPA, Cincinnati Ohio. He is a distinguished Professor in Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National I-Lan University, Taiwan. He has published 150+ SCI-peer reviewed articles in reputed journals and has many national awards (e.g., Professor Yen-Ping Shih Best Paper Awards of 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2016 from Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers). Recently his findings also deciphered chemical structures of electron shuttles and recalcitrant dyes which are crucial to simultaneous pollutant biodegradation and biomaterial/bioenergy recycling for sustainable green technology. Considering environmental friendliness, this study explored natural bioresources (e.g., medicinal herbs and edible flora) for bioenergy and high-value production generation. He provided different alternatives to re-evaluate indigenous biomaterials with electrochemical potentials for bioenergy extraction, biorefinery development and derived applications.
 

 

Abstract:

This serial study revealed the optimal strategy to supplement extracts of polyphenolics abundant medicinal herbs and Camellia tea as electron shuttles (ESs) for stimulating bioenergy generation in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Apparently, Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze and Syzygium aromaticum were promising electroactive ESs. Moderate temperature (ca. 65°C) and slightly alkaline pHs (~10) were electrochemically feasible conditions for herbal extraction. Optimal contents of polyphenolics rich herbs and tea extracts with maximal electrochemical activities could be stably obtained. Power density of MFC supplemented with Camellia green tea extract could significantly increase ca. 176%, suggesting that unfermented green tea extract would be the most appropriate ESs. As correlation analysis indicated that total phenolic contents and electron shuttling capabilities were all electrochemically associated. In addition, chemical structure is strongly affected whether antioxidant activities of polyphenolics abundant herbal extracts could be reversibly switched to be electron shuttling capabilities (e.g., substitution patterns). Dihydroxyl substiutuents of ortho or para to each other were very likely promising for electron-shuttling, but not for meta substituents. Moreover, bioelectrochemical treatment upon medicinal herbal extracts (e.g., cyclic electron dationng and withdrawing processes) might provide an electroactive alternative to attenuate herbal biotoxicity to fully express bioenergy-shuttling activities in applications (e.g., bioenergy extraction and herbal medication). 

  • Biofuels | Biomass | Bioethonal | Biogas
Location: Meeting Hall: Wright
Speaker

Chair

Bor-Yann Chen

National I-Lan University, Taiwan

Session Introduction

Abderrahim Bouaida

University of Complutense, Spain

Title: One-step enzymatic ethanolysis of high free fatty acid Jatropha oil for biodiesel production.Improvement of cold flow properties
Speaker
Biography:

Abstract:

Enzymatic catalysis for biodiesel production using low-cost, high free fatty acid oils has attracted much attention recently due mainly to economic issues, renewability, and sustainable benefits. The performance of a commercial, low-cost lipase (Eversa®, Novozymes) was investigated in the transesterification reaction for fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) production. In order to reduce the costs of industrial enzymatic biodiesel production, enzyme was used in its soluble, free form. The proposed approach, consisting in the transesterification of a low cost and sustainable Jatrpha oil, using (Eversa®, Novozymes) as catalyst with ethanol as alcohol to realize a completely green bio-process. The proposed approach uses an integrated process for the production of the FAEE ethyl esters which can be used as a promising substitute for conventional fuels, since it matches the European Biodiesel Standard EN 14214. The influence of variables such as temperature, catalyst concentration and alcohol/oil molar ratio on the production of both fractions has been studied and optimized by means of factorial design and response surface methodology (RSM). The obtained models are useful to determine the optimum operating conditions for an up-scaled industrial process, using a minimum number of experiments, with the consequent benefits from an economical point of view. However from a technical point of view, the highest possible yield for FAEE fraction should be targeted, consequently a catalyst concentration of 9.8% an alcohol/oil molar ratio of 6:1 and an operation temperature of 35°C should be chosen. According to these conditions, conversion rates of 98% for FAEE could be obtained. The preparation of the products is a green engineering process, clean, solvent-free, with a very selective catalyst that minimizes water and energy consumption and the downstream processing of the integrated process.
 

 

Muluken Eshetu

Jimma University, Ethiopia

Title: Sequential production of methyl ester, bioethanol and briquette from spent coffee ground
Speaker
Biography:

Muluken Eshetu Tefera has been working as a Lecturer at Jimma University, Jimma Institute of Technology under the school of Chemical Engineering since Aug 2014. He has been working on giving Lectures on fluid mechanics for chemical engineers, mass transfer unit operation and entrepreneurship for engineers courses, assisting undergraduate students in thermal and mass transfer unit operations laboratory, advising graduating students, mentoring industrial intern students and many more activities

Abstract:

In this study, methyl-ester, bioethanol and briquette samples were sequentially produced from spent coffee ground. The oil extracted from spent coffee ground with solvent extraction route at hexane to spent coffee ground ratio of 22.5 g/g with an extraction time of 30.4min resulting in 11.892% of oil yield. This was comparable with literature values and subsequently used for methyl-ester production experiments using a 1% by wt of NaOH at reaction temperatures and residence times ranging from 50 to 65°C and 20 to 60min, respectively. The optimization carried out using central composite design methodology gave 81.507% of methyl-ester yield at a reaction temperature of 57.133°C and reaction time (residence time) of 45.117 min with model determination coefficient (R2) of 0.9465 while the optimum reducing sugar yield for dilute acid hydrolysis experiments for ranges of operating parameters of temperature (70-100°C) and (1-3M ) of H2SO4 concentrations was found to be 39.161% at a temperature of 98.313°C and H2SO4 acid concentration of 2.962M.The central composite design optimization results for transesterification and dilute acid hydrolysis experiments were verified by running experiments at optimum conditions and in turn resulted 79.65% of biodiesel yield (out of 11.892 g of oil) and reducing sugars yield of 37.28% (out of the hydrolysate). This implied that the verification experimental results weren’t far from the predicted values so that the experimental results were sufficiently represented by the central composite design models. The bio ethanol produced by simple distillation having alcohol by volume yield of 55% can be considered as a good result and it can be easily concentrated to a fuel grade ethanol by using fractionating column. Moreover, the characteristics of the biodiesel produced were in good agreement with ASTM and EN standards. The end product of the process which is briquette has been produced from 75% wt of dilute acid hydrolysis residue and 25% wt of glycerol, resulted a calorific value of 13.35 MJ/kg, volatile matter value of 88.15%, ash content of 3.95%, and fixed carbon contents of 1.74% with its easily moldable physical status showed that it can as well be used for fueling purpose like firewood and charcoal. This study signifies the value addition that can be affected from spent coffee ground and the potential and results obtained in this regard are discussed. 

Wenquan Wang

Institute of Tropical Biosciences and Biotechnology, China

Title: Genomics approaching value added varieties with high efficiency bioethanol making in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)
Speaker
Biography:

Wenquan Wang is a Senior Scientist of Genomics and Molecular Breeding for tropical crops as cassava, Professor of Biology and Agronomy in Hainan University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Executive Director of Key Laboratory of Tropical Crop Biology and Utilization of Genetic Resources. He is a Coordinator of National Key Basic Research Program (973) “The principal research on genetic improvement in cassava important tropical crop”. He got PhD in nutrition genetics in Chinese Agricultural University in 2000, and once being Senior Research Fellow in BTI, Cornell University during 2009-2010. In his academic career, dedicated to understanding molecular mechanism of carbohydrates accumulation in storage roots, developing new molecular tools to build up a whole genome resolution for elite varieties breeding in cassava and other tropical crops. The achievements include one third prize in National Science and Technology Innovation Award and two prizes of Provincial Scientific and Technology Award, two patents and above 200 publications include of articles published in Nature Comm., NAR, Scientific Reports, etc

Abstract:

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a vital important crop in the world because of its multiple utilization in food, feed, biofuel and green chemical materials in present and in the future. However, desirable elite varieties satisfied to food and industrial purpose still are bottlenecks in the field. We all know that the conventional breeding faced the big challenges due to the extremely heterozygosity of genome and too high cost to selection scale. How to pave a way towards to low-cost and high-throughput genotype selection will be an ideal blue map. Recent five years, our consortium made breakthroughs in several aspects like invented and patented a low cost and high throughput genotyping tool called the amplified fragment single nucleotide polymorphism and methylation-AFSM technology. It allows finding the SNV and methylation sites in whole genome level with very low cost and short time. Gained genotype information of over 800 cultivars and landraces of cassava including about 40 breeding parents. Main economical traits such as fresh root yield, dry matter yield, storage root quality, plant and leave types, tolerance to drought, cold and post-harvest physiological deterioration (PPD) tolerance to barren soil, whose correlated whole genome markers have been screened and produced a set of detectable breeding sites. A framework of genome selection breeding in cassava has been set up and based on it, several new elite varieties with characters of high yield, higher ethanol productivity, with erect plant type, tight and short storage root suitable for high dense planting and mechanic harvesting, tolerance to PPD and cold have been released.
 

 

Soo-Young No

Chungbuk National University, South Korea

Title: Utilization of higher alcohols to CI engines – A review
Speaker
Biography:

Soo-Young No has his expertise in atomization and sprays, combustion and emission characteristics in applying the liquid biofuels to internal combustion engines, particularly compression ignition engines. The review papers on liquid biofuels published by him include the biodiesel obtained from inedible vegetable oils, alcohols such as methanol, ethanol and butanol, bio-oil, straight vegetable oil, BTL diesel, hydrotreated vegetable oil. Further, the book titled on “Application of Liquid Biofuels to Internal Combustion Engines” written by him will be published on June 2019 at Springer.

Abstract:

The alcohols which could be used for automotive fuels were methanol, ethanol, propanol and biobutanol. However, recently the utilization of long-chain alcohols such as pentanol, hexanol, octanol, dodecanol and phytol has recently received significant attention as alternative fuels for diesel engines because they emit less greenhouse gases and harmful pollutants. Pentanol (C5H11OH) is one of higher alcohol with five carbons in its structure and has big potential as a blending agent with diesel fuel because of its high energy density, high cetane number, better blend stability and less hygroscopic nature than other widely studied lower alcohols such as methanol, ethanol and butanol. For the chemical kinetic oxidation models for pentanol isomers, fourteen detailed kinetic mechanism were developed, and five reduced kinetic mechanisms were suggested. Binary blends such as diesel/pentanol and biodiesel/ pentanol, ternary blends such as diesel/biodiesel /pentanol were widely studied in the conventional diesel engine. The pentanol/diesel blends coupled with EGR technology could simultaneously reduce NOx and soot emissions from CI engine. Further, diesel/pentanol blends generally produced higher CO and HC emissions than diesel fuel. However, CO and HC emissions were significantly reduced by mixing the cetane improver with the blends. Upto 45%~50% n-pentanol/diesel blends can be safely used in diesel engines without any engine modification or any additive. Very few information related to the application of pentanol to advanced CI engine is available in the literature. For ternary blends, diesel/biodiesel/pentanol blends were mainly studied by many investigators. The emission characteristics in CI engines in terms of CO, HC NOx and smoke opacity showed the different trend according to the pentanol proportion in ternary blends. Two different ways of hexanol such as co-surfactants and as blending agent include in the application of hexanol in diesel engine. Hexanol can replace diesel by up to 50% by volume and octanol can be used as neat octanol, octanol (up to 40%)/diesel blends, ternary blends and surfactants. Dodecanol upto 1.5% was employed as co-solvent to prevent the separation between ethanol or methanol and diesel phytol can be used as a blending agent by up to 20% in diesel engine. Fuel oil can be included in the higher alcohols because it is the mixture of mainly three alcohols of isopentanol, iso-butyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol. However, it will not be discussed here because it was used as a blend agent in SI engines.

M.K. Ogun

Hamburg University of Technology, Germany

Title: Biogas potential of deinking sludge from wastepaper recycling industry: Influence of dewatering degree and high calcium carbonate content
Speaker
Biography:

Moses Ogun has his expertise in Environmental Technology. He is a Research Engineer at the Hamburg University of Technology. In his last research he worked on the photocatalysis of recalcitrant organics in wastewater effluent. For over four years now he has engaged himself in finding alternative approach for the treatment of deinking sludges produced by the wastepaper recycling industry. His strategies are mainly biological approach and reuse options.

Abstract:

Statement of problem: The wastepaper recycling industry produce different residues, among which is the deinking sludge (DS). The DS is generated from the deinking process and constitutes a major fraction of the residues generated by the European pulp and paper industry. The traditional treatment of DS by incineration is capital intensive due to energy requirement for dewatering and the need for complementary fuel source due to DS low calorific value. This could be replaced by a biotechnological approach. This study therefore investigated the biogas potential of different DS streams (different dewatering degrees) and the influence of its high calcium carbonate content of DS on its biogas potential. Method: Dewatered DS (solid fraction) sample from filter press and the filtrate (liquid fraction) were collected from a partner wastepaper recycling company in Germany. The solid fraction and the liquid fraction were mixed in proportion to realize DS with different water content [55 – 91% Fresh Mass]. Spiked samples of DS using deionized water, cellulose and calcium carbonate were prepared to simulate DS with varying calcium carbonate content [0– 40% Dry Matter]. Biogas potential was studied using a 1-Liter batch test system under mesophilic condition and ran for 21 days. Results and Conclusions: A specific biogas potential in the range 133- 230 NL/kg organic dry matters was observed for DS samples investigated. An optimal dewatering degree corresponding to a water content of about 70% fresh mass was identified for the biogas production of DS. No inhibitory influence was observed in the biogas potential of spiked DS samples due to the reported high calcium carbonate content of DS. This study confirms that DS is a potential bioresource for biogas production. Further optimization such as Nitrogen supplementation due to DS high C/N ratio can increase biogas yield. 

  • Biomass feed stocks for renewable energy generation | Processes for Bioenergy | Biofuels | Renewable energy | Biogas | Biomass
Location: Meeting Hall: Wright
Speaker

Chair

Soo-Young no

Chungbuk National University, South korea

Session Introduction

Bismark Ameyaw

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China

Title: Determinants of energy production from biomass: Multivariate Panel Data Evidence for IEA-30 Countries
Speaker
Biography:

Abstract:

The contemporary increase in worldwide population drives the generation of energy from conventional and unconventional sources. Energy generated from exhaustible resources endanger the environment and imperils economic development. However, production of energy from naturally replenished resources add-in to economic development and helps address issues of global warming and further grants energy security. This study seeks to investigate the determinants of biomass energy production for International Energy Administration (IEA)-30 countries for the period covering 2000-2015. In our analysis, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is used as a proxy for economic growth and energy imports is deemed as the main controlling factor.  Our panel fully modified and dynamic ordinary least squares regression shows a significant positive influence of total biomass energy production on economic growth. Thus, a percentage increase in primary biomass energy production increase GDP per capita by 0.04%-0.05%. For our panel vector error correction model based causality nexus, we notice that in both the short and long-run, there exist unidirectional causality running from economic growth and energy imports to total biomass energy production which supports the conservation hypothesis. The findings from the study indicates that economic growth and energy imports significantly influences total biomass energy production. This study guides policymakers in formulating a conclusive biomass energy and trade policies for sustainable economic growth. Synopsis of our Econometric Model Formulation: Our primary focus is to investigate the nexus between biomass energy production, energy imports and economic growth with a panel data fixed-effects regression model specified as follows: 0 1 2 it it it it Z Y C α β β ε = + + + (1) Where  denotes the dependent variable gross domestic product per capita (GDPC) ;  represents total biomass energy produced;  represents each IEA member country-level control variables;  is the intercept or constant and  and are the parameters; is the stochastic error term;  is the subscript of each IEA member states where , and  is the subscript of each IEA member state time dimensions where . More specifically, we explore the relationship between biomass energy production (TBEP), energy imports (EI) and GDPC by employing Granger causality test based on panel vector error correction model (PVECM). For our stationarity analysis, we first employ Im, Pesaran and Shin (IPS) test developed by Im et al. which allows for heterogeneous autoregressive coefficients. We formulate our mathematical model as: 1it i it i it it z vz Y δε − = + + (2) Where itY represents our predictor variables comprising individual time trend; autoregressive coefficients is represented by iv ; and it ε represent the stationary stochastic error terms. As the IPS ensures various orders of serial correlation by averaging the augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test, we formulate our stochastic stationary error term as:   
1
iv it ix it x it x ε φ ε µ − = = + ∑
(3) Therefore, by substituting (3) into (2), our mathematical formulation becomes: 1
1
iv it i it ix it x i it it x z vz Y φ ε δ µ −− = = + + + ∑ (4) Where the number of lags in ADF regression is represented by. We propose our null hypothesis to be a case where there exists a unit root in each series of our panel data sets whereas alternative hypothesis supposes that at least one individual series in the panel data is stationary. Besides Phillips-Perron (PP), Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Levin, Lin & Chu (LLC) stationarity test are executed.
 

 

Santhosh Pillai

Durban University of Technology, South Africa

Title: Untapped agricultural biomass into a value-added product: An enzymatic approach
Biography:

Abstract:

Lignocellulosic biomass serves as a reservoir of sugars, which could be used as a potential source for alternative energy and value-added products. Since, the lignocellulose is made up of a complex framework of various components, utilizing it as a readily available material for value addition is a tough task. Usage of chemicals coupled with physical or biological treatments provide a promising way of accessing lignocellulose. In this study, bambara biomass was chosen as a raw material; comprehensive characterization of the biomass was performed to evaluate their potential as a new lignocellulosic feedstock. Xylan, the major hemicellulose component of the biomass was chosen as the source of interest and was extracted by alkaline method. The alkaline extraction of biomass reduced the damage of polysaccharide chains, which could further be explored for desirable product synthesis. The extracted xylan was characterized by NMR and monosaccharide analysis and confirmed as glucuronoxylan. The bambara xylan was further subjected to hydrolysis by the enzyme β-xylanase, yielding Xylooligosaccharides (XOS), with properties suited for use as a prebiotic. Further, a novel prebiotic spread using Bambara and Amadumbe starch was prepared which contained XOS as the dietary fiber. The new spread enriched with prebiotic offers consumers the benefit of having a healthy diet with improved dietary fiber

L E Macaskie

University of Birmingham, UK

Title: Novel biogenic catalysts with catalytic applications in bioenergy processes
Biography:

L E Macaskie did her BSc and PhD in Microbial Biochemistry (University of London) in the 1970s, moving to the University of Oxford (postdoctoral, then faculty staff in Department of Biochemistry) until 1991 when she took up a lectureship, then personal Chair, at the University of Birmingham in Applied Microbiology. Her dual interests center on bacterially manufactured nanoparticles and bio-nano minerals for nuclear decontamination processes and precious metal neo-catalysts for clean energy, green chemistry and environment. Needing hydrogen to feed her bacteria. She developed a process to make bio-H2 via fermentation of food wastes, outperforming other renewable energy processes in terms of energy balance. 

Abstract:

https://bioenergy.insightconferences.comBacteria can manufacture supported nano-catalysts from solutions of precious metals (PMs), waste leachates and industrial processing solutions as an economic alternative to the use of primary-sourced PM catalysts in high volume/low value applications. Metal deposition occurs via nucleation of soluble metal ions to cellular ligands followed by enzymatically-catalysed growth of nanoparticles (NPs), to form templated, structured nanomaterial. This can self-immobilize onto a carrier for easy catalyst recovery, multiple re-use and in continuous-flow processes. Monometallic structures like Pd-NPs have multiple applications but faster reactions and higher selectivity can be achieved with a second metal to make alloys or core-shell nano-patterned structures. The second metal coupling is abiotic; importantly, no live bacteria remain in the material, while the catalysts can be made directly from highly acidic leachates in order to ‘bio-refine’ precious metal (PM) scraps, overcoming the economic barrier to use of PMs for large or sacrificial operations. Examples will describe the use of such neo-catalysts in fuel cells and also applications in upgrading of intermediates produced in the thermochemical processing of organic materials to a platform chemical and fuel precursor; the use of catalysts bio-refined from road dusts in the catalytic upgrading of heavy fossil oils (reduced viscosity, levels of impurities and coking)1 and in the catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of pyrolysis oil from biomass  2. Throughout, the bio-derived catalysts performed comparably to commercial catalysts and favourable oil distillation curves were obtained. In addition, when upgrading 5-hydroxymethyl furfural extracted from biomass hydrolysate the commercial catalyst was ineffective although a bio-Pd/Ru equivalent achieved the conversion. For economy at scale, similar results were obtained using ‘second life’ bacteria left over from another bioprocess, while the catalysts were bio-refined from PMs from high volume wastes (road dusts). The latter has been subjected to a life cycle assessment showing process viability at scale.
 

Ramachandran Sivaramakrishnan

Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Title: Biorefinery approach of microalgae feedstock for the production of É›-polylysine and biodiesel
Speaker
Biography:

Ramachandran Sivaramakrishnan is currently a Senior Post-Doctoral Research in the Cyanobacterial Biotechnology (Biochem dept.) Group Led by Dr. Aran Incharoensakdi at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. His research interests include the production of biofuels, value-added products, understanding the mechanism of biofuel productions and exploring value-added products. Before joining Dr. Aran Incharoensakdi lab, he worked as a Junior research fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Anna University, India. 

Abstract:

Environmental problems coupled with rapid depletion of fossil fuel and its resources prompted researchers to find alternative renewable resources and its commercialization. The biomass from microalgae with high oil content is a promising feedstock for the renewable resources. Compared with plants, microalgae can produce more oil per hectare with a shorter production cycle. The coupling of algae biofuels with high value compounds production widens the market opportunities which fits well with a recent trend of biorefinery concept. For biorefinery approach, it is essential to select the microalgae which contain high amounts of organic matters such as lipids and carbohydrates which can be used for biorefinery approaches. The present study focuses on the concomitant production of methyl ester and É›-polylysine from microalgae feedstock. The harvesting efficiency of Botryococcus sp. was increased up to 93% by treatment with a flocculant FeCl3 at 100 mg/L for 30 min. The DMC (dimethyl carbonate) mediated enzyme catalyzed in-situ transesterification of Botryococcus sp. yielded the maximum methyl esters of 93% under optimized conditions. The spent biomass was further hydrolyzed using acid and the hydrolyzate obtained was used to produce value-added product e-polylysine using Streptomomyces sp. The key components of sugar and MgSO4 involved in the ε-polylysine production were optimized whereby the maximum ε-polylysine production was achieved at 50 g/L sugars and 0.3 g/L MgSO4. The ε-polylysine production was further improved by the supplementation of important acids (lysine and aspartate) and TCA cycle intermediates (citric acid and α-ketoglutaric acid). The maximum production of 2.31 g/L was found with 4 mM citric acid supplementation after 130h. The present study demonstrated the effective harvesting method of microalgae and integrated production of methyl ester and ε-polylysine as a biorefinery approach. The promising path of the biorefinery concept in the present study will help to develop the economy based sustainable fuels and value-added compounds production in the near future. 

Amos Oppong

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China

Title: Energy policies needed to transition to a green economy based on high-accuracy forecasts
Biography:

Amos Oppong is a Doctoral Researcher at the School of Management and Economics (SME) of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), and a Member of the International Association of Energy Economists (IAEE). He specializes in environmental energy and economic modelling and forecasting. 

Abstract:

Renewable energy (including bioenergy) is a key for economic developmental consistency and supply is necessary for keeping countries on a sustained growth path. In order to minimize cost due to over (excess supply) and/ or under supply (shortage), policymakers and stakeholders leverage on business-as-usual (BAU) energy demand projections as benchmarks to design and implement efficient policies. Existing high-profile energy demand forecasting models (such as NEMS) achieve relatively high accuracies for short- and medium-term projections but records high forecast inaccuracies when utilized for long term cases due to the massive assumption dependent explanatory variables whose assumptions often deviate from realized levels but are pivotal to the core forecasting modules. Here, we implement a relatively high-accuracy level, trend and seasonality consistent technique that is devoid of assumption driven variables for BAU long-term energy demand forecasting. We utilize the technique to forecast bioenergy and total primary energy supply in the USA. The results suggest that for the 2012-2016 fiveyear forecast, the accuracy of the proposed technique strikingly outperform the regression and double exponential smoothing (DES) benchmark models and record significant improvement up to ~10- fold on NEMS related reference case forecast as reported in Annual Energy Outlook 2011 (AEO2011) and AEO2012. Outputs from applying the proposed high-accuracy technique for long-term production and consumption projections show that total renewable energies will account for ~15.77% out of the expected ~101.75 quadrillion Btu total primary energy consumption in 2035; thus radical and revolutionary energy policies are required for USA to achieve the ‘100% renewables by 2035’ target approved by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June 2017

Stephen Aarnold

Great Driffield, E Riding of Yorkshire, UK

Title: Straw pelleting
Biography:

Abstract: