II Latin American Congress

Biorefineries

Materials and Energy

May 4th, 5th and 6th, 2009. Concepción,  Chile.

The 20th century was ruled by oil, which is the source not only of transportation fuels but also of many products that are omnipresent in every field of human endeavor. In view of the inevitable increases in the price of oil because of its gradual and inexorable depletion, current oil refineries will increasingly give way to the “biorefineries” of the future, which – based on renewable agricultural and forest products – will continue to produce the energy and the materials that society will require in the 21st century and beyond.

Objectives

The aim of the congress is to bring together national and international actors and experts to discuss scientific and technological advances in the use of forest biomass as a source of fuels, new materials and chemicals; and how these advances present challenges and opportunities at the regional, national and Latin American levels.

Topics related to:

1. Biochemical transformation. Both sugar fermentation and anaerobic digestion of residual biomass for bioethanol or biogas are considered, including pre-treatment, process development, purification and product conditioning.
2. Thermo-chemical transformation. Obtaining solid, liquid and gaseous products through thermochemical degradation of lignocelluloses, either pyrolysis or gasification; not only to obtain fuels, but also chemical products of commercial interest.
3. Chemical or physical transformation. Separation of forest biomass components by means of new technologies and transformation of these into products of commercial interest. At the same time, preparation, conditioning and densification of biomass, to facilitate its transport and storage, allow its processing and/or homogenize its composition.
4. Integration of bio-refineries into existing forest-industrial plants. Examples: Fischer-Tropsch gasification and synthesis processes, alternative processes for the treatment of black liquor, high-value products from the Kraft process, hydrolysis of chips prior to firing and biotransformation of the resulting sugars into valuable products, etc.

Exhibitors

• Dr. -Ing. Stephan Kabasci. Business Manager, Renewable Resources Unit, Fraunhofer Institute of Technology, Environment, Security and Energy, UMSICHT, Germany.
• Dipl. -Ing. Carmen Michels. Willich Branch, Renewable Resources Unit of the Fraunhofer Institute of Technology, Environment, Security and Energy, UMSICHT, Germany.
• Dr. habil. Hans-Peter Fink. Director. Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research, IAP, Germany.
• Dr. Dietrich Meier. Investigator. Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute. Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forests and Fisheries, Germany.
  Georg-August University, Institute of Wood Biology and Wood Products, Germany.
• Dr. Rafael Kandiyoti. Emeritus researcher. Department of Industrial Chemistry, Imperial College, United Kingdom.
• Dr. Herbert Sixta. Chemical Pulping and Environmental Technology Laboratory. Forest Products Technology Department, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
  Head of Research and Development at Lenzing AG, Austria.
• Dr. Jorge Luiz Colodette. Pulp and Paper Laboratory, Forestry Engineering Department, Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil.
• Dr. Eduardo Cassel. Professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
• Dr. Adriaan R. P. van Heiningen, Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Maine, USA.
• Dr. Alex Berg. Executive Director, Technological Development Unit, Universidad de Concepción, Chile.
• Dr. Joachim Venus. Department of Bioengineering, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam-Bornim, Germany.
• Dr. Andreas Hornung. Professor of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. Director of the European Bioenergy Research Institute. Aston University. United Kingdom.
• Dr. Juan Diego Sierra. Head of Polymeric Materials Area, Plastics and Rubber Training Institute. Colombia.

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