BioEcouva

BioEcoUVa wins the Naturgy Foundation Award for Research and Technological Innovation in the energy field

BioEcoUVa — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 11:23:12 +0000

The winning project of the first edition of this award, which is assessed by a scientific committee coordinated by the CSIC, proposes an innovative technology in the field of CO₂ capture and reduction processes.

A project of the Bioeconomy Institute of the University of Valladolid (BioEcoUVa) on CO2 capture and reduction has been the winner of the 1st Edition of the Prize for Research and Technological Innovation in the field of energy awarded by the Naturgy Foundation, with the support and collaboration of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The winning proposal, led by the principal researcher Ángel Martín Martínez, proposes an innovative technology in the field of CO₂ capture and reduction processes.

The project ‘CO2UP: Scaling up of the hydrothermal CO₂ reduction process using biomass as a reductant on CO₂ valorisation’ will receive an endowment of 100,000 euros, which will allow the research team to design, build and operate a pilot plant that will increase the level of development of the technology to TRL=5. The researchers will thus be able to implement an innovative technology in the field of CO₂ capture and reduction processes, replacing the regeneration of an ad/absorbent with a hydrothermal CO₂ reduction process, using biomass-derived compounds as reducing agents.

The award ceremony took place on 29 June in Madrid, in a ceremony in which the president of the Naturgy Foundation, Rafael Villaseca, stated that, with this new initiative, “the Naturgy Foundation once again demonstrates its commitment to the development of actions aimed at accelerating the energy transition, as it will allow to promote, with full guarantees, research and scientific development in the field of energy in Spain”.

For her part, the president of the CSIC, Eloísa del Pino, said that “the award is also testimony to the shared commitment of the Naturgy Foundation and the CSIC to support advanced research focused on a new economic model centred on renewable production, decarbonisation and low greenhouse gas emissions”.

The jury highlighted the originality of the proposal of the Bioeconomy Institute of the University of Valladolid, whose results obtained at laboratory scale indicate that sufficient development has been achieved to successfully address the proof of concept, which will consist of the development at pilot plant scale during the two-year duration of the project. The jury also highlighted the group’s capabilities and proven experience in CO₂ reduction processes, which guarantee the correct execution of the project.

Some 20 nominations

In its first edition, the call for proposals received 18 eligible proposals, developed by 11 universities, 5 research institutes and 2 non-profit foundations, based in 9 autonomous communities. The proposals were evaluated by a scientific committee, coordinated by the CSIC and a jury of experts.

The other five finalists were presented by research groups from the Fundació Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (FUOC), the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA-UIB-CSIC), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2-CSIC), the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry (IPC-CSIC) and the University of Salamanca (USAL).

Of all of them, the jury recognised the degree of innovation and the quality of the proposals submitted, which addressed topics of interest such as energy efficiency and its calculations, CO₂ recovery, renewable energies and electrocatalysis.

The award jury, chaired by Eloisa del Pino, was made up of María Benjumea, founder of Spain Startup and the International Women Forum España; Mariano Marzo, professor emeritus at the University of Barcelona and director of the Energy Transition Chair at the UB; Diego Pavía, founder and CEO of KIC InnoEnergy; Jorge Barredo, general director of Renewables, New Business and Innovation at Naturgy; María Eugenia Coronado, general director of Fundación Naturgy.

Link to the article: https://www.fundacionnaturgy.org/fundacion-naturgy-otorga-el-premio-a-la-investigacion-y-la-innovacion-tecnologica-en-el-ambito-energetico-a-un-proyecto-de-captura-y-reduccion-de-co2-del-instituto-de-bioeconomia-de-la-universidad-de/

The UVa Bioeconomy Institute researcher Angel Martín (third from left) collecting the award together with representatives of the organising entities (pic: Fundación Naturgy).

The researchers of the PressTech group (BioEcoUVa), Ángel Martín and Lola Bermejo collecting the award together with Rafael Villaseca, president of the Naturgy Foundation (pic: Fundación Naturgy).

The researchers of the PressTech group (BioEcoUVa), Ángel Martín and Lola Bermejo posing with the award. (pic: Fundación Naturgy).

2nd GREENERING International Conference

BioEcoUVa — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 09:39:50 +0000

The COST Action 18224 GREENERING is announcing the 2^nd GREENERING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE which will be held in Valladolid (Spain) from March 21^st to March 23^rd, 2023.

The conference has the objective to gather academics, researchers, and companies in an international forum to promote the application of green chemistry and sustainable technologies into industries with the environment, innovation, economy, and policy aspects in focus.

We invite YOU to join the conference and share your GREEN ideas with us!

TOPICS

1. Alternative solvents: (SCFs, Ils, DES, W)

2. Biorefinery: bioproducts and bioenergy

3. CO2 capture and utilization

4. Green reaction and catalysis

5. Polymers and advanced materials

6. Applications I: care and health products, food and agriculture technology

7. Applications II: bioelectronic and construction

8. Scale-up and industrial applications

BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Dr. Ana Rita Duarte (UNl-FCT, Portugal)

Dr. Ana Rita C. Duarte is Associate Professor with habillitation at the Chemistry Department from Nova School of Science and Technology. Her main research interests are the use of green technologies for the development of biomaterials. In particular, the use of water, and supercritical fluids together with the exploration of natural deep eutectic solvents for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. She is highly committed with the translation of research into sustainable industry. In 2016 she co-founded the start-up HydrUStent as result of her work as Research Assistant at the 3B’s research group at Universidade do Minho, where she worked for 10 years. In 2016 she was awarded an ERC consolidator grant entitled: DES.solve – When Solids Become Liquids: Natural Deep Eutectic solvents for Chemical Process Engineering, to proceed the developments on green technologies. After this 5 year project, in 2022 she was awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant to pursue one of the technologies developed withing DES Solve. In between, 2018, she co-founded Des Solutio, a spin-off company from FCT-NOVA to develop safer and greener alternatives to the chemicals that are usually used in the production of beauty, pharmaceutical, personal care and other products, based in the new knowledge acquired in her research career. She is the Action Chair of COST Action Greenering which involves more than 250 participants from 34 different countries.

Personal Website: https://docentes.fct.unl.pt/ard08968/biocv

Dr. W. de Vos (U. Twente, The Netherlands)

Prof. Dr. Ir. Wiebe M. de Vos initiated and chairs the research group “Membrane Surface Science” (MSuS) at the University of Twente. Within his group Prof. de Vos successfully combines his background in the fundamentals of colloid and surface science with the much more applied field of membranes. His work in encompasses the coating of membranes for various functional enhancements, including anti-fouling, enhanced separations, easy-to-clean membranes and virus in-activation, but also entails the production of membranes using sustainable approaches such as aqueous phase separation. The unique membranes developed in this way, often also lead to new membrane processes, allowing effective and sustainable approaches to produce clean water from challenging sources.

Personal Website: www.utwente.nl/msus

Dr. Motonobu Goto (U. Nagoya, Japan)

Dr. Eng. Motonobu Goto is Emeritus Professor at Nagoya University. During his long and fruitful career (more than 450 published papers in international academic journals) in Chemical Engineering and Materials Processing Engineering, he has received numerous awards, the latest The SCEJ Award of The Society of Chemical Engineering of Japan in 2020. His research interests include supercritical fluid technology such as extraction, reaction, and material processing and plasma technology. Hi is vice-president of International Society for Advancement of Supercritical Fluids. Since beginning of 2022, he is director of Super Critical Technology Centre, Co, Ltd. A company oriented to the industrial implementation of cleaner processes in a recycle oriented processes.

IX Castilla y León Women Researchers Days

BioEcoUVa — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 10:13:45 +0000

For the ninth consecutive year, the event was held in Salamanca on February 9 and 10, with 163 speakers and more than 400 registrations.

The Conference of Women Researchers of Castilla y León, funded by the Women’s Institute and organized jointly by the four public universities of Castilla y León (Valladolid, Salamanca, Burgos and León), has become a national reference for this type of scientific event. Mª Luz Rodríguez Méndez and Cristina García Cabezón, members of the Bioeconomy Institute of the University of Valladolid, chaired the committee.

The objective of the Conference is to increase the visibility of women in the scientific field, and in this edition, coinciding with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, it served as a forum for meeting and exchange of experiences between researchers and professionals working in different STEM areas.

In addition, consolidating the line initiated last year, the event incorporated new international partners from Latin America: the Vasco de Quiroga University of Mexico and two Portuguese public centers, the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra and the University of Minho. Another novelty this year was the opening of the event to the participation of students from the high schools of excellence in science in Castilla y León, thus creating female referents for children who can contribute to the choice of these areas as professional careers.

This edition was held in Salamanca and could also be followed online through the event’s YouTube channel.

There were a total of 163 speakers, represented by 54 oral communications, 118 posters and 20 flash communications.

Several women researchers from BioEcoUva participated in the conference.

EIT Food Workshop

BioEcoUVa — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:59:51 +0000

On October 5th, the workshop “Developing a business case from your research project” was held in Valladolid. This workshop was organized by EIT Food and Junta de Castilla y León in collaboration with three structures of excellence in Castilla y Léon – BioEcoUVa, IuFOR and IPS – that are developing technological researches in the field of circularity.

The Counselor for Education, Rocío Lucas Navas, gave the Keynote speech at the workshop.

The aim of the workshop was to support outstanding researchers by giving them the opportunity to build independent research networks and helping them to get in contact with experts who will help them develop marketable proposals based on the technologies they are implementing.

The thematic core of the workshop was the concepts of zero emissions, circularity and bioeconomy.

At the same time, researchers and PhD students received first-hand information from companies in the sector, like Bayer or PepsiCo, about possible orientations of their work to improve collaboration and application in the market.

Support for the internationalization of the BioEcoUVa research institute.

BioEcoUVa — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 09:48:32 +0000

Objectives:

The aim of this order is to support the internationalization of research structures of excellence, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).

Purpose:

To strengthen the international dimension of the BioEcoUVa research institute through the financing of an internationalization proposal that consolidates the strategic plans or programs subsidized by the Regional Ministry of Education.

Funding entity:

Principal investigator:

Strategic Program IUI BioEcoUVa

BioEcoUVa — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:15:02 +0000