As the season draws to a close, Bio4Energy wants to wish its friends and followers a
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We wish our researchers and partners to have break over Christmas, to come back strong to work in the New Year.
Education in focus in 2024
For our part, 2024 will have a focus on educationwith two of the three generic courses of the Bio4Energy Graduate School launching.
Biorefinery Pilot Research, our flagship training where students are introduced to the innovation processes of bio-based applications and technologies by paying visits to industry—both a biorefinery and technology developers—is set to kick off late August.
Systems’ Perspectives of Biomass Resources, gives students the tools with which to place their technology research projects in a regional and global context of biorefinery and bioenergy development, is planned to start sometime in autumn 2024.
Wood Biology and Biotechnology is an extra special five-day intensive training that is designed to give an edge to students of biorefinery interested in the modification of trees and plants for use as input material in bio-based processes. The knowledge and experienced shared here are not available in textbooks and come from leading scientists, several of whom member of our research platform Bio4Energy Forest-based Feedstocks.
Nordic Wood Biorefinery conference to northern Sweden
As is custom, Bio4Enegy will host Researchers’ Meetings for further integration of the research performed on its seven research platforms. The next one is planned for June.
For the first time, the conference Nordic Wood Biorefinery is set to be held Örnsköldsvik, mid-October. Bio4Energy is part of the organisation.
Thank you for 2023! We look forward to continuing the work together with you in 2024.
https://bio4energy.se/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/happy-new-year-calendar-concept-decoration-christmas-tree-pine-cones-wooden-background-205757290.jpg534800Anna Stromhttps://bio4energy.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Logo_stor_farg-300x74.pngAnna Strom2023-12-20 17:19:312024-03-15 15:36:54Season’s Greetings from Bio4Energy
Bio4Energy’s core curriculum is contained in the courses of its Graduate School. The flagship training Biorefinery Pilot Research gives PhD students and postdoctoral fellows access to the unique park of pilot and demonstration facilities that line the coast of northeastern Sweden, when it comes to the production of advanced biofuels, “green” chemicals and bio-based materials.
Students construct and conduct their own projects to experience the innovation process hands on. First-hand access to professionals in industry and their peers allow for networking. Industry professionals are welcome to apply and to attend the course, to top up their knowledge with the latest in biorefinery development based on residues of woody biomass or organic waste.
A new edition of Biorefinery Pilot Research is scheduled for autumn 2024: End of August to October. First come, first serve!
Moreover, a much awaited new edition of Systems’ Perspectives on Biomass Resources will launch in autumn 2024. Students learn the basics of system analysis, by applying its principles on their own research projects. They also receive an overview of energy and sustainability issues on the global level, framed in the context of biorefinery development.
New course leaders as of November 2023 are Joakim Lundgren, Elisabeth Wetterlund and Andrea Toffolo; all three affiliated with Bio4Energy core partner Luleå University of Technology.
Finally, the new course History of Biorefining in Nordic Countries‘ paints the background of biorefinery development, as well as current trends and progress. Study visits and sessions on sustainability challenges alert students to the fact that we need to do better tomorrow to achieve circularity; efficient and effective production systems with low or no pollution escaping out into the environment.
Carmen Cristescu coordinates History of Biorefining, which just concluded in November this year, with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Umeå, as the hub for lectures and group assignments.
So say our students
PhD students Edouardo Arango-Durango and Mahsa Mehrara traveled from Luleå and the university there to attend the first-ever edition of the course.
“It has been amazing. I am from Colombia where forestry is different. Here [in Sweden] innovation is more advanced. It was an opportunity for me to learn”, Arango-Durango, Thermochemical Conversion, told Bio4Energy Communications at the end of lectures 27 October.
Standing beside him, Mehrara is part of Systems Analysis and Bioeconomy and, in her work, performs simulations to lay at the base of various research investigations.
“I joined because I wanted to know more about the background of my research. It is nice to know [what happens with] the feedstock in the real world”, she said.
“I liked the course, but it could be made more challenging”, Mehrara added.
https://bio4energy.se/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Bio4EnergyGradSchool_CourseStarts2024-scaled.jpg16092560Anna Stromhttps://bio4energy.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Logo_stor_farg-300x74.pngAnna Strom2023-12-13 15:51:232024-03-15 15:29:31Bio4Energy Graduate School: Development of Biorefinery Innovations Up Next
A member of the Board of Bio4Energy has won a prestigious prize for academic research efforts related to botany, which is the scientific study of the physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, classification and economic importance of plants.
Karin Ljung and her research team at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences try to lay bare the ways in which plant hormones—small substances regulating plant growth—control the formation of roots and coordinate the communication between plant tissues above and below ground.
Professor Ljung published more than 160 papers and had her work frequently mentioned by other scientists in their scientific articles. So much so that, since the year of 2014, she has kept making the Clarivate Analytics List of Highly Cited Researchers, according to a press release from her university.
The Roséns Linnaeus’ Prize in Botany and Zoology have been presented every third year since 1935, by the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund, Sweden. The recipients are Swedish researchers “deemed highly deserving”, the press release said.
Ljung received her prize at an award ceremony 2 December at Lund, Sweden.
The recent Bio4Energy Researchers’ Meeting, drawing together sixty of its researchers to meet at Umea in northern Sweden, is real-life example of the deliveries that Bio4Energy took on making as a Strategic Research Environment, appointed by the Swedish government.
Biomass input materials for making renewable fuels, chemicals and materials
The members of the Bio4Energy Forest-based Feedstocks platform are designing trees that are better suited to resist challenging climatic conditions and to grow faster. Tree genes are studied in depth for the purpose of knowing how to enable an easy separation of the polymers in the wood matrix, for the production of advanced biofuels, “green” chemicals and bio-based materials. Four group leaders presented their latest research on wood engineering and characterisation, as well as resilience in times of climate change.
Education and training for advanced students: Tomorrow’s knowledge workers of the bioeconomy
Bio4Enegy’s core curriculum is contained in the courses of its Graduate School. Biorefinery Pilot Research gives students access to the unique park of pilot and demonstration facilities that line the coast of northeastern Sweden. Students construct and conduct their own projects to experience the innovation process hands on. First-hand access to professionals in industry and their peers allow for networking.
The new History of Biorefining in Nordic Countries‘ training paints the background of biorefinery development, as well as current trends and progress. Study visits and sessions on sustainability challenges alert students to the fact that we need to do better tomorrow to achieve circularity; efficient and effective production systems with low or no pollution escaping out into the environment.
Eleven of them painted the gist of their bio-based projects in minutes-long talks and fleshed them out later on research project posters, which were the focus of discussion during mingling time. Three winners of Best Poster Presentation were selected by a jury composed of more senior Bio4Energy colleagues.
Nitrogen regulated wood formation, Anna Renström — Forest-based Feedstocks
Biopolymers from residues: A Comparative characterisation of Halomonas boliviensis PHB, Diego Miranda — Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion
What Makes a Tree a Tree?, Edouardo Soldado — Forest-based Feedstocks
Sonali RanadeEwa MellerowiczChristoffer BomanLeif Jönsson, Mohsen Parchami, Linn BerglundShaojun Xiong and Carlos MartínIliana, Judith, Liang and SantoshFlorian Schmidt and Christiane FunkMarcus Öhman and Carmen CristescuStudents at a rapid-fire presentation raceDiego MirandaMartin PlöhnEduardo Soldado
https://bio4energy.se/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/RapidFire_221123.jpg14572500Anna Stromhttps://bio4energy.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Logo_stor_farg-300x74.pngAnna Strom2023-12-04 16:31:122023-12-12 16:14:50Biomass Feedstock, PhD Education, Synchrotron Research in Focus at Bio4Energy Event
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