Biorefineries for the Production of Fuels, Chemicals and Feed (2014)

Description: Mineral oil currently constitutes the major resource for fuel production, but also as a raw material for chemical, pharmaceutical and other industries. In the coming 20-50 years the industrialized society will have to find alternative resources paralleling the depletion of mineral oil.
Future energy supply probably will be based on multiple renewable sources of which biomass will constitute a significant part, while the replacement of oil as industrial raw material will depend mostly on biomass. The biomass conversion is assumed to take place in biorefineries, which mimics traditional fossil carbon-based refineries in which the raw material has been exchanged with biomass, and where the majority of the processes exploited are biological and/or biochemical. A biorefinery, therefore, can be considered a factory including pre-treatments, separations and biological or biochemical transformation in multiple steps for the production of chemicals and fuels from biomass.
The aim of the course is to give a detailed overview of different biorefinery concepts, and to present how different types of biomass can be utilized as raw materials. The course will deal with the following topics: Bioresource availability; energy crops; marine biomass; biorefinery concepts; pretreatment technologies; enzymatic conversion; discovery of new enzymes, fermentation, processes; development of biocatalysts using genetic engineering; membrane based separation processes; and post-treatment methods.
The format of the course is a balanced distribution of lectures and group work.

Organizer: Associate Professor Mette Lübeck, E-mail: mel@bio.aau.dk

Lecturers: Peter Westermann, Ioannis V. Skiadas, Hariklia Gavala, Hinrich Uellendahl, Mette Lübeck, Lene Lange, Peter Lübeck, Birgitte K. Ahring, Morten Lykkegård Christensen, National experts from industry and academia

ECTS: 4

Time: 16-20 June, 2014

Place: Section for Sustainable Biotechnology, Aalborg University Copenhagen, A.C. Meyers Vænge 15

Zip code: 2450

City: Copenhagen SV

Number of seats:

Deadline: 26 May, 2014