There is a doctoral thesis defence coming on 8.10.2021: M.Sc. Eveliina Mäkelä, “Hydrotreatment of lignocellulose-derived molecules to renewable fuels and chemicals”. Thesis is available at: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/109881. The defence is organized in a hybrid manner, and it can be attended in Zoom: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/67830072574, starting at 12:00.
The opponent Prof. Anders Riisager will give an invited talk on the day before, 7.19.2021, starting at 15:00 (same Zoom link): “Valorization of biomass-derived resources with new heterogeneous catalysts“. Short biography of Prof. Riisager and abstract of the presentation below.
Anders Riisager is Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark (since 2016), where he heads the Centre for Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry. He studied chemistry at the University of Copenhagen and obtained a PhD in catalysis at DTU (2002). After completing postdoctoral studies at RWTH-Aachen and University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany (2002-2005), he returned to DTU as senior postdoc and appointed to Associate Professor one year later (2006). His main scientific focus is on the development of sustainable chemistry with catalysis and renewables as well as chemical technology with ionic liquids. He has authored more than 165 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 20 patents and contributed to several books on catalytic biomass valorization. Furthermore, he is co-founder of two companies dealing with biomass valorization technology, recipient of several national and international awards and fellowships, including the Berzelius Prize from the Nordic Catalysis Society, and serves as national representative in the EucheMS Division on Green and Sustainable Chemistry.
“Valorization of biomass-derived resources with new heterogeneous catalysts”
Abstract: Future projections of declining and more expensive fossil reserves have stirred the chemical industry to find pathways to convert biomass-resources into renewable chemicals and fuels. The dominant storage form of carbon in nature is in polysaccharides, which accounts for typically 75 wt% of lignocellulosic biomass in the form of cellulose and hemicellulose made of the isomeric monosaccharides glucose and fructose. An important step in the valorization of glucose processing involves its conversion to fructose by isomerization, which is a key intermediate in reaction pathways towards furanics and carboxylic acid platform chemicals like, e.g. furfuryl alcohol, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid and lactic acid/alkyl lactates. This presentation highlight our recent work on designing new heterogeneous catalyst systems for efficient and selective conversion of glucose, furfural and derivatives into commodity chemicals, plastic monomers and fuel additives by strategies involving (transfer)hydrogenation, hydrodeoxygenation, acetalization and reductive etherification.
