International Congress and Expo on Biofuels & Bioenergy August 25-27, 2015 Valencia, Spain

Dr. Simmons joined Sandia National Laboratories in 2001 as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff, serving as a member of the Materials Chemistry Department. He participated on and led a variety of projects, including the development of cleavable surfactants, enzyme engineering for biofuel cells, microfluidics, and the synthesis of silicate nanomaterials. He was promoted to Manager of the Energy Systems Department in 2006. The primary focus of the department was the development of novel materials-based solutions to meet the nation’s growing energy demands. He is one of the principal co-investigators of the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI, www.jbei.org), a $259M, ten-year DOE funded project tasked with the development and realization of next-generation biofuels produced from non-food crops. He is currently serving as the Chief Science and Technology Officer and Vice-President of the Deconstruction Division at JBEI, where he leads a team of 43 researchers working on advanced methods of liberating fermentable sugars and lignin from lignocellulosic biomass. He is also the Senior Manager of Biofuels and Biomaterials Science and Technology at Sandia, where he also serves as the Biomass Program Manager. He has over 220 publications, book chapters, and patents. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the KQED televised science program Quest.

Today, carbon-rich fossil fuels, primarily oil, coal and natural gas, provide 85% of the energy consumed in the United States. Fossil fuel use increases CO₂ emissions, increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases and raising the risk of global warming. The high energy content of liquid hydrocarbon fuels makes them the preferred energy source for all modes of transportation. In the US alone, transportation consumes around 13.8 million barrels of oil per day and generates over 0.5 gigatons of carbon per year. This has spurred intense research into alternative, non-fossil energy sources. The DOE-funded Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI) is a partnership between seven leading research institutions (Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Sandia Labs, Lawrence Livermore Lab, Pacific Northwest National Lab, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, and the Carnegie Institute for Science) that is focused on the production of infrastructure compatible biofuels derived from non-food lignocellulosic biomass. Biomass is a renewable resource that is potentially carbon-neutral. Plant-derived biomass contains cellulose, which is more difficult to convert to sugars. The development of cost-effective and energy-efficient processes to transform cellulose and hemicellulose in biomass into fuels is hampered by significant roadblocks, including the lack of specifically developed energy crops, the difficulty in separating biomass components, low activity of enzymes used to hydrolyze polysaccharides, and the inhibitory effect of fuels and processing byproducts on the organisms responsible for producing fuels from monomeric sugars. This presentation will highlight the research efforts underway at JBEI to overcome these obstacles, with a particular focus on the development of an ionic liquid pretreatment technology for the efficient production of monomeric sugars from biomass.

Ed Bayer is a professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel. In his early work, he helped develop the avidin- and streptavidin-biotin system as a general tool in the biological sciences. He is co-discoverer of the multi-enzyme cellulosome concept and has organized and chaired Gordon Research Conferences on this subject. He has also pioneered the development of designer cellulosomes for research and biotechnological applications. He has authored over 350 articles and reviews in these fields, is editor or serves on editorial boards of several journals in the field of biotechnology, on the scientific advisory board of the DOE BioEnergy Science Center (BESC), and was elected to Fellowship of both the American Academy of Microbiology and the European Academy of Microbiology. His interests focus on the structural and functional consequences of protein-protein, protein-carbohydrate and protein-ligand interactions, protein engineering, synthetic biology, nanobiotechnology, microbial and enzymatic degradation of plant biomass and biomass-to-biofuels processing.

Cellulose is the major component of the plant cell wall and as such comprises the most abundant renewable source of carbon and energy on our planet. This fact has spawned, in the last decade, a tremendous amount of interest in the use of cellulosic biomass to at least partially alleviate the burden and dependence of our society on fossil fuels. In the plant cell wall, however, cellulose and other polysaccharides assume a structural rather than a storage role, and their monosaccharide residues – whose facile production is the key to the subsequent processing of liquid biofuels – are essentially inaccessible to microbes and their polysaccharide-degrading enzymes. Unlike aerobic fungi and bacteria, various anaerobic bacteria secrete potent multi-enzyme cellulosome complexes, which contain numerous cellulases, hemicellulases and associated enzymes, attached to the bacterial cell surface, thus enabling efficient degradation of cellulosic substrates. We have exploited the enhanced synergistic properties of cellulosomes by reconfiguring their Lego-like multi-modular components into discrete artificial complexes of predetermined design. We have thus dismantled the cellulosome into its component parts and reassembled them into “designer cellulosomes” of precise content and organization. Designer cellulosomes provide a promising platform for understanding the rationale behind its catalytic efficiency, and knowledge gained from their study may provide the basis for creating improved multi-enzyme assemblies for efficient cost-effective conversion of plant-derived biomass into liquid biofuels.

Dr. Paul Gilna is currently serving as the Director of Bioenergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory USA. Previously held a position at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and the Center for Research in Biological Systems, both located at the University of California, San Diego. At San Diego he served as executive director for the Community Cyber infrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbialecology Research and Analysis project. Previously, Dr. Gilna was director of the Joint Genome Institute at Los Alamos National Laboratory and has worked at the National Science Foundation. His research interests range from molecular biology to microbiology to computational biology.

The challenge of producing and converting sustainable cellulosic biomass into fuels presents the opportunity for science and technology to make an appreciable national and indeed global impact in the next 20 years. However, overcoming the inability to easily access the sugars and other monomers from cellulosic sources in order to make fuels or other products, or recalcitrance, is one of the major challenges to cost-effective biofuel production. This is a central theme of the US DOE-funded Bioenergy Science Center (www.bioenergycenter.org). Transformative advances to understand biomass recalcitrance require detailed scientific knowledge of (1) the chemical and physical properties of biomass that influence recalcitrance, (2) how these properties can be altered by engineering plant biosynthetic pathways, and (3) how such changes affect biomass-biocatalyst interactions during deconstruction by enzymes and microorganisms. This talk will illustrate how the BESC Team is applying the knowledge gained from these activities to develop a set of approaches on both the plant and microbial components to improve generation of fuels from biomass resources.

Dr Halouani is Full Professor of Energy Engineering at the University of Sfax, Tunisia. Since 1997, he taught in the Tunisian Universities, courses on Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Transport Phenomena, Thermo-Mechanics of multiphase systems, Energy Conversion systems: Fuel cells and renewableenergies, Thermochemical and Electrochemical conversion processes, Fuel Processing Engineering. Dr Halouani is known internationally as an expert in thermochemical biomass conversion (pyrolysis, gasification hydrothermal liquefaction), Fuel Cells Modeling and heat and masstransfer in energy conversion and production systems. His expertise in these areas was recognized locally and internationally through his invitation as reviewer in several high impacted international journals in the field. He is also member of scientific committees of several National and International Conferences in Energy Engineering and Heat and Mass Transfer. Dr Halouani has organized, chaired and Co-chaired several National and International Congress, Conferences and Special Sessions on Renewableenergy Conversion, Hydrogen and fuelcell, Heat and Mass Transfer Engineering. He was also an invited Speaker at several national and international conferences. In 2009, Dr Halouani was selected by the US State Department as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in Virginia Tech Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Dr Halouani was the Head of the Department of Technology Studies at IPEIS, University of Sfax (2002-2005 and 2008-2011). Dr Halouani has 2 patents, over 30 articles in High impact peer-reviewed international journals and over 60 papers in prestigious international conference proceedings.

Olive mill wastewater sludge (OMWS) is one of the major environmental pollutants in olive oil industry using traditional or 3-phase process. The major problem stems from the poor biodegradability of the OMWS because of its high phenolic compounds content. In most Mediterranean countries, olive mill wastewater are stored in ponds where the major part of water evaporates and the sludge dries up which is then later lanfilled for disposal. To resolve this serious environmental problem, we have developed a fluidized bed catalytic pyrolysis of OMWS to produce pyrolysis liquids that are very stable, low viscosity, neutral pH and very high higher heating value. The pyrolysis was conducted at 400-500^oC in a red mud and HZSM-5 catalyst bed. The yields of the organic fraction ranged from 20 to 35 wt% which is much higher than what obtains for other lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks. The viscosity of the oil was 5-7 cP, the pH ranged from 6-7 and the highest HHV of the oil was 41 MJ/kg. The char yield ranged from 20 to 25 wt% while the gas yield ranged from 26-45 wt%. The major challenges with this feedstock were poor flow properties because of its sticky nature, and the strong smell from both old and freshly stored material.

Daniela Thrän is Head of the Department "Bioenergy Systems"at the German Biomass Research Center (DBFZ) and Head of the Department “Bioenergy” at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). She is a graduate Diplom-Engineer for environmental technologies from the Technical University of Berlin and did her PhD at the University of Weimar. Her doctoral-thesis dealt with “Material Flow Account in rural areas”. Since 2011 she holds the professorial chair bioenergysystems at the Institute for Infrastructure and Resources Management, University of Leipzig. Further she is responsible for the coordination and management of national and international research projects for governmental, industrial and nongovernmental organisations in her leadership role as head of the department bioenergy systems at DBFZ and the department bioenergy at UFZ. Her work focuses on resource analysis on biomass, standardisation of solid biofuels, assessment of biomasstechnologies and trade, sustainability aspects and system integration of biomass and bioenergy, and development of market implementation strategies and support schemes for bioenergy. Furthermore she is member of working groups at ISO, CEN, VDI, DIN and European technology platform for biofuels. She has a long term work experience with over 100 publications in the biomass field.

Today many biofuel technologies and concepts are developed and discussed to supply different transport sectors. They differ in feedstock, conversion approach, levels of development, product quality, and availability on the market as well. In parallel there is an intensive debate on relevant sustainability dimensions for the assessment of biofuels in general (i.e. GBEP, RED etc.) and it is well known, that the frame condition from support schemes, the specific demand from different transport sectors (road, ship, aviation) and the development of feedstock markets will influence the future feasibility substantially. With regard to those expectations the assessment of the potential for current and future biofuel provision concepts has to consider different possible futures, which will be figured in a scenario approach. Based on this comparison of different biofuel concepts can be performed by (i) the assessment of their technical performance, (ii) optimization potential for greenhousegas emission reduction and (iii) simulation of market potentials considering different prices for feedstock, energy and carbon certificates. Finally, we will provide the most relevant driver for market implementation of the different biofuels for both, the short term perspective till 2020 and for the longer term.

Dr. Lew Christopher is currently serving as the Director of Biorefining Institute, Lakehead University Canada. He holds a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology & Biochemical Engineering. He has more than 20 years of industrial and academic experience in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing of lignocellulosic biomass. He worked as industrial research scientist and held faculty positions in departments of biotechnology, chemical and biological engineering, and environmental engineering in South Africa and USA. Currently he also served as Director of the Center for Bioprocessing Research & Development at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology lead a team of over 130 researchers from 15 departments at 2 universities in South Dakota, USA. His research mission is to add value to the national and global bioeconomy by applying an integrated biorefinery approach for the development of renewable energy technologies. Dr. Christopher is a member of the editorial board of several international biotechnology journals, advisory boards, and professional societies. He has over 400 contributions that include 8 patents, 4 books, 80 peer-reviewed publications, and over 290 presentations and invited lectures delivered in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.

Hydrogen (H2) is considered the “energy of the future” due to its high energy content (143 MJ/Kg) which is 5.3-fold and 3.3-fold higher than that of ethanol and gasoline, respectively, and non-polluting nature (water is the only product). An environmentally friendly and potentially viable alternative for sustainable H₂ production is presented through the utilization of renewable, low-cost cellulosic materials (energy crops and biomass waste) employing robust microorganisms with high substrate utilization efficiency and high H₂ yields. The H₂ production potential of the extreme thermophile Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus DSM 8903 was examined on switchgrass and municipal solid waste. It was demonstrated that C. saccharolyticus can ferment switchgrass to H₂ in one step without any physicochemical or biological pretreatment, whereas H₂ production from glucose reached the theoretical maximum for dark fermentation of 4 mol H₂/mol glucose. The thermophilic consolidated bioprocessing capabilities of C. saccharolyticus offer opportunities for significant savings of capital and operational expenses in excess of 50% by consolidating four processing step into a single operation.

Dr. Bertrand has internationally recognized expertise on physiology and biochemistry of perennial forage crops. She developed new selection methods for the improvement of complex trait such as saccharification potential and abiotic stress resistance of perennials.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) has a high potential for sustainable bioethanol production. Genetic improvement for the saccharification of structural carbohydrates could significantly increase ethanol conversion rate. Genetic gains for this trait are tributary to the availability of screening techniques for the precise identification of superior genotypes. We developed an efficient enzymatic assay to measure alfalfa stem saccharification, based on the quantity of glucose released by a customized commercially available enzyme cocktail. Using that new assay, we observed a large genetic diversity for saccharification within and among cultivars. To increase the analytical throughput, we used near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict cell wall (CW) saccharification in hundreds of lignified stem samples. Twenty (20) genotypes with high (S+) and 20 genotypes with low (S-) saccharification (S) expressed as the levels of enzyme-released glucose were selected within each of a biomass-type (Orca) and a winterhardy-type (54V54) cultivar. These genotypes were intercrossed to generate a first cycle of recurrent selection for high (S+1) and low (S-1) saccharification. Assessment of CW enzyme-released glucose after a second cycle of recurrent phenotypic selection confirmed that this trait is genetically inherited Populations recurrently selected for saccharification were used to identify DNA polymorphisms associated with this trait using the sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) PCR-based technique. Polymorphisms positively or negatively related to saccharification were identified in each genetic background using a bulk analysis of pooled DNA (50 genotypes/population). Subsequent scoring of these polymorphisms within each genetic background led to the identification of genotypes that combine two or more polymorphisms associated to saccharification. These elite genotypes were intercrossed to generate a first cycle of marker-assisted selection with potentially higher saccharification (MAS S+1). A second cycle of MAS selection was performed to further increase the frequency of these markers in MAS S+2 populations. Comparative assessment of populations obtained with phenotypic recurrent selection and marker-assisted selection is underway to assess the complementarity of these new selection methodologies and establish their performance for the development of populations with significantly higher ethanol conversion rates in alfalfa.

Daniel Hayes is the CEO of Celignis Limited Ireland. Hehas extensive experience in the analysis of biomass and in the evaluation and development of biomass conversion technologie. He received his PhD from the University of Limerick in 2012 and played an important role in the development of UL’s Carbolea Biomass Research Group. He has been successful in securing project funding for the group from industrial, national, and European sources. One of these projects, funded by the EU's 7^th Framework Programme and entitled DIBANET, involved 13 partners from a number of European and Latin American countries. Within DIBANET he was responsible for the development of a series of mathematical models that allow for many of the important properties of biomass (for production of second generation biofuels) to be predicted from their near infrared (NIR) spectra. This allows for analysis to be carried out much more quickly and at a lower cost than through conventional wet-chemical techniques.

It is important to know the lignocellulosic composition of a feedstock in order to ascertain its potential value for biorefining. The standard laboratory methods of analysis are costly and time consuming. Celignis personnel have worked on the development of rapid, low cost methods of analysis using near infrared spectroscopy (NIR). Over 1000 biomass samples have been collected and processed for conventional analysis with the NIR spectra of each sample collected at several stages of sample preparation. The dried samples were then analysed via reference methods for a number of lignocellulosic constituents, ash, extractives, and elemental composition. Following this NIR models were developed for a large number of constituents (including glucan, arabinan, galactan, xylan, mannan, rhamnan, total sugars, Klason lignin, acid soluble lignin, extractives, ash, and nitrogen) using a calibration set and the predictive abilities of the models were tested on an independent set. Separate models were developed on specific sample groups (Miscanthus, pre-treated biomass, peat, straws, waste paper/cardboard, sugarcane bagasse and others). In addition a global model was developed incorporating all those samples as well as many other sample types including: trees, energy crops, agricultural residues, animal excreta, biorefinery residues, grasses, municipal wastes, composts etc. The models developed were highly accurate and robust for important lignocellulosic constituents. For example, the root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) [and R2 in prediction] for the global dataset were 1.84% [0.976], 0.75% [0.989], and 1.73% [0.983] for glucan, xylan, and Klason lignin, respectively. This work is significant since it is the first demonstration of the utility of NIR in the commercial analysis of such a wide variety of biomass samples for all these lignocellulosic constituents.

Sandra D. Eksioglu is an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida in 2002. Dr. Eksioglu’s research focus has been on the theory and application of operations research tools to problems that arise in the areas of transportation, logistics, and supply chain. She works on developing mathematical models and solution algorithms that help design and manage large scale and complex supply-chains. In particular, she is interested in the application of these tools to the biofuels supply chain. She received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation in 2011 for her work on biofuels supply chain. She has co-authored over 50 refereed journal papers and conference proceeding. She is the co-author of “Developing Spreadsheet-Based Decision Support Systems Using Excel and VBA for Excel” 2^nd Ed. which is the textbook used in one of the classes she teaches. Dr. Eksioglu is an active member of Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), and American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

We present an optimization model to aid with biomass co-firing decisions in coal fired power plants. Co-firing is a strategy that can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at coal plants. Co-firing is a practice that also impacts logistics-related costs, capital investments, plant efficiency, and tax credit collected. We present a nonlinear mixed integer programming model that captures the impact of biomass co-firing on the logistics-related costs, capital investments, plant efficiency, tax credit collected, and emission reductions. The objective of this model is to maximize the total profits. Profits are equal to the difference between the revenues generated from the tax credit and the additional logistics and investment costs. The constraints of this model represent the relationship between the amount of coal displaced and the amount of biomass used. These equations capture the reduced burners’ efficiencies due to burning a different product which has a lower heating value. In order to solve large instances of this problem we develop a linear approximation which is easier to solve. We test the performance of the models proposed on a case study developed using data from the State of Mississippi. We conducted a sensitivity analyses in order to evaluate the impact of biomass purchasing costs, biomass transportation costs, investment costs, and production tax credit on the cost of renewable electricity. Our results indicate that power plants would have no incentive to co-fire unless they are subsidized for their efforts. On the other side, increasing the tax credits beyond some threshold value would not necessary result in additional renewableenergy produced. That means, in order to increase the renewable energy production, instead of using a “flat rate” tax credit, a better system would be to make the tax credit a function of the amount of renewable electricity produced.

Dr. Deka is currently serving as professor and head of the department of energy and principal investigator of the biomass conversion laboratory , Tezpur University, Assam, India . He earned his Ph.D. from Tezpur University in 2004.He is having over 20 years of teaching experience and has supervised many Ph.D. students. His research interests include Biofuel, biomass conversion, catalytic aspects of biofuel production, value added products from Biomass.

One of the challenges in the current technology generation in biofuel production is derived from their reliance on the use of hazardous and corrosive chemicals such as NaOH, KOH, HCl, H₂SO₄ etc. as catalysts or during purification steps. Owing to the advantages of heterogeneous catalysts in terms of separation and reusability over the traditionally used homogeneous catalyst, the research has now been focused on the use of heterogeneous catalysts in recent years. In order to make the process fully “green”, researchers are trying to prepare catalysts from renewable sources such as biomass. Within this concept, bio-based CaO and Carbon based catalysts were recently introduced. We have extensively worked with both types of catalysts for the last few years. Ba and Li were also doped with bio-based CaO derived from waste shells of Turbonilla striatula and egg shell derived CaO respectively. In preparation of Carbon based solid acid catalyst, activated carbon produced from oil-cake waste was sulphonated by 4-Benzenediazoniumsulfonate to increase the acidity and the catalyst was employed against esterification/transesterification reactions for converting acid oils extracted from non-edible seeds to biodiesel. In another experiment, multifunctional mesoporous solid acids were prepared by the sulfonation of carbonized de-oiled seedwaste cake, a solid waste from biodiesel production. The catalyst was employed against two reactions of interest in biomass conversion: cellulose saccharification (glucose yield 35–53%) and fatty acid esterification (conversion upto 97%) outperforming H₂SO₄, conventional solid acids (zeolites, ion-exchange resins etc.) as well as sulfonated carbons reported earlier works. This led us to conclude that the applicability of the basic bio based-CaO is until so far restricted to trans-esterification only. The carbon based catalysts are more versatile in this sense due to the following points; (i) they can be made from any carbon source (agro-industrial residues, post crop harvest residues etc.)(ii) Their physicochemical and structural properties can be easily tuned by altering and fine-tuning the preparation conditions and (ii) they can be easily modified with metals, acids or bases through impregnation or functionalization aiming for various catalytic applications.

Dr. Yong-Chil Seo is currently serving as professor in Department of Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University. As a professor he is now directing two national programs to support graduate student research and fellowship in the fields of “Waste to Energy and Environmental Engineering He is also the Director of WtE Center, Project Leader of BK21Plus for Environmental Engineering. He earned his PhD in the year 1985 from Illinois Institute of Technology, U.S. He was Former President of Korea Waste Management Society.” His main research areas are Waste and Biomass to Energy, Waste Recycling and Air Pollution Controls, especially Heavy Metals including mercury.

In the palm oil industry, the palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) is used to make crude palm oil. During the oil manufacturing process, the palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), which accounts more than 20 wt. % of the FFB, is generated as a byproduct. Hence, if a robust conversion method is found, the EFB will be an appealing renewableenergy source. In this study, the fast pyrolysis of the EFB was conducted in a lab-scale (throughput = 1 kg/hr) bubbling fluidized bed reactor at the temperatures ranged from 400 to 650^oC. However, one of the most difficult problems in manufacturing homogeneous bio-crude oil from EFB was found to be its high ash content. Also, alkali and alkaline earth metallic species (AAEM) in EFB affect to reduce quality of bio-crude oil. Thus, in this study, the EFB was washed by water (both tap water and distilled water) and nitric acid (0.1 wt. %) with different total washing times. After washing, ash content was decreased from 5.9 wt. % to 1.53 wt. % using all of the washing treatments, and the AAEM was removed over 80 wt. % of total AAEM, such as potassium, magnesium, calcium and sodium. For considering economic and efficiency, treated EFBs, by tap water (for 1days) and nitric acid (for 2days) were chosen and been used to experiments. The fast pyrolysis experiments were carried out using treated EFBs variably. Consequently, the highest yield showed 48 wt. % at approximately 500 oC, when used only treated EFB by tap water. However, for confirming the characteristic changes, the bio-crude oils were analyzed GC-MS, elemental analysis and homogeneity by digital microscope.

Juha Laitinen is educated as an environmental hygienist, and holds a PhD in occupational hygiene and the biomonitoring of chemical agents and their health effects. He works as a Senior Research Scientist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and has over 20 years of experience in chemical risk characterization, evaluation and management. He also holds the title of Docent in Occupational Toxicology at the University of Eastern Finland. With his research group, he has published about 30 international peer-review articles on chemical exposure at different worksites. His research group is currently working on exposure studies among fire fighters and workers in the bioenergy supply chain, and actors who are exposed to theatrical smoke.

Combined heat and power plants (CHP) use different biomasses to produce energy for their customers, and during the processing of biomass, many particles and chemical agents may spread to the air. The aim of the study was to measure workers’ exposure to biological and chemical agents at the CHP plants. Occupational hygienic measurements were taken during normal duties. Material samples were collected from processed biomass, and air samples from workers’ breathing zones and stationary sites in the different phases of the production chain. The study was part of the BEST research program, and was funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. The results showed that workers’ exposure to bacterial endotoxins, actinobacteria, fungi, and dust was high. They were also exposed to volatile organic compounds and diesel exhausts. The highest emission levels were measured in the workers’ breathing zones when they had to take biomass samples and do maintenance work. Workers’ exposure to biological and chemical agents was at such a high level in biomass handling areas that it may cause health effects. This risk could be minimized if workers supervised the processes from ventilated control rooms or worked inside cabins during unloading. Local hoods are highly recommended in indoor spaces in which workers have to handle biomass in open sites. In places in which the fermentation of biomass is possible, workers should use a personal gas detector which warns them when carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide concentrations are too high.

Large amounts of garbage are collected in big cities where efficient disposal along with energy recovery is necessary without creating environmental pollution. For this purpose, all of the recyclable materials are sorted and separated from the organic part, and this organic residue known “Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF)” is regarded as renewable and sustainable biomass energy resource. On the other hand, some problematic waste materials such as scrap tires are in huge amounts, and they also must be disposed efficiently by considering their energy potential. In this study, granulated RDF and shredded scrap tire was carbonized in a tube furnace at 600⁰C under nitrogen atmosphere, and the solid residue (char) was obtained. The parent waste materials and their carbonized chars were characterized by proximate analysis and the calorific value determination. Then, several fuel blends were prepared from both char products. That is, the RDF char was the base ingredient in the blends while the scrap tire char was added to RDF char in the ratios of 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt%. Burning characteristics of the parent samples, char products, and their blends were investigated under dry air flow up to 900⁰C using a thermal analysis system. DTA (Differential Thermal Analysis), DTG (Derivative Thermogravimetry) and DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) curves were derived from these thermal analysis experiments.

Lior Artzi is a direct-track PhD student at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot Israel. Her work focuses on the Gram-positive, cellulolytic, thermophilic bacterium, Clostridium clariflavum, which produces the most intricate cellulosomal system yet described.

As the reservoir of unsustainable fossil fuels, such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, is over-utilized and continues to contribute to environmental pollution and CO2 emission, the need for appropriate alternative energy sources becomes more crucial. Bioethanol produced from dedicated crops and cellulosic waste can provide a partial answer, yet a cost-effective production method must be developed. The cellulosome system of the anaerobic thermophile, Clostridium clariflavum, comprises a large number of cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes and scaffoldins which self-assemble in a number of different cellulosome architectures for enhanced cellulosic biomass degradation. We determined the cohesin-dockerin interaction pattern of the cellulosomal system of C. clariflavum and suggested various possible cellulosome assemblies. Further on, we cultivated C. clariflavum on cellobiose-, microcrystalline cellulose- and switchgrass-containing media and isolated cell-free cellulosome complexes from each culture. Gel-filtration separation of the cellulosome samples revealed two major fractions, which were analyzed by label-free LC-MS/MS in order to identify the key players of the cellulosome assemblies therein. In addition, the catalytic activity of each cellulosome was examined on different cellulosic substrates, xylan and switchgrass. The cellulosome isolated from the microcrystalline cellulose-containing medium was the most active of all the cellulosomes that were tested and approaches the degradation capabilities of the cellulosome of the most efficient cellulose-degrading bacterium, Clostridium thermocellum. The results suggest that the expression of the cellulosome proteins is regulated by the type of substrate in the growth medium. Identification of the major cellulosomal components expressed during growth of the bacterium and their influence on its catalytic capabilities provide insight into the performance of the remarkable cellulosome of this intriguing bacterium. The findings, together with the thermophilic characteristics of the proteins, render C. clariflavum of great interest for future use in industrial cellulose-conversion processes.

Diana Pfeiffer has been working at the “DBFZ Deutschen Biomasse for schungszentrum gGmbH” since 2009 as project coordinator of the programme "Promoting projects to optimise biomass energy use". Before joining the DBFZ Diana was as consultant in the Management & Audit Services (MAS) Audit Team within ERM based in Frankfurt/Main, Germany and in the Forestry section of the UN Food & Agriculture Organization/Sub-regional Office in Budapest (Hungary). She holds an university degree in Geo-Ecology (Earth System Sciences).

The provision of bioenergy is a function of highly complex supply chains and networks, thus multidisciplinary research is required to support and advance its provision. During the last five years the German funding programme “Optimization of the Use of Biomass for Energy Production” (in short “Biomass energy use”)* has supported 90 different research projects on cost-effective and sustainable bioenergy provision. There are a multitude of assessment approaches to ascertain the efficiency of a large range of bioenergy conversion technologies as well as advancing bioenergy concepts. Therefore, there is a serious need for harmonization and standardization of such methods in order to assure transparently the role of bioenergy in meeting the goals of the energy transition process. To enable the different projects to assess the related costs more effectively, as well as the GHG emission reduction potential, a method handbook has been developed. This handbook provides guidelines, checklists, calculation methods, reference data for different biomass conversion processes (combustion, gasification and biogas production), provision costs (economic assessment), biomass potentials, energy balances, as well as GHG balances. The developed method handbook considers itself as a compromise between different researchers to improve the assessment quality and the findings for bioenergy research projects in the programme “Biomass energy use”. It has also been used by research projects outside the programme and furthermore has the potential to support research activities on a European level. However, the approaches and calculation procedures listed in the method handbook are a crucial starting point for which further developments can be developed upon, both for scientifically and practical applications. The presentation will give an overview on the results of the process to provide approaches for harmonized and transparent methods used by the diverse projects within the funding programme to determine the efficiency of their technology, thus contributing to the future standardization of assessment methods.

Dr. Frank Rosillo Calle has done PhD in Biological Sciences and Policy, in the year 1985 from University of Aston, He has been working in the area of biomass for energy for more than 30 years. His areas of interests are: Biomass resource assessment, biomass energy (production, conversion and use, biofuels), agriculture, http://biofuels-bioenergy.conferenceseries.com/http://biofuels-bioenergy.conferenceseries.com/ and food security implications. He has published about 100 research articles in the respective area. He is also the editorial board member and advisor of various scientific journals.He has worked on EU funded Projects on Biomass Energy since early 1990s. He also acted as Consultant in biomass energy for over 30 years which include Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Environmental Leadership Programme 1991-1992, BUN, FAO, The Beijer Institute/SEI, UNDPCSD, Shell International, WEC, OTA of the US Congress, DTI, SOPAC-South Pacific Applied Geo-science Commission, etc.He also acted as Coordinator of a British Council/CESPES project in Brazil- Kings College London (KCL)/BUN, 1996-1999, Coordinator of British Council, KCL- Jos University, Nigeria, Higher Education Exchange, 1999-2002. He has been UK Representative of the IEA Bioenergy Task 40 from 2004 to 2012. He has taught biomass energy-related subjects to PhD and MSc level at Universities of Campinas and Manaus, Brazil, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonbury, Bangkok, Thailand; and Basque Country (Bilbao), Oviedo and Vigo, Spain.

The food versus fuel debate (FvF) is as old issue that refuses to go away. It has been plagued with many and often trivial arguments, and ethical, moral and policy considerations rather than by a solid scientific debate.
This specific Session will try to move beyond this old debate and focus on the “food and fuel” argument, in light of new evidence given the many and intertwined considerations that affect biofuels. In particular this Session will consider the following:
- Food Security and its wider implications for food production and biofuels
- Agricultural modernization and impacts on biofuels
- Land use changes [direct (DLUC) and indirect (iLUC)]
- Sustainability issues (environmental, social and economic)

Biomass for energy plays, and will continue to play, a major role in global energy supply. We need to improve our understanding of the wider implications and interactions. For example, the argument of undernourishment and the expansion of biofuels, must be seen within the context of huge food waste, poor agricultural productivity, and lack of infrastructure, obesity, diets changes, and social injustice. As for environmental sustainability, it often overlooks the impacts of fossil fuels, failing to apply the same principle to all energy sources, with too much emphasis on GHG. In the case of social sustainability, now required for all biofuels, it deals with neither underlying fundamentals e.g. applying the same principles to food production nor with wider social and policy implications.
DLUC also needs to be re-visited, particularly iLUC in light of new evidence. There are many and diverse models dealing with iLUC with a wide range of solutions given the nature, dynamism, and complexity of land use changes. In the specific case of iLUC it is very difficult, almost impossible, to model such effects because of the innumerable unproven assumptions; and hence it is often a case of just mere observations. Also, modelling has focused primarily on GHG in detriment of many other factors.
DLUC/iLUC suffer from a restricted and incomplete analysis which has resulted, in most cases, in a negative assessment of biofuels. A more complete assessment could show a very different outcome. iLUC in particular needs to move forward to deal with this high degree of uncertainty to attract new investment on biofuels.

Dr Diaz-Chavez is a Research Fellow at CEP Imperial College London. She has over 15 years experience in sustainability assessment. She has worked on EU funded projects related to biomass, climate change, energy and sustainability assessment at global level. She has worked benchmarking standards related to bioenergy and contributed to the Global Bioenergy Partnership developing indicators. She obtained the Young Scientist on . Management Award from SCOPE in 2010.

The debate on the competition for resources use is long established. There have been (and will continue to be) conflicting interests between land, water and energy aims which have prompted searches for optimal options on how to reconcile the synergies and trade-offs that the use of these resources involve.
There have also been many different approaches and attempts to reconciliate the different views. In particular, the growing interest in bioenergy projects has led to increasing concerns with their wider implications, mainly if grown on a large scale. Concerns focus on the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and on implications for land use, food prices, availability and purchase price of energy, social acceptance and how projects may integrate within society at the macro and micro levels.
An integrated production of chemicals and materials with that of bioenergy is essential to enable the maximisation of value at the same time as reducing the carbon footprint. Therefore, the need for a sustainable supply chain is a prerequisite for success. The main objective of the sustainability assessment is to evaluate the sustainability performance of the economic, environmental, social and political processes or products. A number of approaches to assess sustainability using an integrated approach have already been documented. Specifically for bioenergy, the link between constraints on the mapping of bioenergy resources, sustainability appraisal through stakeholder surveys and biodiversity assessment are considered when addressing the sustainability of bioenergy feedstocks.
Different methods and frameworks can be used to assess the sustainability of bioenergy production and use, from the environmental management tools (EIA, SIA, SEA) to focused frameworks (e.g. GBEP) and tools (e.g. BBEST) from international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Some of the main concerns will continue to be access and reliability of data and how to deal with the tradeoffs and synergies through collaboration and in a coordinated manner. This will probably require a new view at the energy-water-food nexus through a more efficient land use that evolves from the political will of joining different policy agendas. This paper offers an overview of these methodologies and examines how available tools can help to incorporate them into political contexts at the national and international levels.

Dr. Sebastián Sánchez is currently a member of the Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering of University of Jaén. His research interests are in the areas of ‘Use of Lignocellulose materials for Biofuels Production’, ‘Oil Technology’ , ‘Use of By-products and Residues from Olive Oil Industry’, ‘Tertiary Treatment of Wastewater and Microalgaebiotechnology’, and ‘Gas Absorption with Chemical Reaction’

Biofuelsproduction cannot mean a threat for food security. Biofuels of second and third generation, nowadays in phase of research and development (R+D), imply the use of integrated bio-refineries for fuels production, electricity generation and biological products. In advanced technologies, it is predicted to reduce natural resources like earth and water, and with it the worry about food security. Amongst these advanced technologies stand out ethanol production from lignocelluloses residues (or lignocelluloses byproducts), biodiesel from algae, or conversion methods of solar energy in fuels by means of microorganisms. In recent decades numerous studies have attempted to enhance production yields of ethanol-based fuel from biomass through different biochemical pathways. The main substrates in the bioethanol industry are still cereals and sugarcane. In this sense, industrial yield of 0.35 kg ethanol/kg corn kernel has been reported. However, corn is also processed for human consumption so the diversion of resources from the food market to fuel production has caused a great controversy. In countries of the Mediterranean basin, olive generates different lignocellulose by-products not related to the animal or human food chain which can be regarded as a potential source of bioethanol. Ethanol yields of 0.072kg/kg, 0.13 kg/kg and near 0.10 kg/kg have been reached at laboratory scale from olive pruning, olive stone and extracted olive pomace, respectively. This indicates that feasibility of the production of ethanol-fuel from olive by-products will solely be possible by considering two key factors: the development of the concept of bio-refinery and the exploitation of economies of scale. The ongoing growth of the corn ethanol industry has brought about technological advances (e.g. in the enzymatic field) that will be implemented for the development of the lignocellulose ethanol industry. So rather than facing these industries they should be regarded, from the technological point of view, as allies. This presentation will look at the food versus fuel debate from the point of view of G2 and G3 biofuels.