The 20th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (CHISA 2012) was held in Prague on 25-29 August, with an attendance of almost one thousand participants mainly from Europe (EU and non-EU Member States) as well as from more than 30 countries worldwide.
In the framework of the conference, the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic organised a specialised Workshop on “Next Generation Biofuels from Laboratory to Industry: When?”. This event, sponsored by the Central European Initiative (CEI) and funded through the CEI Cooperation Fund, also gathered numerous scientists and technologists from CEI Member States. All interventions reported on the state-of-the-art in applied research and in technological applications in demonstration/pilot plants, intended to be viable even without incentives, not the case with other renewable energy sources approaching the market.
Among a broad scope of topics covered in the workshop, the greatest attention was drawn by the presentations of Dr. Kaštánek (Czech Republic) on the “Biorefinery Research Centre of Competence – BIOREF”), of Dr. Olkiewicz (Spain) on the “Improvement of Biogas Production by Co-digestion of WWTP Sludge and Microalgae”) and of Dr. Kleinova (Slovakia/Hungary) on “Liquid Fuels from Biomass Cracking”.
The representative of the CEI illustrated the promotion activities currently carried out by the Organization in this field, recalling the two CEI Ministerial events taking place in Trieste in a few weeks' time: the CEI Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology and the CEI Ministerial Conference on Next Generation Biofuels in the context of a Biobased Economy (19 and 20 September).
In fact, in the perspective of pursuing EU 2020 goals and complying with relevant EU legislation, there is growing consensus among CEI Member States on the fact that Next Generation Biofuels represent a priority option when it comes to developing strategies for fostering eco-friendly energy supplies - also in consideration of their relevance from the point of view of energy self-sufficiency, financial sustainability, job creation, rural development and a dramatically reduced environmental impact.
