Plenary Title: Transformation of biofuels into syngas and hydrogen in reactors with structured catalysis and hydrogen permselective membranes

Vladislav Sadykov is the chief scientist at the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis and Professor of Novosibirsk State University. His current research interest includes heterogeneous catalysis of red-ox processes for energy production (including solid oxide fuel cells), catalytic processes of hydrogen and syngas generation, membrane reactors, and technologies of nanophase and nanocomposite materials synthesis, solid-state ionics. He has published more than 490 papers in peer-reviewed journals, four monographs, and six Chapters in books.  He is a member of the Editorial Boards of Applied Catalysis A; a member of the Materials Research Society (USA), Russian Mendeleev Chemical Society, and American Chemical Society.

Plenary Title: Transformation of lignocellulosic biomass into energy products.

Prof. Bruce Sithole is a Professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban) as well as a Chief Scientist and Director, Biorefinery Industry Development Facility, Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, in Durban.  He holds a PhD (Dalhousie University, Canada) and has previously worked at the Pulp & Paper Research Institute of Canada (now FPInnovations).  His main research focus is on the development and implementation of biorefinery technologies, specifically those aimed at beneficiation of waste biomass into high-value products.  His facility is used by SMEs and the industry to develop, validate, and implement green and biorefinery technologies in the country.

Plenary Title: The role of biofuels in a sustainable circular bioeconomy

Prof-Dr Daniela Thrän studied Environmental Engineering and received her doctorate at the Bauhaus University Weimar. Since 2011 she has been heading the joint "Bioenergy Systems" departments at the Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH (DBFZ) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and holds the chair of Bioenergy Systems at the University of Leipzig. Daniela Thrän is a member of the Bioeconomy Council of the Federal Government, which she has co-chaired since 2021. She contributes her expertise on the sustainable use and production of biomass to numerous committees and has developed the "Smart Bioenergy" approach, providing pathways to more flexible bioenergy in future energy systems.

DBFZ = the german institute for biomass research in Leipzig

Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan is the Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and of Nuclear Engineering at the Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), as well as the College of Engineering and Computing Distinguished Professor. He was the past chair of the Dept. of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (2009–2019), an AIChE Fellow, and the 2019 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Washington Univ. in St. Louis Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering Dept. He has published more than 320 peer-reviewed articles and given 53 plenary and keynote lectures, 157 invited talks, and 500 conference presentations.

Title: Biomass for energy: potentials and technologies

Prof. Electo Eduardo Silva Lora is a researcher 1B of the National Research Council of Brazil - CNPq. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in thermoelectric plants, a Masters in thermoelectric plants - Odessa Polytechnic University (1981) and a doctorate in Design of steam generators and reactors from the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University (1988), in Russia. He is currently a Full Professor at the Federal University of Itajubá and Coordinator of the Excellence Group in Thermal Power and Distributed Generation - NEST. He has experience in the area of Mechanical Engineering. He has published 130 articles in journals, 15 books and directed 27 doctoral theses and 66 master's theses.

Sanette Marx (Van Rensburg) is a Professor in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering at the North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Stellenbosch in 1993 and 1995 respectively. She has held the SANEDI, DSI, and SARChI Research Chairs in Biofuels Research since 2007 and has published many peer-reviewed journals and conference papers, as well as 2 international patents while successfully graduating more than 100 honours, 35 masters and 7 PhD students. Prof Marx is a registered professional engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa as well as a chartered chemical engineer with IChemE (UK) and has served on the IChemE International Energy Board from 2015 to 2017. She has been a member of the scientific committee of the international EUBCE conference since 2012. She is also a regular reviewer for the NRF, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE, UK) as well as high-impact journals.

Title:  Gasification of biomass a key technology in energy transition

Bilainu Oboirien has a doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand South Africa. He is presently an Associate Professor at the University of Johannesburg. Previously, he worked as a senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa. Prof Oboirien is a chartered Chemical Engineer (C.Eng.) with the UK Engineering Council and a C3-rated researcher with the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). His areas of research are biomass combustion and gasification, Waste to Energy, Energy Storage, Energy Materials, and Process Modelling.

Piero Salatino, MSc Chem Eng, PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy. Chairman of MedITech, Italian Competence Center on Industry 4.0 enabling technologies. Selected past appointments: Dean of the School of Polytechnic and Basic Sciences (2013-2020) and of the Faculty of Engineering (2010-2013) at Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II; Director of the Combustion Research Institute, National Research Council (2008-2010). Internationally recognized researcher and scholar in the fields of chemical reactor engineering, powder technology, bioprocess engineering, with a scholarly record of more than 300 scientific articles in international archival journals.

Title: Application of Biofuels in Automotive Engines 

Prof. K.A. Subramanian is currently the Head of Centre for Energy Studies and full professor, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. His main research area includes Hydrogen Energy, alternative fuelled internal combustion engines/vehicles, Hydrogen Backfire and combustion, Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Zero emission vehicles, Hybrid Systems, and Integrated Energy Systems. He is one among the Top 2% Scientist by Stanford University, 2020 in the world.  He developed many numbers of courses including Hydrogen Energy, Zero Emission Vehicles, Bioenergy: Resources, Technologies and Assessment, Carbon Capture and Storage and Organic Waste to Energy Conversion Technology. He has guided several doctoral Ph.D. scholars and published several research papers in reputed Journals and author of two books.

Title: Creating Community Microgrids Containing Biomass Gasifiers

Nikita V. Tomin is a Senior Research Fellow at the Energy Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Science (ESI SB RAS), Irkutsk, Russia. In 2007 he defended his PhD thesis at the ESI SB RAS. From May 2019 he has been the Head of Electric Power Systems Operation and Control Lab of the Department of Electric Power Systems at the ESI SB RAS. His interests are artificial intelligence applications in power systems, machine learning, microgrids, renewable energy sources, forecasting, and emergency control. N. V. Tomin is the author of more than 10 monographs and co-author of more than 150 scientific papers.

Shu Zhang is a Full Professor in the Department of New Energy Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, China. He obtained a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from Monash University, Australia in 2010. Before moving back to China, he has been working as a postdoctoral research fellow at Curtin University, Australia, and Kyushu University, Japan for nearly 6 years in total. His main research target is to efficiently transfer low-rank fuels into clean energy and functional carbon materials via thermochemical means. He has co-authored more than 100 journal articles, and currently acting as Managing Editor for Fuel Processing Technology.