1st International Chain Elongation Conference - Speakers
Niels van Stralen, Msc.
(key-note)
Director and co-founder of ChainCraft B.V.
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Biosystems Engineer. Co-founded ChainCraft as spin-off company from the Enviromental Technology group of Wageningen University. Currently ChainCraft is operating a fully equipped demo-scale factory in the Port of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Associate Prof. Dr. Diana Machado de Sousa
(key-note)
Microbiology
Wageningen University, the Netherlands
Biological Engineer and microbiologist. As lead of the Microbial Physoplogy Group she is searching for new anaerobic microorganisms and their networks. She e.g. constructed new co-cultures on several chain elongation processes.
Prof. Dr. Mark Holtzapple
(key-note)
Department of Chemical Engineering
Chemical Engineer. Developed a wide variety of technologies on chemicals, food and water production. One of his inventions is the MixAlco Process which converts biodegradable wastes into products like alcohol fuels. These findings are under commercial deployment by Eart Energy Renewables.
Prof. Dr. ir. Lars T. Angenent
(invited)
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
University of Tübingen, Germany
Environmental biotechnologist. One of his interests is the recovery of carbon with open cultures (reactor microbiomes), defined mixed cultures, or pure cultures of microbes. He is promoting the carboxylate platform as an important platform in biorefineries because water and nutrients must be recycled while bioenergy yields must be maximized. He leading one of the pioneering groups on Chain Elongation and is entrepreneur as e.g. scientific advisor and co-founder of Capro-X.
Prof. Dr. Ramon Ganigué
(invited)
Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology
Environmental Engineer. Interested in anaerobic microbial procesess of chain elongation, microbial electrosynthesis and sewer corrosion and mitigation. Publishes e.g on new reactor microbiomes connected to separation technologies as well on pure culture characterisation.
Associate Prof. Dr. Piotr Oleskowicz-Popiel
(invited)
Water Supply and Bioeconomy Division
Poznan University of Technology, Poland
Chemical engineer. Focused on biorefinery approach to convert waste streams into valuable products. He is using open culture fermentation to recover carbon in a usable and attractive form. He developed a caproic acid production process which he aims to commercialize in the near future.