CAFIPLA Conference “Urban Circular Bioeconomy”
On 10 May 2023, the CAFIPLA conference “Urban Circular Bioeconomy” took place in Spain, more precisely at the Europa Congress Palace in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The event was organised by CAFIPLA partner TECNALIA Research & Innovation.
Experts from industry and research shared their insider knowledge on how to transform biowaste into valuable resources. Here are some of the speakers and their topic:
- “Mapping of biogenic resource potentials across Europe” by Susann Günther from DBFZ
- “Impact and markets of biowaste-derived materials” by Esther Hegel from DECHEMA
- “Conversion Technologies” by Stef Denayer from Tech4Biowaste
- “Side stream derived biopolymers” by Ana Carolas from Biotrend SA
Joseba Sánchez, representant of the City Council of Vitoria, opened talks by presenting the city’s organic waste management infrastructure and recycling goals. Susann Günther from DBFZ, the German Biomass Research Center, showcased the European Biomass Atlas developed during the CAFIPLA project to map and monitor biogenic resource potentials across Europe and Stef Denayer introduced the Tech4Biowaste database of technologies and technology providers for valorising biogenic residues. Following, Esther Hegel from DECHEMA emphasised the future importance of biowaste as a resource in her talk on the “Impact and markets of biowaste-derived materials” and an impressive example for this was then given by Ana Carolas from Biotrend who manufacture high quality biowaste-based polymer films and materials.
With this conference, the CAFIPLA project celebrated its successful completion after 3 years. During the course of the project, the TRL5 pilot plant was assembled and put into operation to process mixed biowaste to obtain a total of 250 kg of the valuable CAFIPLA platform products: carboxylic acids and fibres. Through a multichannel dissemination approach resulting e.g., in articles, radio interviews, podcasts, webinars and workshops as well as conference participations, the CAFIPLA partners not only promoted the scientific relevance of biowaste upcycling but brought the topic also to the public attention to help improve public awareness and encourage participation.
The conference Recordings are available online and the Proceedings can be downloaded here.
