As we face increasing levels of waste produced by a growing global population with decreasing natural resources we need to change our thinking about waste. The UK Government’s recent report, Building a high value bioeconomy – opportunities from waste, (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-growth-of-the-uk-bioeconomy-opportunities-from-waste) has highlighted the need to view waste as a resource and to develop processes to better exploit currently under-utilised agricultural and municipal wastes, among others, in preference to the use of virgin biomass or fossil resources. However, making the most of this under-utilised resource demands that we salvage the molecular value inherent in what are often very heterogeneous materials. It’s the chemical complexity within waste materials which will provide the value over and above energy generation and this interdisciplinary symposium aims to spotlight the research and applications which take us to the next stage where value chemicals are being captured from waste streams in combination with more conventional waste valorisation processes.
With this in mind our symposium will bring together chemists, biologists, engineers and other experts to discuss the latest research developments in this area, including examples of where this has been/can be applied. It will provide a focus for industry, funding agencies and academic researchers to come together to build the necessary collaborations to take the next steps forward. The symposium will be co-sponsored by the BBSRC, a major funder of biotechnology-related research within the UK. The BBSRC's Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (BBSRC NIBB) aim to foster cross disciplinary communities and several of these networks will be represented by participants in this meeting. The Royal Society of Chemistry is happy to help support the vital role of chemistry in these networks and this symposium builds on the success of previous symposia exploring the potential of biomass for production of renewable chemicals (http://rsc.li/microalgae-2013 and http://rsc.li/lignin-2014).
This symposium will cover the following four topics with a range of presentations from UK and international speakers from both academia and industry including case studies of concrete applications of new approaches in waste treatment
• Chemicals from waste • High value metals and other inorganic chemicals
• Bio-refinery approaches to recover molecular complexity as well as energy
• New approaches/horizon scanning
The programme will feature oral and poster presentations and the scientific committee look forward to welcoming delegates interested in this subject to London in November.
With this in mind our symposium will bring together chemists, biologists, engineers and other experts to discuss the latest research developments in this area, including examples of where this has been/can be applied. It will provide a focus for industry, funding agencies and academic researchers to come together to build the necessary collaborations to take the next steps forward. The symposium will be co-sponsored by the BBSRC, a major funder of biotechnology-related research within the UK. The BBSRC's Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (BBSRC NIBB) aim to foster cross disciplinary communities and several of these networks will be represented by participants in this meeting. The Royal Society of Chemistry is happy to help support the vital role of chemistry in these networks and this symposium builds on the success of previous symposia exploring the potential of biomass for production of renewable chemicals (http://rsc.li/microalgae-2013 and http://rsc.li/lignin-2014).
This symposium will cover the following four topics with a range of presentations from UK and international speakers from both academia and industry including case studies of concrete applications of new approaches in waste treatment
• Chemicals from waste • High value metals and other inorganic chemicals
• Bio-refinery approaches to recover molecular complexity as well as energy
• New approaches/horizon scanning
The programme will feature oral and poster presentations and the scientific committee look forward to welcoming delegates interested in this subject to London in November.
