Fatima Menezes Bento has her expertise in petroleum microbiology and fuels biodeterioration. Her approach and evaluation model is based mainly on microbial prospection, involving knowing of the composition of deteriogenic microbial population, monitoring aspects and control possibility during storage time of diesel, blends of diesel and biodiesel. She has been involved with research, teaching and consulting at UFRGS since 25 years.

Statement of the Problem: Microbial contamination in fuels has been reported since 1895 and it is considered one of the main problems related to the maintenance of stored fuels’ quality. The impact of this contamination in the system depends mainly on the fuel grade, storage time and housekeeping schedules. Among the fuels, the diesel fuel formulation has changed a lot over time, mainly by the reduction of sulfur and addition of biodiesel. The purpose of this study is to describe the steps of detection, monitoring and control to avoid the installation of deteriogenic process during storage time by microbial contamination.

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Many studies were conducted to determine the microbial population (composition and growth capabilities) in diesel, blends Bx and biodiesel in lab conditions simulating the storage conditions. Biomass produced at interface oil-water in microcosms is a good indication of deteriogenic process in course, acidic conditions from the water phase; infrared and chromatographic analysis results to oily phase as well.

Findings: Our results have demonstrated that diesel/biodiesel blends are more susceptible to biodegradation and biomass formation during storage. The microbial composition was characterized and monitored by culture and non-culture methods (Illumina high throughput sequencing) and more than 800 genera were identified including Archea. We showed that fuel degradation, as evaluated by HATR-FTIR, was related to interfacial biofilm formation. After 60 days storage, the system treated with a multifunctional biocide package yielded more interfacial biomass, indicating that sub-effective doses may lead to increased microbial growth.

Conclusion & Significance: The determination of the level of microbial contamination is crucial to understand the vulnerability of fuel storage systems. Our results has revealed that microbial contamination is very diverse and that the use of biocide affects microbial community structure in the fuel but that some microorganisms are resistant to the biocide.

Suzana Marques Domingues holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineer (1985) with post-graduation in catalysis (1987), a Master Degree in Chemical Engineer from The Pennsylvania State University (1993) and an MBA from Getúlio Vargas Foundation (2005). She has thirty-two years of industrial and R&D experience, twenty-four of those in the basic petrochemical business at Braskem where she participated in the development of green plastic, then leading engineers and researchers on the technology development of biogas/bioenergy from S&E residues at Cetrel and as a leader of the Bioenergy Center of Excellence at GE Brazilian Research Center in Rio de Janeiro. She also participated in Academic and Industrial Committees and Councils in the state of Bahia to stimulate innovation in industries. Sheis actually a partner at Bizup Business Leverage firm. 

Biogas from residues has been used as source of energy for a long time, especially in Europe and Asia, and an important drive for the circular economy. Brazil, with large natural resources and a well-developed agriculture, forest and bioenergy businesses, as well as a large population that generates a significant amount of domestic waste and sewage, has the potential to be a prominent player as a scalable producer, but there is a long way ahead of us. According to Brazilian Atlas for GHG Emissions, the installed capacity of bioenergy from biogas is still timid, 254 MW, with most of the projects related to biogas from landfills. Biogas/biomethane is a versatile source of energy, capable of generating power, thermal and automotive energy. With regulatory framework in place to support the production and commercialization of biogas in Brazil, it should be expected a production increase from residues, especially with large availability like vinasse from S&E segment. Nevertheless, it seems that some issues are still refraining it from happening. Variations in feed quality, contaminations, upsets and performance issues are some of the hurdles that influences production, feasibility and scalability of biodigestion of residues. This paper will provide an overview on the potential of biogas generation in Brazil and discuss some of the challenges and opportunities to add value to the energy content wasted in the vinasse of S&E industry, provide a new source of revenue with biogas/biomethane, complement the energy matrix with this flexible fuel and, furthermore, reduce the impact to the environment.

Dr. Henrique M Baudel is Technology and R&D Director at America Biomass Technologies and associate researcher at the Biomass Valorisation Group of the

Chemical Engineering Department, Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil.

Medium-scale biomass-based biorefineries have been identified as a promising route to the creation of local and regional agroindustrial clusters in Brazil. By delivering multiple products from starchy and lignocellulosic biomasses, a biorefinery constituted by integrated plants and processes can make feasible the economic exploitation of a myriad of lowvalue agricultural and industrial residues. In principle, different biomass components can be converted into sugars and other carbon-rich products, which in turn can be transformed into high-valued chemical products and high-volume biofuels, while generating electricity and process heat for self-consumption. In this scenario, the high-value products enhance profitability, the high-volume fuels contribute to support energy needs, and the power production reduces costs while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, the biorefinery concept envisages the maximal value derived from the biomass feedstock at minimal impact to the environment. This paper describes biorefineries constituted by integrated plants that produce ethanol, active carbon, food-grade carbon dioxide and single-cell protein (SCP) extract. Agricultural residues such as sugarcane bagasse and straw, eucalyptus, rice shells and corncobs were used as major lignocellulosic feedstocks. The mentioned biorefinery concept has been built on two different biomass-to-products platforms. The "sugar platform" is based on chemical and biochemical conversion processes, particularly the fermentation of sugars extracted from cellulosics, while the "carbon platform" is based on thermochemical routes with emphasis on the carbonisation of the cellulignin fractions.

Paulo Cesar Manduca has his expertise in international affairs, strategic studies and Brazil’s external policy. He has been working as a Researcher at University of Campinas since 1998, last five years at Interdisciplinary Center on Energy Planning. Presently, he is coordinating the project “Biofuels in International Relations: Between Global Governance and Energy Independence for Brazil, the European Union and the United States” with FAPESP support.

Europe has outlined a well-defined strategy for the development of bioeconomy in order to places EU enterprises at the forefront of the new phase of economic development. In this strategy, biofuels play a central role since they allow the capitalization of a vast industry sector with a systemic effect on R&D into biomass chain. In this way, Europe absorbs experiences abroad. Argentina and Brazil occupy a prominent position among the largest exporters of commodities, biofuels inclusive. Do they recognize the potential of biofuels as a fomenter of the bioeconomy following the European model? Do they have strategies to transition to a new economy phase in order to improve their positions in world’s wealth distribution? The aim of this analysis is to discuss the potential of biofuels as fomenters of bioeconomy in both countries and provide answers for the research questions in order to evaluate the strategies and barriers to their executions. Among the potential obstacles, the analysis highlights the fact that both countries have recently become major producers of fossil energy, that is, oil exploitation in Brazilian coast, and, shale gas in Argentinian Patagonia. A great attracting force of fossil fuels and the emergence of oil populism have placed these countries into a furcation position to invest in innovation in bioenergy and biomaterials or develop traditional industries linked to fossil fuels.

Luma Sh. Al-Saadi is a seasoned business and technical professional with Engineer, Finance and Administration graduation with biotechnology, chemical and energy background in C-level positions in large multinational companies with international exposure. Founder of Cenerbio, company focused in global Pulp&Paper; Bioenergy and Biorefinery project development (Upstream and Downstream integration), utilizing advanced, sustainable and non-transgenic Energy Crops, associated with modern and large scale Agriculture and Geotechnology management tools and technologies..

Homogenous base catalysis of biodiesel production from feedstock that contains high free fatty acids (FFA) content would require a pre-treatment step to reduce the FFA level. Drying of such feedstock is required if it has high water content. All these add to the costs of biodiesel production from high FFA and water triglyceride source, hence the need to investigate process conditions which could allow for direct base-catalysed methanolysis of such low quality feedstock. This study investigated the comparative catalytic activities of alkali-metal hydroxide and methoxide as homogeneous base catalysts for transesterification of rapeseed oil containing high levels of FFA and water. The investigation was carried out using a mesoscale oscillatory baffled reactor in a continuous mode. The oscillatory mixing conditions in the reactor ensured that the reactions were kinetics-controlled. The operating conditions investigated were: methanol to rapeseed oil molar ratios (4:1-13:1), catalyst loadings (0.5-2 wt %), FFA (0.061wt %) and water 0.05wt% (contents of the rapeseed oil, reaction temperature (40-600C), and residence times (3-16min). Design of the experiment was used to optimise the reaction conditions. A complete conversions were achieved under wide range of moderated reaction conditions. Overall, the NaOCH3 catalyst showed higher catalytic activity than NaOH under the same operating conditions, i.e. the turnover frequency of the NaOCH3 was more than that of NaOH catalyst under all the reaction conditions. Our findings demonstrate that there are optimal process conditions that could be exploited for continuous productions of biodiesel at high conversions from low quality oleaginous feedstock that contain up to 5wt% FFA and 3wt% water.

Silvio Ricardo Taboas, is speaker of the YSATÎ Board.He is an executive of large global corporations in the segments of energy, food, cement, automotive,logistics, agribusiness and business consulting. Since 2006, he has been dedicated to start-ups and silent management turnaround through his own company, tabVlae, which developed the business of YSATÎ (www.ysati.com.br) and owns exclusive rights regarding the patent.

The Patent granted in 2017: A method and a system for converting large quantities of wastewater into water andfertilizer Field of the invention The present invention relates to a method and system for would make it possible to process huge amount of waste water. converting wastewater from sugar, bio-ethanol and biodiesel production into substantially purified water and a powder containing the waste. A single process line consisting of a system according to the invention is able to handle a quantity of wastewater of up to 20000 m3/day. Background for the invention The traditional production of bio-ethanol from sugar cane is based upon fermentation and distillation. The wastewater – the so-called vinasse – from this process is today being sprayed to the fields. However this way of depositing the vinasse is not environmentally acceptable and methods have been investigated to avoid the deposit of vinasse on the fields. Specifically in Brazil the amount of vinasse produced per year amount to around 450 billion liters/year. The dry matter of the vinasse is high in Potassium (K+) and is needed for adequate growth of the sugar cane. Today Brazil import Potassium for fertilization in the range USD 4 billions/year. By retrieving the Potassium from the Vinasse one can reduce the importation of Potassium and use existing source of Potassium as a dry fertilizer. Description of prior art The converting of wastewater into fertilizer is a normal process with evaporation and drying. The evaporation have been done utilizing either tubular or plate evaporation. For the drying step normally the use of a spray dryer or a spin flash drying is being used. The quality of the water (condensate) produce by the evaporation step is generally undefined as vinasse contains volatile solid components which components are at least partly stripped during the evaporation process and therefore ends up in the purified water (condensate) as impurities. For many years scale dispersants and sequestering agents has been used in different types of water treatment with the objective of minimizing scale formation i.e. avoiding salts crystallization on membranes or heat exchange surfaces but it has never been recognized that the use a sequestering agent with dewatering of vinasse.

Marcelo Maciel Pereira is an Associate Professor at the Chemistry Institute of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ - Brazil). He obtained the MSc and the Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His research interests focus on kinetics and catalysis, hydrocarbons, biomass conversion, zeolites, CO2, greenhouse gas emissions, and sequestration.

The production of green Hydrocarbon and green hydrogen in the standard refinery is a powerful approach to shortening our path to sustainable. However, second generation biomass is composed of reactive compounds and shows low density; than previously biomass should be transformed into a biocrude that fits the conditions of the oil industry. Herein this goal was archived in two steps. Firstly biomass was converted into a black bio-crude (density 1.1-1.2 gcm-3, C,H,O composition in wt.% at about 60,10, and 30 respectively) that behaves like an oil-feed under the realistic refinery condition. Biomass can be fully converted, and the type of bio-crude can be tailor made by the reaction condition. Secondly, biocrude and model compounds were converted under realistic refinery condition into valuable products. For instance, bio-aromatics was obtained by using a pilot plant at laboratory scale of fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) operation at 5000C, 10 mLmin-1 of feed were injected during one minute using 20g of a commercial catalyst and a simplified catalyst. Saturated hydrocarbon up to diesel fraction was produced at 300-4000C at hydrogen partial pressure of 50 bars. Bio-hydrogen was produced by couple pyrolysis of biocrude producing hydrogen and coke in the spent catalyst followed by reverse boudouard reaction in the presence of oxygen for CO production. Thanks to the bio-crude stability it can be stored, transported and converted into value products, fitting the requirements of up-, middle- and down- stream of oil industry. The present approach brings a central idea, i.e., the "future refinery", able to largely mitigate CO2 emission, is just the standard, and the regular one and the key for reach such goal is to redesign biomass into a tailor-made bio crude proper for the refinery. Therefore oil could be partially or, in the future, entirely substitute by the bio-crude.

Regiane Alves de Oliveira is a researcher with a bachelor in biological sciences, currently developing a doctoral thesis on Bioenergy field, in partnership with University of Campinas, National Laboratory for Bioethanol Science and Technology, and Leibniz-Institut für Agrartechnik und Bioökonomie e.V. (ATB). She has experience of multidisciplinary works developed with professionals in chemistry, engineering, and natural sciences areas. The current focus is on microbiology, bioprocesses, biochemicals, enzymes, biofuels, and Bioeconomy.

Lactic acid is a compound widely used in food, pharmaceutical, medical and chemical industries. Produced from sugars through fermentation, it has emerged as a potential chemical compound to synthesize renewable and biodegradable plastics, uses in medical field, as well as possible precursor of higher cost molecules in the chemical industry. Its use on industrial scale is still limited due to the relatively high cost of production, comparing to petrochemical products. In order to the lactic acid produced by fermentation be economically competitive, it is necessary to keep low costs which is linked to process performance (upstream and downstream processes). Bearing all this in mind, the performance of the microorganisms Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Lactobacillus plantarum and Bacillus coagulans were evaluated aiming the production of L lactic acid. The production strategy intends to facilitate both production and purification of lactic acid with positive impacts on costs and environment, meaning lower costs and no undesired by-products. Tests were performed in bioreactors using different substrates and conditions for each microorganism. Alternative fermentations strategies were tested and their performance evaluated. As results, it was possible to achieve high lactic acid titer, productivity and yields, as well as optimize the conditions for two substrates: one for 1G-lactic acid production, and other for 2G-lactic acid production.