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A plant science researcher in Bio4Energy has been granted SEK3.05 Edouard Pesquet 2Bio4Energy researcher Edouard Pesquet was granted an award to continue studying the molecular make up of plants and the mentorship of the Umeå University professor Gunnar Öquist. Photo by courtesy of Umeå University.
million to continue refining scientific knowledge of the molecular structure of plants and trees, and notably on the way in which water and minerals are transported in their "vascular" system.

On 4 December, assistant professor This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., a research group leader at the Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) at Umeå, Sweden, became the first-ever grantee of a so-called Gunnar Öquist Fellowship. This is a new type of award to encourage up-and-coming researchers to innovate by allowing them to test out "novel approaches", as Pesquet put it. Carl Kempe of the Kempe Foundations, a Swedish research funding body, handed over the award at a ceremony at Umeå.

"My research takes aim at the cells that conduct the hydromineral sap" in a tree or plant, Pesquet said. In particular, he has been studying the small vessels that are responsible for transporting water and minerals from a plant’s roots throughout the plant. He likens this system for hydromineral transport with the vascular system of humans or "any superior organism. It must function or we die".

Attachments:
Download this file (20121205_VK_artikel.pdf)Coverage in Swedish by the Umeå newspaper Västerbottenkuriren of 5 December 2012[ ]1661 kB
Download this file (Edouard_Pesquet_International_Innovation_September_2012.pdf)Edouard Pesquet outlines his research in International Innovation September 2012[ ]6106 kB

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Could it be possible, in a not-too-distant future, to use nanocomposites based MarthaHerra 31212Bio4Energy researcher Martha Herrera presents her thesis 'Nanostructured Materials Isolated from Bio-Residues, and their Characterisation' 4 December at Luleå University of Technology. Photo by courtesy of Martha Herrera. on cellulosic residue from ethanol or biorefinery production as an agent in separating gases from each other? Or could nanocomposites be employed as a gas barrier in food packaging to keep its content fresh for longer?

If you ask Bio4Energy researchers at the Luleå University of Technology (LTU) the answer is “hopefully, yes”. Tomorrow they are taking a symbolic but decisive step towards reaching their goal. Martha Herrera of the Wood and Bionanocomposites’ division will be taking the stage at LTU to present the group’s finding contained in three scientific articles and one licentiate thesis on Nanostructured Materials Isolated from Bio-Residues, and their Characterisation.

In her thesis, Herrera outlines her team’s efforts at characterising a certain type of nanocomponents, or ‘nanowhiskers’, from two types of residual streams from biorefinery production based on woody raw materials. While one was a by-product of ethanol production by the Swedish clean technology firm SEKAB, the other consisted of reject cellulose from making specialty cellulose at Domsjö Fabriker, at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, Herrera said.

“We have demonstrated that they can be successfully extracted from bio-residues”, Herrera said with reference to the two nanowhisker suspensions—reject cellulose and bioethanol residue, respectively—which characteristics are accounted for in the thesis. She believed that this was the first time nanowhiskers had been extracted from an industrial waste stream based on woody raw materials. Previously, this kind of process had mainly been applied to bio-residues from agriculture, such as banana leaves, Herrera said.

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This month and next, Sweden’s three strategic research Courtesy IISDThe secretariat of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has hosted a series of conferences and meetings in view of achieving an agreement by its 195 member countries that will serve to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human induced) interference with the climate system". Science has it that this means limiting global average temperatures from rising by more than two degrees Celsius by 2050, compared with pre-industrial levels. Photo by courtesy of IISD.
environments dealing with energy issues, appointed by the government, will be bringing a message to the United Nation’s climate change conference in Qatar, on the way in which one Scandinavian country has chosen to support a comprehensive national approach to sustainable energy research.

Bio4Energy, along with its counterparts STandUP for Energy and the Chalmers Energy Initiative (CEI) have been working intensively to formulate their common aim of developing science that entails a systems’ approach to energy research, expected to provide scientific input for an efficient and a sustainable energy system in Sweden and beyond.

This "Swedish Model", as it is called in a new brochure created jointly by the three research environments, available below, will be promoted by a delegation of researchers and support staff travelling to Doha and the 18th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change/8th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, 26 November – 7 December.

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Download this file (Investing_in_Research_for_a_Sustainable_Energy_Future--A_Swedish_Model.pdf)Joint_brochure_CEI_B4E_STandUP for Energy[ ]771 kB

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What did you think of the Bioenergy 2012 conference, held 14-15 Bioenergy 2012 webThe profile picture for the conference Bioenergy 2012 - Research for a New Generation of Green Products and Chemicals. Image published with permission.
November at Piteå, Sweden? Below are some of the reactions sent by e-mail to Bio4Energy, co-organiser of the conference together with its partner, the Solander Science Park. 

The conference had about 40 delegates, including those who had a special pass covering the five conferences of the Nolia Energy and Environmental Week who came to participate in Bioenergy 2012. The conference was given on the premises of the seaside resort Pite Havsbad and was moderated by a Swedish journalist, Li Skarin of Massa Media. 

Well-spoken chemists
   
           “Thank you for a well-organised and a very interesting conference”,  Sven Kullander, chairman of the Energy Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm.
Attachments:
Download this file (Bästa_användningen_av_svensk_skog_Sven_Kullander_KVA.pdf)Bästa_användningen_av_svensk_skog_Sven_Kullander_KVA.pdf[ ]3593 kB
Download this file (Cellulosa_i_nya_produkter_och_material_Ola_Sundman_UmU.pdf)Cellulosa_i_nya_produkter_och_material_Ola_Sundman_UmU.pdf[ ]116 kB
Download this file (Från_idé_till_innovation_Jakob_Lindvall_Idea2Innovation.pdf)Från_idé_till_innovation_Jakob_Lindvall_Idea2Innovation.pdf[ ]6853 kB
Download this file (High_Technology_Materials_from_the_Forest_Resource_Aji_Mathew_LTU.pdf)High_Technology_Materials_from_the_Forest_Resource_Aji_Mathew_LTU.pdf[ ]1301 kB
Download this file (Mikrobiell_konvertering_av_lignocellulosa_Ulrika_Rova_LTU.pdf)Mikrobiell_konvertering_av_lignocellulosa_Ulrika_Rova_LTU.pdf[ ]1468 kB
Download this file (Systemanalys_av_råvaror_för_bioraffinanderi_Johanna_Berlin_SP.pdf)Systemanalys_av_råvaror_för_bioraffinanderi_Johanna_Berlin_SP.pdf[ ]1542 kB

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Commercialising forest biotechnology can be an uphill struggle despite having a MatsJohnson SweTreeTechnologies 2497Mats Johnson of the clean technology company SweTree Technologies is a forest biotechnology entrepreneur based at Umeå in northern Sweden. Photo by Bio4Energy.
well-performing product with a low environmental impact to offer, a conference on research and innovation in the area of bioenergy and biorefinery has heard.

Mats Johnson of SweTree Technologies, a Sweden-based SME developing biotechnological products or solutions for the forestry industry, told delegates to Bioenergy 2012 at Piteå, Sweden, that his company’s commercial product arGrow®, a fertilizer with a low environmental impact, had received somewhat of a cool reception among the country’s large forestry companies.

“Generally speaking the large (Swedish forestry) companies are not very good at adopting biotechnology” solutions, said Johnson, SweTree CEO, in a speech 15 November. However, “some are interested, but we are at an early stage in the process. In fact, there are only three companies in the world that have made biotechnological solutions their specialty”.

What sets arGrow® apart from traditional fertilizers is the fact that it is based on the amino acid arginine rather than on ammonium nitrate, the latter of which chemical may leak to cause soils and water to acidify. The technology behind arGrow® carries the signature of a team of researchers in Bio4Energy, led by professorThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

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This month Bio4Energy and the Solander Science Park will be hostingMN AS JH OrgBioenergy2012We hope to see you at Bioenergy 2012. The organisers from left: Maria Näslund, Solander Science Park (SSP); Anna Strom, Bio4Energy (B4E); Johan Hedin and Lotta Karlsson, both SSP. Photo by Stellan Marklund, B4E.
Bioenergy 2012—a conference on research and innovation to support a new generation of products and chemicals based on raw materials from the forest or organic waste. The conference Bioenergy 2012—for a New Generation of Green Products and Chemicals will take place 14-15 November at Pite Havsbad, at Piteå in northern Sweden.

“With this conference we want to spread our research results in northern Sweden. Reaching out to business and industry is an important part of our work, said Stellan Marklund, programme manager of the research environment Bio4Energy and a professor at Umeå University, at Umeå, a few hours’ drive south of Piteå.

Solander Science Park (SSP), for its part, has a mission to link up businesses with the research community so that scientific discoveries may be developed and turned into marketable products. This makes the SSP an ideal partner for Bio4Energy in the quest to create meeting places for bioenergy and biorefinery researchers, on the one hand, and industry and business entrepreneurs, on the other, Marklund said.

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A couple of Bio4Energy researchers are set to receive multi-year ChristofferBoman JohanGunseus SynkBio4Energy researcher Christoffer Boman studies chemical properties of emissions of particulate matter from biomass combustion to better undertand their negative effects on health. Photo by Johan Gunséus, Synk.
funding from one of Sweden’s most well-respected research funding bodies, to conduct research on emissions from biomass combustion and on using ionic liquids to separate carbon dioxide (CO2) from synthesis gas or biogas, respectively.

Affiliated with Umeå University (UmU) and Luleå University of Technology (LTU), respectively, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., both received grants of about SEK800,000 per year for three years.

The announcement came last week with the posting of an Excel file on the website of the Swedish Research Council, revealing this year's list of award-winning projects in its Science and Technology category. While procedure has it that no grant is confirmed before a project instigator holds in his or her hand a physical letter from SRC, attesting to the veracity of the grant, at least the posting of the online list should be an indication of which applicants will get lucky.

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Scientists on the Bio4Energy Biochemical Platform have won a grant KB UR MS Biochem 1012Kris Berglund (left), Ulrika Rova and Magnus Sjöblom of Bio4Energy won a grant to trial production of butyeric acid at the 10,000-litre scale. Photo: Leif Nyberg, Luleå University of Technology
designed to support trials at the Ethanol Pilot—Sweden’s only large-scale demonstration unit for biorefinery production, at Örnsköldsvik—of a bio-based acid that may be used as a food ingredient, solvent or aroma, in cosmetic applications or as a softener in plastics.

Thanks to the SEK3.9 million grant from the Swedish Energy Agency, Bio4Energy researchers This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., all of Luleå University of Technology (LTU), next month will start trials to scale up production of butyric acid from forest-sourced raw materials or agricultural residue.

Having perfected the technology in their research laboratories at LTU in northern Sweden and at Michigan State University, U.S.A., the researchers would attempt to scale up by several steps an anaerobic fermentation process in which bacteria converts biomass into the high-value chemical in question, Berglund said, on the phone from LTU where he is a professor.

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