When: Postponed until 2022

Where: Athens, Greece

The main aim of the IUPAC International Conference series on Green Chemistry (ICGC) is to bring together all relevant stakeholders from academia, research, industry, NGOs, policy makers and society, to exchange and disseminate knowledge and ideas that promote the concept of green chemistry, sustainable development and circular economy. This year’s conference is the ninth of the ICGC series, the first having been organised in Germany (2006), followed by Russia (2008), Canada (2010), Brazil (2012), South Africa (2014), Italy (2016), Russia (2017) and Thailand (2018).

The ICGC-9 will cover the following general topics

• Green Chemistry in Academia, Research and Industry
• Green Chemistry in Education and Society
• Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development, Bioeconomy and Circular Economy

The scientific programme will deal with global trends and developments in the field of green and sustainable chemistry, as well as with research and technology aspects of high importance to specific parts of the world. For example, the topic of biomass valorisation will be discussed both with regard to agricultural, as well as forestry wastes, to be of interest to relevant countries and regions. The use of non-toxic solvents, the development of low/no waste industrial chemical processes, the use of bio-based or degradable plastics, as well as the increase of societal and political awareness on green chemistry practices, will comprise of topics with a broader audience. The contribution of Green Chemistry to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nationswill also be  highlighted. Within this context, both new fundamental chemistry approaches, as well as dedicated industry-oriented processes will be discussed, in the different areas of chemistry and chemical engineering.

The conference programme will comprise of Plenary, Keynote, Oral and Poster presentations, and will include workshops, e.g. on bio-based polymers and plastics recycling, presentation of awards and prizes, as well as attractive social events.

Highlights of the conference will be communicated by IUPAC via its news magazine Chemistry International, and the proceedings will be published in a Special Issue of IUPAC’s official journal, Pure and Applied Chemistry. Special issues of high-impact journals in the field of Green and Sustainable Chemistry will also be produced, with selected papers of the conference, following standard peer-review procedures.

On the platform for Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies researchers develop biocatalysts and bioprocesses, drawing on microbial conversion of forest-sourced biomass, notably. Photo used with permission.

• Use tree cell-wall polymers as a raw material for producing electrictiy, heat, biofuel and value-added 'co-products' using biorefinery methods and;
• Create and develop biocomposites using nanotechnology.

Platform leader is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., professor at Umeå University.

The following researchers are part of Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies:

Leif Jönsson and Carlos Martín Medina show the plaque and diploma their research group were awarded for the great interest shown by the research community in their scientific article on biomass inhibitors in wood biorefinery. Photo by InYung Sunwoo.

A team of Bio4Energy scientists and partners have been acknowledged at a prestigious conference for their work to reduce the effect of toxic substances in the pre-treatment of biomass destined for conversion to advanced biofuels made using yeast or microbes to turn wood polymers into fuels.

Their review article, Pre-treatment of lignocellulose: Formation of inhibitory by-products and strategies for minimising their effects, published in the Bioresource Technologyscientific journal, has not stopped receiving acclaim since its publication in 2016. At the time of New Horizons in Biotechnology Conference (NHBT-2019)—a conference given in India in November this year—results from the article had been mentioned 560 times in other scientific articles by researchers worldwide.

This made the editorial board of Bioresource Technology decide to award the researcher with a diploma and a plaque for their Highly Downloaded Article 2019.

“It is the most downloaded article steadily during the last two years and the most cited article of Bioresource Technology since 2016”, said This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. of Umeå University and a PI on the platform Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies.

“I think it helped that the review covered all three areas of pre-treatment, formation of inhibitors and strategies [designed to lessen] their effects”, Martín added, “and that the discussion included some new important inhibitors in terms of their effects. That is, compounds that form in small amounts, but which are very strong inhibitors”.

Pulp and paper maker BillerudKorsnäs' operations at Karlsborg, Sweden. Photo used with permission.Bio4Energy scientists are part of a large-scale collaboration to develop a technology for capture and onshore storage of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas, from pulp and paper making. Pulp and paper maker BillerudKorsnäs in the Bio4Energy Industrial Network is industrial partner.

The researchers will use byproducts from the company's operations at Karlsborg, Sweden; coupled with enzyme technology; to capture carbon dioxide that would otherwise escape from the industrial process as biomass is burned. 

Once captured, the gas will be turned into bicarbonate, a salt of carbonic acid, which is in fact a water-soluble form of carbon dioxide. The fact that it is water soluble will make it safe to pump into the ground, according to a press release from Luleå University of Technology(LTU) where the scientists work.  

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 Io Antonopoulou of Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies will use lime mud and green liquor sludge from residual streams of the pulp and paper making to develop a technique for capture of biogenic carbon dioxide. Other researchers at the LTU will undertake a large-scale mapping exercise to assess the potential for geological carbon dioxide storage in Sweden.

The Swedish Energy Agency funds the project via a large package of measures known as Industriklivet, part of the government's efforts to combat and prevent climate change.

Twice a year, the Bio4Energy scientists meet as a group to exchange ideas. Photo by Bio4Energy (archives).Bio4Energy offers its scientists the possibility to apply for so-called Strategic Funds to finance projects on new lines of research that are likely to advance the frontiers of science. The projects also have to promote collaboration between researchers from different disciplines or organisations; including universities, institutes and industry tied to the research environment.

Today’s Bio4Energy Researchers’ Meeting, a biannual event for the research programme within the environment, learnt about projects enabled by those funds.

Sjöblom M, Antonopoulou I, Jiménez I, De Oliveira Maciel A, Khokarale S, Mikkola J-P, Rova U, Christakopoulos P. 2020. Enzyme-assisted CO2 absorption in aqueous amino acid ionic liquid amine blends. ACS Sust.Chem.Eng., 8, 13672−13682