Professor & Collaborating Researcher
Department of Chemistry
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Chemical Process Engineering Research Institute
Center for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece
The valorization of waste biomass, lipid or lignocellulosic, has been proposed as an alternative to first generation biofuels as well as for producing high value chemicals and related products. In the case of agricultural or forestry lignocellulosic biomass wastes and residues, the "whole biomass" refining concept should be applied in order to develop sustainable valorization schemes. The pretreatment/fractionation of biomass to its basic structural components, i.e., cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, is a prerequisite for maximizing their selective conversion towards high added value platform chemicals, fuels and polymers. In this presentation, specific case-studies of individual processes that comprise an integrated biorefinery scheme for converting agricultural and forest biomass wastes to valuable chemicals and fuels will be described. Fractionation of biomass is based on "green" hydrothermal processes, leading to selective isolation of hemicellulose stream for downstream conversion to ethanol or furanic chemicals. The cellulose fraction is being hydrolysed to glucose by applying well-known enzymatic hydrolysis reactions. Alternatively, lignin is extracted from the pretreated biomass under mild conditions using friendly/recoverable solvents, providing a high purity cellulose pulp for easier enzymatic hydrolysis or catalytic hydrogenolysis to sorbitol/glycols. To close the cycle, the recovered lignin, is being converted to high value phenolics via fast pyrolysis or hydrogenolysis. Using catalytic fast pyrolysis, BTX mono-aromatics can be selectivity produced. Alternatively, lignin is being utilized as a compatible bio-additive in polymers (resins) with a minimum downstream conversion cost.
“Whole biomass” integrated biorefinery scheme
Konstantinos Triantafyllidis (http://ktrianta.webpages.auth.gr/), is Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, with undergraduate and PhD studies at the Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Greece, postgraduate training at SHELL-Laboratorium, Amsterdam, and post-doctoral work at Michigan State University, USA. His research interests focus on the development of new materials as catalysts or sorbents, heterogeneous catalysis, green chemistry and chemical technology, hybrid organic-inorganic materials and polymer nanocomposites, and biomass valorization towards fuels, chemicals and polymers. He is co-author of 100 peer-reviewed papers (H index 34), 8 book chapters (Elsevier, Wiley, etc.) and 2 patents, and co-editor of 5 books (i.e. "The role of catalysis for the sustainable production of bio-fuels and bio-chemicals" by Elsevier) and journal special issues in Catalysis Today (Elsevier), ChemCatChem (Wiley), Frontiers in Chemistry, with > 200 conference presentations. He has participated in 35 research projects and networks as coordinator or principal researcher, funded by European Union and Greek Ministry of Education/Research, European Space Agency (ESA), industrial contracts, etc. He is leading the "Nanomaterials and Chemical Processes" group at the Department of Chemistry, AUTH and he is Head of the Research Unit "NANO-HYBRID" in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation, AUTH. He is also Collaborating Researcher at the Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre of Research and Technology-Hellas (CPERI/CERTH). He is currently the National Delegate of Greece in the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Division (GSCD) of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS).