The picturesque town of Compiègne lies on the Oise river in northeastern France. The history-rich town, the site of Joan of Arc’s capture and a favorite retreat of Napoleon III, was in March host to the royalty of the sustainable chemistry world, as they gathered for “Catalysis applied to biomass—toward sustainable processes and chemicals,” the CABiomass 2016 conference.
CABiomass, now in its third iteration, provides a platform for experts from both the French and international biomass and catalysis sectors to come together, share ideas and collaborate on projects. The conference is organised by Professor Christophe Len of the University of Compiègne, and Editorial Board Member of the SpringerOpen journal Sustainable Chemical Processes, which had the honor of sponsoring and exhibiting at the conference.
CABiomass itself was a fantastic opportunity to see the work of a diverse set of researchers in the growing fields catalysis and biomass. As well as some excellent plenary talks from respected researchers such as Rajender Varma, Rafael Luque, Ashok Prasad and Martyn Poliakoff (to name but a few), the delegates were in a agreement that the standard of the student and industry presentations were extremely high. The conference was held in collaboration with the CORABIO 2016 conference, focusing on the issues of corrosion in biorefinieries and how this is an area where chemists and engineers can collaborate on the technology that could be so vital for a sustainable, greener future.
During the conference, Professor Len announced a thematic series of papers from the presentations to be published in Sustainable Chemical Processes, following on from 2015’s successful article collection from the second CABiomass conference. We’ll be sharing further information on this as the series is published, so watch this space!
