Biorenewable resources seminars – Sustainable rice production and Boosting lignocellulose conversion

Energy Futures Lab and the Department of Chemical Engineering host a double-header of seminars from the Production of microbial proteins from agricultural residues project with talks from the International Rice Research Institute and Tsinghua University.

Abstracts

Sustainable rice production: case studies and interventions of IRRI

Martin Gummert and Nguyen Van Hung of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) outline IRRI’s partnerships for sustainable rice production and propose areas for potential collaborations on research or development for sustainable rice-based cropping systems and value chains.

Rice is a staple food for nearly half of the world. Approximately 500 million tons of milled rice are produced annually around the world, of which 90% comes from Asian countries. The required increase of rice production for feeding future generations is challenged by climate change, decrease in favourable rice areas, labor shortage, sub-optimal use of farm inputs like fertilzer and agrochemicals, high losses along the vaue chain, small farm sizes and low incomes from rice farming, all also contributing to a high environmental footprint of rice produciton.

In this talk, they will present some current activities and interventions of IRRI aiming at increasing the sustainability of rice production and processing with focus on sustainable rice value chain upgrading, best practices of mechanization, postharvest, and rice straw management.

Boosting lignocellulose conversion by chemical and biological approaches via multi-scale analysis and intensification

Xuebing Zhao of Tsinghua University will present their recent progress on the understanding the multiscale effects of biomass structure and introduce a series of process intensification strategies will be introduced.

Lignocellulosic biomass has attracted great interest as a renewable feedstock to produce biofuels, materials and chemicals in recent decades in a conception of biorefining. However, because of the hierarchy nano- and ultrastructure of lignocellulose cell wall, as well as the heterogeneity of conversion system, the conversion efficiency of lignocellulose to fuel such as cellulosic ethanol is still not high enough. The team have analsed the conception of multi-scale effects of lignocellulose bioconversion with regards to the substrate structure and the conversion system.

In this talk, Xuebing will discuss recent research progress on the understanding the multiscale effects of biomass structure and the corresponding process intensification strategies will be introduced, primarily including how hemicellulose and lignin limit the accessibility of cellulose, development of a novel visualizable fusion protein probe to measure cellulose accessible surface area under wet state, novel kinetic models to accurately describe the apparent kinetics of biomass pretreatment, as well as a new technical route for biomass pretreatment and co-generation of electricity under mild conditions.

Production of microbial proteins from agricultural residues project

The population expansion and Global-South growth are expected to bring 50% rise in food demands by 2050 with the meat demand soaring by 90%. Meat substitutes offer promising alternative protein sources. This project builds on the strong expertise of UK-China-Philippines teams and research on new microbial protein solutions.

In this project, the team have adapted well-developed research at Imperial College London on ionoSolv technologies and other conversion routes at Tsinghua University to produce food-grade sugar from agricultural residues, which will be tested in the lab for microbial protein production for food and feed. They will screen potential microorganisms for protein production and optimise the culture efficiency of a patented airlift fermenter for continuous fermentation. Incorporating experimental data into their process design and systems optimisation, they will explore the microbial protein feasibility in lower/upper-middle Income countries.

Venue

The seminars will be held in room 1109a in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (building 16 on the campus map) on Imperial College London’s South Kensington Campus.

If you are entering the building from Dalby Court/through the building’s main entrance take the lift to the eleventh floor, turn right through the double doors and it is near the end on your left hand side.