2024 Agenda

6:00PM – 8:00PM: Registration/Social Hour

6:45 – 7:45am	Breakfast and Welcome; Conference Registration
8:00am	Welcome and Opening Remarks – Tim Rials (University of Tennessee)

Circular Bioeconomy for a Sustainable Future

Moderator – Timothy Rials (University of Tennessee)

8:10am	Kelly Tiller (Genera, Inc.) The reality of catching the biorefinery bus and leading the circular bioeconomy transition
8:50am	Sudhagar Mani (University of Georgia) Can future biorefineries drive the transition to a circular and sustainable bioeconomy?
9:30am	Jeremy Luterbacher (Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, EPFL) Build back better: Preserving and building on natural structures to make new biobased chemicals and materials

10:10AM – 10:40AM: Break

10:40am	Michael Maughan (University of Idaho) Additive manufacturing with wood-based composites for building construction applications
11:20am	Carrie Eckert (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Accelerating microbial engineering towards a circular bioeconomy

12:00 – 2:00PM: Lunch session

Larissa Fenn (Rayonier Advanced Materials)
The Journey toward Making Sustainable, Innovative Products from Trees

2A: Feedstock Systems Design

Moderator – Juliana Vasco-Correa (Penn State University)

2:00pm	Kankshita Swaminathan (HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology) Accelerating the development of tailored perennial feedstocks for sustainable bioenergy and bioproducts
2:30pm	Wilfred Vermerris (University of Florida) Biological nitrogen fixation on the aerial roots of sorghum enhances the sustainability of feedstock production
3:00pm	Courtney Siegert (Mississippi State University) Productivity and ecosystem services of poplar in the Southeast: The role of functional and taxonomic diversity
3:30pm	Rachel Emerson (Idaho National Laboratory) Quality-by-design influenced biorefinery development
4:00pm	Edward Yu (University of Tennessee) Biomass feedstock supply chain modeling and decision tools for sustainable aviation fuels

4:30PM – 4:45PM: Break

4:45PM-5:10PM: Flash Talks

4:45pm	Duber Garces (Auburn University) Impact of biomass sources and processing parameters on the properties of microfibrillated cellulose beads
4:50pm	Xuan Li (University of Tennessee) Application of cellulose nanofibers in foliar fertilization
4:55pm	Haoran Wang (Auburn University) Harvesting energy directly from agricultural products
5:00pm	Mohammad Uzair Shah (University of Tennessee) GIS-based multi-criteria decision support model for energy crop system analysis
5:05pm	Nahomy Pacheco (Auburn University) Sustainable development of microfibrillated cellulose and biochar composites for horticultural containers

2B: Sustainable Cascading Products

Moderator – Kala Rajan (Texas Tech University)

2:00pm	Roberto Rinaldi (Imperial College London) Divide et empera: Key separations to unlock carbon-efficient utilisation of lignocellulose in advanced biorefineries
2:30pm	Ananda Amarasekara (Prairie View A&M University) Sodium levulinate cellulose
3:00pm	Mi Li (University of Tennessee) Design cellulose/metal-organic framework hybrids for functional adsorbents and luminescent sensors
3:30pm	Z.-Y. Cheng (Auburn University) Untraditional usage of forestry and agriculture products as energy sources and engineering materials
4:00pm	Julie Willoughby (TerraSafe Materials, Inc.) Elevating biomaterials for packaging

4:30PM – 4:45PM: Break

4:45PM-5:10PM: Flash Talks

4:45pm	Kaung Su Khin Zaw (Georgia Institute of Technology) Graphene oxide membranes and membrane cascades for lignin separation and fractionation from biorefinery streams
4:50pm	Jiandong Wei (Auburn University) Development of high-performance polymer-biomass composites for enhanced energy storage capacities
4:55pm	Polina Zaytseva (Colorado State University) Electro-enhanced anaerobic digestion to increase production of volatile fatty acids
5:00pm	Nimat Ajide-Bamigboye (University of Tennessee) Agricultural impact of multi-contaminant exposures on bioplastic degrading Bacillus pumilus B12 metabolomes
5:05pm	Abigael Wahlen (Georgia Institute of Technology) Machine learning-aided real-time volatile organic compounds detection through robust colorimetric sensor arrays

6:00PM – 8:30PM: Reception and Poster Session

7:15AM – 8:15AM: Breakfast

3A: Low-Carbon Advanced Manufacturing

Moderator – Lu Wang (University of Tennessee)

8:30am	Feng Jiang (University of British Columbia) Sustainable functional bioproducts development using lignocellulose
9:00am	Bernard Baffour Asare-Bediako (University of Tennessee) CO₂ hydrogenation to liquid fuels and alcohols catalyzed by Ru nanoparticles and molecular Ru complexes
9:30am	Bashir Khoda (University of Maine) Viability of cellulose nanofiber in algal bio-ink for 3D bio-printing applications

10:00AM – 10:30AM: Break

10:30am	Hongli (Julie) Zhu (Northeastern University) Promoting electrochemical rates by concurrent ionic-electronic conductivity enhancement in thick cathode electrodes using nanocellulose additives
11:00am	Fatimatu Bello (Auburn University) Application of nanomaterials in bio-composites for packaging application
11:30am	David Harper (University of Tennessee) Advancing the use of molded natural fiber composites in auto applications

3B: Responsible, Carbon- and Cost-Effective End-of-Service-Life Solutions

Moderator – Mi Li (University of Tennessee)

8:30am	Todd Reynolds (University of Tennessee) Engineering subtilisin enzymes to depolymerize poly-L-lactic acid plastic films
9:00am	Danielle Bartholet (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) Building a computational and experimental toolkit to predict microbial performance in large-scale bioreactors
9:30am	Zhaohui (Julene) Tong (Georgia Institute of Technology) Data-driven biowaste valorization processes for biochemicals and biofuels

10:00AM – 10:30AM: Break

10:30am	Sheldon Q. Shi (University of North Texas) Pyrolysis of biomass to carbon through self-activation: theory and applications
11:00am	Xianglan Bai (Iowa State University) Upgrading biobased carbon for sustainable chemicals and materials
11:30am	Thomas Elder (USDA-Forest Service, Southern Research Station) Adsorption of heavy metals by biochar from lignocellulosic materials

12:00PM – 1:30PM: Lunch

4A: Metrics for Measuring Sustainability

Moderator – Erin Webb (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

2:00pm	Esther Parish (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Evaluating tradeoffs between environmental and socioeconomic indicators of sustainability
2:30pm	Joe Sagues (North Carolina State University) Leveraging the bioeconomy for carbon circularity and removal
3:00pm	Juliana Vasco-Correa (Penn State University) Open-source techno-economic models for decision-making in biorefining research and development
3:30pm	Richard Venditti (North Carolina State University) Gauging the public’s perception of sustainability of paper packaging containing recovered materials

4B: Valorization of Renewable Carbon Resources

Moderator – Julie Carrier (University of Tennessee)

2:00pm	Ellen Wan (University of Missouri) Laser-induced graphene from lignin and its multifunctional applications
2:30pm	Jikai Zhao (Kansas State University) Optimizing feedstock pretreatment for sustainable biorefineries
3:00pm	Kalavathy Rajan (Texas Tech University) Tuning the thermoplasticity of recycled wastepaper films for fully biobased flexible food packaging
3:30pm	Tyler Barzee (University of Kentucky) Valorization of bourbon stillage through production of tunable pure mycelium materials

7:00PM – 9:00PM Conference Dinner: Chris Tindal (TLA, LLC)

Where we have been, and where we are going – The Long View of Sustainable Aviation Fuel

6:45AM – 7:45AM: Breakfast

Industry Day

Moderator – Meisha Shofner

8:00AM-10:00AM: Panel Discussion – Expanding biobased innovation in packaging

The panel of companies will have about 5 minutes for introductory comments which will be followed by a round-table discussion.

Tyler Kenney, FedEx Packaging Lab
Kelly Tiller, Genera, Inc.
Julie Willoughby, TerraSafe Materials, Inc.
Gracy Wingkono, CocaCola Company
JJ Yang, Grovebags
Jason Zhang, Dart