"Benign-by-design methodologies for a more sustainable future: from nanomaterials to biomass/waste valorisation"

Séminaire du Professeur Rafael Luque, invité par Sorbonne Universités, qui aura lieu

Mercredi 11 mai à 14 heures, salle 101, barre 32-42.

"Benign-by-design methodologies for a more sustainable future: from nanomaterials to biomass/waste valorisation"

Abstract

The design of benign and environmentally sound methodologies has been the driving force of scientists in recent years. Attractive and innovative protocols that nowadays are even part of industrial ventures including biomass-derived porous carbonaceous materials, designer nanomaterials for catalytic applications and catalytic strategies for biomass/waste conversion into useful materials, chemicals and fuels have been recently developed in our group in recent years. These topics have extensively covered the preparation and design of (nano)materials and their utilisation in heterogeneously catalysed processes, flow chemistry as well as in biomass and  waste valorisation practises.

In this lecture, we aim to provide an overview of recent efforts from our group in the topics of heterogeneous catalysis, nanocatalyst design and biomass valorization leading the future of global scientists from chemical engineers to (bio)chemists, environmentalists and materials scientists. Towards the end of the lecture, we will also highlight personal experiences of the speaker as young entrepreneur and co-founder of Starbon Technologies Ltd at York (UK) and Green Applied Solutions S.L. in Cordoba (Spain) in our aim to stimulate and promote entrepreneurial activities within the academic and student community.

About the Speaker

Rafael Luque is Deputy Head of Department from Dpt. Quimica Organica at Universidad de Cordoba, where he graduated in 2005. With a postdoctoral stay of three years at the Green Chemistry Center of Excellence, The University of York (With Prof. James Clark), Prof. Luque has a significant experience on biomass and waste valorisation practises to materials, fuels and chemicals as well as nanoscale chemistry. From 2009, he has been Ramon y Cajal Fellow at UCO in Spain and spent sabbatical periods at the EPA at Cincinnati (with Dr. Rajender Varma), at the Max Planck in Berlin (with Prof. Markus Antonietti), HKUST (at CBME as Distinguished Engineering Fellow), Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (with Prof. Guobao Xu), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (with Prof. Diego Alves) and currently at Universite de Technologie de Compiegne (with Prof. Christophe Len).

Prof. Luque has published over 260 research articles, filed 3 patent applications and edited 8 books as well as numerous contributions to book chapters and invited, guest, keynote and plenary lectures in scientific events worldwide. He is also heavily involved in Chemical Education and promoting Science in Developing Countries. Since Jan 2015, Prof. Luque is Editor of Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical from Elsevier (i.f. 3.6). and also member of the Editorial Advisory Board of prestigious journals including Chemical Society Reviews and Green Chemistry (RSC), Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing), Catalysis Communications (Elsevier), Topics in Current Chemistry and Sustainable Chemical Processes (Springer) and COS and CGC (Bentham Publishers).

Among recent awards, Rafael received the Marie Curie Prize from Instituto Andaluz de Quimica Fina in Spain (2011), the Green Talents award from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (2011), the TR35 Spain from Technology Review and MIT as one of the top 10 young entrepreneurs in Spain (2012), the RSC Environment, Sustainability and Energy Early Career Award (2013) from the Royal Society of Chemistry UK and more recently the 2015 Lu Jiaxi Lectureship from the College of Chemistry and Engineering in Xiamen University (China).

Prof. Luque was also honored as 2013 Distinguished Engineering Fellow and Visiting Professor from CBME at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong and currently holds a Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorship at the State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry of the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (from 2014) and a Visiting Professorship at Xiamen University (China, from 2015) as well as a Ciencia sem Fronteiras Special Visiting Scientist Fellowship at Universidade Federal de Pelotas in Brazil (2015-2018).

Prof. Luque combines his academic duties with his activities as young entrepreneur after co‑founding the spin-off companies Starbon® Technologies at York, UK (2011, http://www.starbon-technologies.com/) which markets novel biomass derived carbonaceous materials and Green Applied Solutions S.L. (GAS, http://greenappliedsolutions.com/)  in Cordoba, Spain (2012) as a R&D and consultancy on waste valorization to marketable products, being also on the Technical Scientific Board of SINOPEC; the largest Petrochemical Company in China.