This year, the 4^th DOC2021 Doctoral Colloquium Bioenergy was organized on September 13-14, 2021 by the Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology (IKFT) of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) supported by DBFZ in Leipzig and by the Scientific Advisory Board, which comprises more than 40 renowned bioenergy scientists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Norway.

Future researchers, industry representatives and policy makers need to be brought together at an early stage to share knowledge and discuss research gaps and challenges. At the same time, networking between scientific institutions that are already intensively involved in bioenergy research needs to be expanded.

Addressing that demand, the Doctoral Colloquium BIOENERGY was initiated in 2018. Since then, it does not only serve as a platform for junior scientists to gain further qualification, but also provides an opportunity for networking and scientific exchange. Doctoral researchers from both universities and other research institutions present and discuss their latest results and advancements.

Theme fields (inter alia)

• Sustainable resource base
• Bioenergy system analysis 
• Thermochemical conversion
• Biochemical conversion
• Biorefineries / Biofuels

The Doctoral Colloquium BIOENERGY covers every part of the biomass conversion chain, from the feedstock to different conversion pathways and their technological implementation, up to the resulting products and services. In addition, the necessary system analyses and measures for system integration were addressed.

The 4th Doctoral Colloquium BIOENERGY started with a guided laboratory and plant tour at the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Campus-Nord.

Twitter: ∂doc_bioenergy

The stakeholders of the innovation system (academia: CAU, KIT, TUM, FHI-MPG, TUDa, TUB; industry: Evonik, hte/BASF, CreativeQuantum, Zeolyst International; associations: VDI, DECHEMA & policymakers: BMWi, PTJ) discussed ideas on innovative products & technical solutions to reduce energy consumption & CO₂ emissions against the background of climate neutrality 2050, which requires a structural change of the chemical industry. Two keynote speeches addressed:

• Electrochemical energy conversion & storage
• Nanocatalysis as a contribution to energy & resource efficiency and process intensification

Followed by open exchange & lively discourse in the World Café...

• Motivation, trends and gaps: holistic view of catalyst and process development; scalability of catalyst production / catalyst recycling / component recycling; achieving overall systemic efficiency to establish a circular economy
• State of the art, challenges: How do we research and develop?
• Future topics & structures: Material production and integrated development, digitalization of catalysis research, structures for transfer of research results into industrial practice.

Specific nanostructuring enables incremental improvements of catalytic processes or the development of completely new catalytic reaction pathways. The results of the workshop contribute to the EduaR&D paper (EduaR&D method): "Technische Nanokatalysatoren in Industrie und Gewerbe" as part of the EE4InG project. For further information, please get in contact with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Sauer or Philipp Haltenort.