Fabio Fava
Fabio Fava is Full Professor of “Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology” at the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna in Italy. He graduated summa cum laude in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies at the University of Bologna and has a Ph.D. in “Applied Microbiology” from the Institute of Chemical Technology of the University of Prague (CZ).
He was visiting professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology and at Rutgers University (NI, USA) in 1993 and 1994. He is currently the coordinator of the Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology section of the Italian Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry and he coordinates/participates in several European research projects in the field of biological monitoring and remediation of contaminated sites and the biotech conversion of wastes and agro-food byproducts, wastes and effluents into flavors, microbial polymers and biofuels.
Niels Jørn Hahn
President of the International Solid Waste Association.
Cees Buisman
Professor in biologically sustainable technology and scientific director of Wetsus.
Michel Dutang
Head of research at Veolia Environnement.
Fabio Fava
Professor of “Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology” at the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna in Italy
Fabio Fava says that organic waste is an opportunity rather than a problem.
Organic waste is often classified as waste to dispose of and its disposal generally relies on costly and destructive procedures. However, several of such waste streams are sources of interesting bioactive molecules and biomaterials as well as of organic molecules that might be (bio)chemically converted into tailored fine-chemicals, biomaterials and biofuels. They are also rich in water, that can be recovered and reused.
The use of such feed stocks for producing biofuels can also permit the reduction of the use of dedicated crops for the same purpose, thus mitigating the food-fuel production discussion and conflict.
Industrial biotechnology can provide interesting tools and strategies for the integrated and tailored valorisation of waste. As an example, the use enzymes or microbes (instead of chemical reagents) in the pre-treatment of agro-food by-products or waste can permit the production of fully natural bioactive agents which can be selectively recovered. The use of specific enzymes or microbes in dedicated bioreactors can then permit conversion of the other constituents of hydrolyzed waste into a number of bio-specialties, biomaterials, base chemicals along with biofuels.