The III Latin American Congress on Biorefineries will be held between November 19 and 21 in Pucon, an event that will show new uses of forest, agricultural and microalgal biomass as a source for the production of biofuels, chemicals, bioenergy and biomaterials.

Universities, research groups and companies from different countries have shown great interest in the congress, to which over 120 papers were submitted, of which 56 were accepted as oral presentations and 50 as posters. This augurs a great attendance to the event.

Dr. Alex Berg, president of the Organizing Committee and Executive Director of the Technological Development Unit, UDT, explains that there will be discussions in the congress on “issues related to chemical, biological and thermochemical processes based on biomass as raw material for the production of various bioproducts, substitutes and petroleum products”.

It should me mentioned that the “biorefineries” concept refers to a set of biomass conversion processes, allowing to obtain intermediate materials, which can be converted into final products of commercial interest. It includes plastic materials, vehicle and industrial fuels, textile fibers, fine chemicals and many more.

The Congress will be held at the Gran Hotel of the lake resort in Pucon, Chile, between November 19th and 21st of 2012. The organization is in charge of the Technological Development Unit (UDT), the Biotechnology Center of the Universidad de Concepción, and the Scientific and Technological Center in Bio-resources (BIOREN) of the Universidad de La Frontera.