This September 12 the “Biorefineries: Energies & Materials for the Future” contest was announced, which is organized by the EXPLORA CONICYT Program in conjunction with the Technological Development Unit (UDT) of the Universidad de Concepción and the Interactive Center of Science, Arts and Technologies (CICAT)
The idea of the contest is to explain the concept of biorefineries in schoolchildren from all Chile, teaching them all about them and their future prospects. To do this, children must draw, by any technique, how they interpret and visualize them and send it via email, so that then the public through social networks can choose the top 5. The winning images will be exhibited at the III Latin American Congress on Biorefineries, which will be held in November in Pucon.
Alex Berg, Executive Director of UDT, said that such initiatives are important for raising awareness on the economic, ecological and strategic importance of our forests, to promote their sustainable cultivation and use, and discuss on technological alternatives to replace oil for sustainable raw materials.
Meanwhile, Anita Valdés, Director of CICAT adds that this issue is for the future and “I think that the earlier children incorporate this concept in their thinking and language, we will have much more potential as a country, and of course as a region, to join these new levels of technology and development”.
It should be noted that Biorefineries refer to a set of chemical, thermochemical, physical and/or biological transformation processes of biomass, which allow obtaining intermediate materials capable of being converted into finished products. This includes plastics, vehicle and industrial fuels, textiles, fine chemicals and many more, typically substitutes from oil or natural gas products.
Bases can be found at www.explora.cl/biobio ; www.udt.cl or www.cicat.cl
