Topics such as recycling were addressed, along with the difference between linear and circular production. Professors from the research area gave their views and reflections on the subject.
On the fifth day of the University of Concepción’s Contemporary Dialogues on ‘Circular Economy: looking at the past and imagining the future’, the participants highlighted the role of the higher education institution in this area.
The event, held this Saturday at the Pinacoteca of the university, was attended by Professor Beatriz Cid Aguayo, from the Department of Sociology and director of the ACT210037 Ring Project; Professor Rosario Castillo Felices, from the Department of Instrumental Analysis and director of the Biotechnology Centre; and Professor Juan Carlos Carrasco Moraga, from the Department of Chemical Engineering and executive director of the Technological Development Unit.
The Director of the ACT210037 Ring Project explained that the UdeC Contemporary Dialogues are activities that take place weekly at the university in which different topics of interest are addressed from an interdisciplinary perspective, where different people linked to the higher education institution, usually from the area of research, deliver their views and reflect on it.
‘This week is about Circular Economy and two people are coming from the more technical dimensions of this and I come from the area of Social Sciences where I try to put this in a broader context on the issue of sustainable development and Circular Economy,’ said Beatriz Cid Aguayo, who, at the same time, highlighted the role of the university in Circular Economy through research.
‘Here we have two colleagues who have extensive work on recycling, the efficient use of compounds and on changing from linear forms of production to forms where the different cycles are closed’.
In line with the above, the professor of the Department of Sociology said that ‘there is an effective contribution of the UdeC in technological terms but also in terms of reflection on the same (Circular Economy), because this does not remain only in technology, that is, you can have all the technology but you can end up with a greenwashing, that is, it implies, sometimes, to make a deeper reflection, that the Circular Economy cannot be exhausted in the technological, you also have to rethink the production models to put it as a central objective within the productive horizons’.
For her part, Rosario Castillo said that her idea is to contribute some aspects to the discussion on the Circular Economy and the role of science and academia, in particular, research centres and ‘what is the impact of the research we carry out at the local and regional level and how this relates to the productive sectors. So, we want to publicise the work being done by academia, by science’.
Asked to mention some of the contributions made by her area of research, the director of the UdeC Biotechnology Centre stressed that ‘in the area of biotechnology, in particular, and also in the research area of our interdisciplinary centre, there are some cases in which we use resources from the agricultural or wine industry to produce new products, for example, bioinsecticides, biofertilisers; products for the production of biofuels; products for the production of biofuels; products for the production of biofuels; and products for the production of biofuels; biofertilisers; products for structural panels made from stalk residues (what remains of the grape bunch after the grapes have been removed) and also from maize. And, in the forestry sector, we are looking to replace chemical products for the manufacture of boards and we are also using linocellulose sources, where pine bark is also used’.
Another relevant point for the professor from the Department of Instrumental Analysis was that the UdeC carries out local interdisciplinary work in which many elements converge, such as collaboration and that ‘it is not enough to generate knowledge, today we also want this knowledge to have an impact in terms of application and to solve a real problem, which exists, We also want to train human capital with this awareness, that is, that new professionals consider that their training is not enough just to learn for themselves, to have ideas or scientific notions of how to tackle a problem, but that they really go on to the next stage, which is to form links with the agents who will use this knowledge and make it available to society’.
Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Carrasco, who contributed what the UdeC is doing from the engineering point of view, explained that ‘as a Technological Development Unit we are working on scaling up, as there are a series of opportunities associated with the Circular Economy because there is legislation that must be complied with since 2016 with goals in different types of elements associated with the Circular Economy such as paper, plastics, metals and this, in one way or another, obliges both companies and entities to generate a series of instruments and elements associated with this. Secondly, we also have a diagnosis in all this, which Chile already has, which is an important basis, with a definition around the Circular Economy 2020-2040 in which the purpose is the deposit of zero waste, which is very good’.
The professor from the Department of Chemical Engineering added that there are a number of projects around laboratory stages that are being worked on at the university in different areas. ‘We from the more engineering point of view, both associated with the transformation of biomass, biomass energy densification, where we try to obtain materials around that, where, in addition, the university also advances from the perspective of licensing so that new quality jobs are created in Biobío can also have an economic horizon in this that allow us to have lines of work that are relevant,’ he concluded.
Source: Concepción Newspaper