My name is Gonçalo, and I am a student at the Catholic University of Portugal, Porto. I am currently in the third and final year of my bachelor in bioengineering study, in which I had the opportunity to opt for the field of environmental engineering.

I found out about the UCT Prague in 2022 when my university presented me with the list of possible university partnerships to carry out my final project in an Erasmus mobility regime. After some research, I discovered the GreenCats group, which got my interest right from the start, and I have been following their work ever since.

Now, I arrived in Prague 4 weeks ago and I am enjoying it a lot. The city is amazing and full of history, there are a lot of places to visit and learn about. For the coming months of my stay, I look forward to exploring not only Prague but also the hidden gems in the Czech Republic.

At the beginning of February, David accepted the kind invitation of Marcelo Domine (ITQ, Valencia, Spain) to deliver a lecture on perspectives of biofuels in a workshop under the auspices of EERA (European Energy Research Association), specifically the joint research program Bioenergy. The workshop entitled “Biofuels and Biochemicals: Initiatives and Perspectives” took place in Valencia on February 9^th 2023 and was attended by academic and industrial stakeholders.

Unsurprisingly, it was a great event with many excellent insightful talks and vivid interactions. The talks covered nicely the alternative pathways to produce different types of biofuels as well as the complete value chain from lignocellulosic biomass via important intermediates to final biofuels. Besides biofuels, the importance of chemicals derived from biomass was also addressed. David’s talk called “Advanced biofuels for future” covered the GreenCats research strategy and was very well received. The complementarity of the delivered presentations highlighted very interesting cooperation potential. Hopefully, this potential will materialize in near future in new collaborations. Importantly, the scientific meetings (no matter how exciting) are not only about science. Thus, there was time to meet with Agustín Martínez, an excellent friend and collaborator, over a dinner at the Valencian seaside and to enjoy the traditional cuisine. Although the trip was very intense - squeezed in less than 48 hours, it brought new ideas and opened up many future collaborative research opportunities. It was definitely worth it!

The GreenCats group is looking for new PhD students. Currently, we have two open positions. Both theses focus on catalyst development in the field of the valorization of biomass-derived compounds. Furanics and phenolics are two major groups of chemicals produced from biomass. Their future valorization will produce interesting monomers or a component of aviation fuels. Therefore, our goal is to develop an effective catalyst for that.

If you are interested contact us soon with your motivation letter and CV. Read more information here. Deadline on 15th April 2023.

PhD topic #1 - Innovative hydrogenation catalysts for the valorization of phenolic compounds

Phenolic compounds are key intermediates in the chemical utilization of lignin from the processing of lignocellulosic biomass. Their conversion affords most importantly valuable monomers as well as components of aviation fuels. The dissertation will focus on the development of heterogeneous catalysts that will facilitate the conversion of phenolic compounds into desired products in accordance with green chemistry principles.

PhD topic #2 - Environmentally friendly catalysts for the valorization of furanic compounds

Furanic compounds are key intermediates in the chemical utilization of cellulose and hemicellulose from the processing of lignocellulosic biomass. Their conversion affords most importantly valuable monomers as well as components of aviation fuels. The dissertation will focus on the development of heterogeneous catalysts that will facilitate the conversion of furanic compounds into desired products in accordance with green chemistry principles.

I am a PhD student at both the INCAT (Industrial Catalysis and Adsorption Technology) and LCT (Laboratory for Chemical Technology) groups at Ghent University in Belgium. The general objective of my project is to valorize biomass-based streams into high-quality fuels and chemicals using NiCu catalysts in catalytic hydrodeoxygenation.

I first learned about the GreenCats group in 2019 at the very start of my project, and I have been following their work ever since. The scientific work published by the group has made significant contributions to the field of biomass valorization, including hydrodeoxygenation, and served as one of the key starting points and guidelines during my PhD. I am excited to have now the opportunity to work with this leading group.

At the time of writing, I have been in Prague for 3 weeks. The city’s stunning architecture, rich history and vibrant culture stand out for me. With so much still to do and see, I look forward to the coming weeks of my research stay.

I am from Bangladesh from where I found my dream of learning more about science and enriched my knowledge with fundamental chemistry.

I did my master in Technical Chemistry at the Graz University of Technology, which has provided me key intuitions about energy conversion to or from other valuable resources and made me eager to learn profoundly about the vision of zero waste.

I came across the PhD position shared by group leader David on the LinkedIn post. My keenness is to be involved in an area that not only has a positive impact on the environment but also could drive industries to reveal possibilities for an efficient system. As the objective of the PhD topic inclined with my research interest, it motivated me to be a part of this research group to fulfil my professional goals.

I am excited by the opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary environment and be part of an exciting collaborative network that can offer a variety of knowledge and perspectives for this research work.

Nevertheless, I am amused by the beauty of Prague. The Christmas market in the city centre filled my mind with abandoned joy and happiness. It was a very colourful Christmas and new year with friends and colleagues.

This year the 6^th Catalytic seminar for PhD students was organized by UCT Prague on the 26^th of January. The seminar is a great opportunity for PhD students to present their work and discuss current results with our catalytic society. The series of interesting talks started with a welcome note from our group leader David. Valeriia our final-year PhD student presented her interesting results on the hydrogenation of aldol condensation products over nickel catalysts. Her work was an extension of her research efforts on valorizing biomass-derived furanics, where she has been successful in furfural-acetone aldol condensation using hydrotalcite-based catalysts. Our second-year doctoral student Snehasis presented his evaluation of the reaction pathway of deoxygenation of anisole, in which he discussed the significance of process conditions in understanding the product distribution of hydrodeoxygenation reactions. The seminar also included talks from industrial specialists Olga Gonsiorová from Eurosupport s.r.o., and Michal Dudák from Anamet s.r.o. The sessions and seminar lunch allowed the team to meet and interact with researchers from other universities in the Czech Republic.

The traditional autumn has all colours but green. We tried to change it this year and added a green wave at least in our activities. First, David joined the delegation of UCT Prague, led by its rector prof. Pavel Matějka, attending the kick-off meeting of a trilateral masters program Green chemistry in Vienna (Start for Green Chemistry – Green Chemistry (tuwien.at)). It was a very inspirational event with address from Austrian political representation as well as from world-renowned scientists including e.g. John C. Warner, Martyn Poliafoff or Mike George. It showed us that our quest to implement Green Chemistry into the curriculum of UCT Prague study programs was the right decision. Thus, we were excited when David was invited to give a talk at “Catch the Wave”, a UCT Prague-organized conference to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of the university and to present current research trends. David’s lecture was “surprisingly” ;-) dedicated to green chemistry and sustainable catalysis using a few examples from our research. You can watch it together with the other presentations here: Catch the Wave - Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze (vscht.cz). If you are interested in more details and collaboration opportunities, please reach out to us (greencats@vscht.cz).

In order to support the sharing of knowledge and experience with foreign experts, we welcomed Federica Zaccheria from the CNR research centre in Milan. As an invited speaker, Federica Zaccheria gave a public lecture. She also participated in the workshops focused on future projects with our group.

Throughout her career, Federica Zaccheria has been involved in the development of catalysts, especially copper-based catalysts. Those catalysts she subsequently applies in the valorization of biomass-derived compounds. A number of her publications is focused on the hydrogenation of hydroxymethyl furfural, levulic acid or etherification of alcohols. What is important to appreciate in their works is the precise approach, where she can accurately describe the behaviour of individual molecules on the catalyst surface thanks to a detailed analysis of it. In this, she has our admiration and we were glad to gain more experience about it. We are looking forward to another cooperation.

Two years ago, we welcomed Amira to our team. She was completing her studies at PETRONAS University of Technology in Malaysia which included an international traineeship. During a couple of months with us, she carried out a lot of experiments related to the decomposition of diacetone alcohol as a useful reaction in the determination of catalyst acid-base sites.

Please read her full story here.

Dr. Zoltán Paál foundation traditionally announced a competition for the best publication among young scientists dealing with catalysis for 2022. Scientists from the so-called Pannonian region, i.e. the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Romania took part in the competition. In the first round, one candidate was selected by a local committee in each country. Then the quality of one selected article from each finalist was evaluated by six judges, one from each country, who set the winner. Among the competitors was Jaroslav Aubrecht, who competed with the article "Critical evaluation of parameters affecting Cu nanoparticles formation and their activity in dimethyl adipate hydrogenolysis". After passing through the Czech round to the finals, he placed third in the final order. Congratulations to Jarda!

It has been 24 years since Paul Anastas and John Warner formulated the Twelve principles of Green Chemistry. Those principles should be considered in every chemical laboratory or company because implementing them will make technologies and processes more sustainable. I have read those principles a hundred times, but now, I had the great opportunity to attend Anastas’es lecture in person at the 9th IUPAC International Conference on Green Chemistry in Athens. It was an excellent talk that encouraged me in the work we do. I got a strong feeling that Green Chemistry will be the key direction in the chemical industry in the following years. The reason is easy. Life conditions are getting worse and our society is challenged with large waste production or increasing CO₂ emissions. But there, I felt a huge passion from many researchers across the World to deal with those issues. I saw new concepts on biomass and waste valorizations, and new approaches that would remove unnecessary solvents from chemical synthesis or transformation of CO₂ or plastics into valuable chemicals. In all of those topics, the catalyst played a key role. I am happy I could be part of a chemical society that wants to change our life environment. I contributed to the discussion with my lecture called “Development of Cr-free hydrogenolysis catalyst” which also solves a particular problem by replacing the toxic catalyst.