The DST/NRF Research Chair in Biofuels received a poster award for a particularly valuable contribution to the hydrothermal liquefaction topic session at the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition (e-EUBCE 2020).

The event was supposed to have been held in Marseille, France, but was held virtually due to the restrictions on travel because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The poster presentation was on some of the work the group did on the upgrading of the aqueous product from the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) plant hosted at the Faculty of Engineering.

“Some of the work was done by a final-year Chemical Engineering student from 2019, Qhawe Mokoloi, and a current Master of Engineering student, JJ Grobler,” said Professor Sanette Marx.

 The study leaders were Corneels Schabort and Roelf Venter, and Professor Sanette Marx was the principal author of the poster paper. She highlighted that their projects are always a team effort and that she was very proud of all of the team members.

There were more than 4 000 delegates from all the major research universities across Europe, the USA, Japan, China and South America, and only nine poster awards were made. The award provides international recognition of the impact of the NWU’s work in the field and highlights the NWU as a leading university in this field.