Poster presentations

9^th Expert Forum on Hydrothermal Processes
09-10 June 2026 | On-site event at DBFZ in Leipzig, Germany

Chairs

Session 2 – Hydrothermal biomass fractionation and chemical synthesis

Prof. Dr. Kruse, Andrea

35 experience in hydrothermal reactions (sub- and supercritical; first in KIT now in Hohenheim), development of biorefinery concepts and scale-up of biomass conversion processes at the University of Hohenheim.

Speakers

Ceragioli, Guido

09 June, 11:30 AM | Techno-economic evaluation of hydrothermal liquefaction for chemical recycling of synthetic textile waste

Guido Ceragioli is a PhD student at the Department of Applied Science and Technology of Politecnico di Torino, where he works on the chemical recycling of polymeric materials and textile waste via hydrothermal liquefaction.

Dr. Di Bianca, Marta

10 June, 02:30 PM | Opportunities of hydrothermal carbonization to recover carbon and nutrients from aerobic granular sludge

Marta Di Bianca holds an MEng in Environmental Engineering and is currently working as an R&D Engineer at RE-CORD. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of Florence, Italy, and the University of Grenoble, France, with her dissertation defense planned for the second half of 2026. Her area of expertise focuses on the recovery of raw materials, such as carbon and phosphorus, from waste matrices through the integration of thermochemical and chemical processes.

Dögnitz, Niels

09 June, 11:15 AM | Sustainable aviation fuels from algae via HTL: The search for economically viable scaling

He joined the DBFZ in 2019 after completing a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in Energy Engineering. His research interests focus on the economic performance of biorefinery products, such as sustainable aviation fuels.

Dr. Heumann, Saskia

10 June, 10:30 AM | From Biomass to Functional Carbons: Unraveling HTC Pathways via NMR and Electrochemical Performance

After completing a Diploma in Chemistry at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel between 2003 and 2008, she conducted a diploma thesis in Maritime Chemistry at IFM-GEOMAR, Leibniz Institute, in 2009. In 2012, she earned a Dr. rer. nat. in Inorganic Chemistry at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel under the supervision of Prof. Dr. W. Bensch. Since 2012, she has been working as a Group Leader at the MPI CEC.

Her research focuses on the knowledge-based synthesis and characterization of catalyst materials for applications in energy-related processes, including ammonia decomposition, where she serves as coordinator of the AmmoRef project as part of the TransHyDE flagship initiative (BMFTR), Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, and electrocatalysts for water splitting, where she acts as sub-project coordinator of the PrometH2eus project within the H2Giga flagship initiative (BMFTR). In addition, she has extensive expertise in in situ and in operando investigations.

Prof. Dr. Pielhop, Thomas

09 June, 4:30 PM | Enhancement of hydrothermal lignocellulose pretreatment with carbocation scavengers for holistic biomass valorization

After studying Chemical Engineering at TU Munich from 2004 to 2009, he pursued a PhD in Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, followed by a postdoctoral position between 2010 and 2017. From 2017 to 2022, he worked as a Process Development Chemist at Givaudan SA in Geneva. Since 2022, he has been serving as Group Leader and Professor for Bio-based Resources and Biorefining Processes at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).

Schuck, Carolin

10 June, 02:00 PM | Wet Oxidation of HTL Aqueous Phase: Heat Release and Kinetics for Process Integration

Carolin Schuck holds an M.Eng. in Chemical Engineering and is currently a PhD student in the Hydrothermal Processing Group at Aarhus University. Her doctoral research focuses on the wet oxidation of the HTL aqueous phase, with particular emphasis on process performance and the integration potential of hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and wet oxidation processes.

Dr. Subramanian, Harisankar