Title: professor

Association/Company: Università di Padova – Dipartimento di ingeneria industriale

Biography
Eleonora Sforza graduated in Industrial Biotechnology and she obtained a PhD in Industrial Engineering, curriculum Chemical Engineering, with a thesis on: “Oil from microalgae: species selection, photobioreactor design and process optimization”. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova. She is co-responsible, with Prof. Alberto Bertucco, of all the experimental activities of the laboratory “PARLab -Microalgae cultivation” at the same Dept. The topics of her projects are related to energetic and environmental applications of microalgae, whit a multidisciplinary approach, aimed at understanding and modeling the growth of photosynthetic microorganisms in industrial reactors.

Speech session
Processo di produzione delle microalghe: sistemi e strategie

Speech
New approaches for an efficient cultivation of microalgae

Abstract
The industrial cultivation of microalgae has great potential in the field of biobased industry. Although large-scale production is technically feasible, there are aspects that still limit its applicability to niche sectors. The points on which it is necessary to focus research efforts, and make this process a reality, are linked to: increasing photosynthetic efficiency, which is often much lower in full-scale systems compared to laboratory systems; address contamination issues; make the process more productive to benefit from the economy of scale. To address these challenges, bioprocess engineering approaches can help the development of the sector at an industrial level, in a joint effort with associations and companies, to ensure the success of the sector. In particular, the University of Padua is working on the integration of high-efficiency artificial lights in photobioreactors, and the use of algal consortia that better exploit their multispectral characteristics