The 5th Conference of the European Society for Sugar Technology (ESST) and Verein Deutscher Zuckertechniker (VDZ) took place in Dresden, Germany, from the 21st to the 24th of May 2017. Organized this year by Wolfgang Vogl, President of the VDZ’s Süd branch, the congress was the largest ESST event ever.
A total of 358 participants from 27 countries was registered for the meeting held in the modern Dresden Conference Center building, situated close to the historic center of the Saxonian capital. The guest program was attended by 37 participants. These numbers make it the most well-attended ESST conference in the history of the organization.
ESST Council meeting
During the ESST Council Meeting, ESST President Paul Mester noted that, in addition to organizing events, the ESST has begun promoting its second objective according to the statutes, i.e. to promote scientific work in the sugar industry: a research project on polysaccharides was established at the University of Lodz. Outgoing ESST President Paul Mesters, who has been serving ESST in this positon since 2015, did not seek reelection since he has recently become President of Suiker Unie. The Council elected the following Executive Board members for the 2017–2019 term:
Gary Punter (President),
Bram Fetter (Vice President),
Piotr Wawro (Treasurer), and
Denis Bourée (Board Member).
The ESST currently has the following members: 16 sugar manufacturers, 6 Sugar Technologists Associations, and the record number of 58 Supporting Members.
Scientific Committee Meeting
On May 22, the ESST Scientific Committee held its regular meeting. During the meeting, committee members were informed in detail on the current status of the work of the Nitrite in Feed Subcommittee, and on the Nitrit and Nitrate activities of the EU Commission. In addition, three short communications were presented: on the ESST research project at University of Lodz; on extraction and pulp pressing; and on the role of steam bubbles during crystallization.
The Scientific Committee elected three new members:
Dr. Andreas Georg Degenhardt (Pfeifer & Langen)
Daniel Simkiss (British Sugar)
Renata Czaplinska (British Sugar)
Arend Wittenberg resigned from the position of Vice-President of the Scientific Committee.
Scientific sessions
The conference was opened by Presidents of VDZ and ESST, Thomas Kuhlmann and Paul Mesters, respectively. This was followed by 20 presentations and a Poster Session with 14 posters, illustrated for five minutes each. The abstracts of the papers have been published in Sugar Industry No. 6 and are available on the web at www.esst-sugar.org.
The main themes of the conference included:
– Impact of microbiology (on processing)
– Co-products: quality & environmental aspects
– General sugar technology
A.B. de Haan from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) spoke as invited speaker on “Intensification of biobased chemicals manufacturing”. Renewable resources will replace fossil resources in future. For these to become economical, the downstream process is crucial. Extraction-based technologies offer tremendous potential for the intensification of biobased product manufacturing processes, because they operate at mild conditions. Ionic liquids are new “solvents” in the recovery of biobased chemicals (organic acids, diols, alcohols) from aqueous product streams such as fermentation broths and chemical reaction media. They have the capability to outperform current solvent systems by orders of magnitude and thereby significantly reduce energy consumption, compared to classical evaporation/distillation process schemes.
ESST Awards
Since its 2013 meeting, the ESST Board has been presenting two awards: the ESST Science Award and the ESST Best Paper Award. The aim of these awards is to encourage sugar technology R&D, to reward high-quality scientific contributions to ESST and the international sugar technology network, and to share results with others. Martin Bruhns and Walter Hein were the winners of the ESST Science Award in 2013 and 2015.
For 2017, the ESST Board awarded the ESST Science Award to Jan Maarten de Bruijn (see page 406). Chosen from a committee of the ESST Board, two Best Paper Awards were given to two young scientists. Nico Antens (Suiker Unie) and Philipp Bruhns (TU Berlin) received each an Award for their presentations, namely “Reduce odor and NH3 emission: condensation of the carbonatation vapors”, and “Studies on the storage stability of white beet sugar depending on its quality”, respectively.
Nico Antens studied Chemical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology (Master’s degree). From 2008 to 2015, he worked as Process Engineer at Tronox (Rotterdam, NL) in the operations and engineering departments. Since 2015, he is process technologist at Cosun Food Technology Centre (Roosendaal NL; Suiker Unie)
Philipp Bruhns studied chemistry at Potsdam University and is currently working on his doctorate thesis on color formation in sugar during storage at the Department of Food Chemistry of the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.
Exhibition
The exhibition has become a regular feature of the ESST conference. The Dresden conference center offered ample space for this year’s exhibition, where a total of 42 companies offered their products to the European sugar industry. The following companies exhibited at the Conference:
airpower europe GmbH; AMF-BRUNS GmbH & Co. KG, ANDRITZ Fiedler GmbH, AUCOTEC AG, Babbini S.p.A./ G.P.S. Engineering, Barriquand Technologies Thermiques, Berthold Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, BMA Braunschweigische Maschinenbauanstalt AG , Thomas Broadbent & Sons Ltd, Buckman Laboratories N.V., BWS Technologie GmbH, Carbo Solutions International LLC, De Smet Engineers & Contractors, Dr. Müller Gerätebau GmbH, Eberhardt GmbH, EBRO Armaturen Gebr. Bröer GmbH, EnerDry A/S, EnProCo Berlin GmbH, ENGIE Fabricom nv, Fives Cail, Glaß & Wolff Metalltechnik GmbH & Co. KG, IKB Industrieplanung GmbH, IPRO Industrieprojekt GmbH, ITECA SOCADEI SAS, Kemira, Lenzing Technik GmbH, MAGSY GmbH, Maguin SAS / MK Energies / Promill, Mosman Stainless Steel BV, Neltec Denmark A/S, NOVASEP Process SAS, Fontaine & Co. GmbH / Stord International AS /Putsch GmbH & Co. KG, RHEWUM GmbH, Riedel Filtertechnik GmbH, Schmidt + Haensch GmbH & Co., Silver Weibull Sweden AB, Solenis LLC, Solex Thermal Science, VAU Thermotech GmbH & Co. KG, VECO B.V., Verlag Dr. Albert Bartens KG, YILMAZ Makina
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