Specialist Group on ANAEROBIC DIGESTION Newsletter - IWA

AD PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
OPEN POSITIONS
21 month postdoctoral position at the Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l’Environnement (LBE-
INRA), Narbonne – France on the topic of “Optimisation of biomass pretreatment and
hydrolysis to maximise biogas production from agricultural wastes”
The work will be undertaken at the Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l’Environnement (LBE). The candidate
will take advantage of working in a multi-disciplinary group with competences in microbial engineering, process
engineering, modeling, automatics and microbial ecology.
This post-doc position will be included in a research collaboration with Campinas University (Unicamp, INRA
FASESP project).
This project will have three main objectives:
1- To maximise biogas (biomethane) production from several lignocellulosic residues by the development of
physico-chemical and/or enzymatic pre-treatments,
2- To optimise pre-treatments and find relationships between optimal pre-treatment conditions and biomass
characterisation
3- To determine bio-physico-chemical indicators of anaerobic biodegradability (or biomethane potential).
Besides, batch anaerobic digestion runs which will allow us to assess biomethane production from raw and
pretreated biomass. Experiments will also concern :
- biomass characterisation according to classical methods used within residues treatment domain. Innovating
methods or methods taken from other scientific fields are also forecasted. They may include biochemical,
chemical, physical or spectroscopic methods.
- biomass pretreatments which may include physical, thermo-chemical and enzymatic techniques,
- modeling of pre-treatments and anaerobic digestion to describe relations between biomass characterisation
and optimal pretreatment conditions and methane production.
Starting date from September 1st 2009 Duration 21 months
Expected competence of the candidate:
- Candidates must hold a PhD in process engineering or bioengineering
- Skills in lignocellulosic biomass treatment will be a plus
- The ability to communicate and publish in English is mandatory
- Candidates should combine autonomy and team working abilities.
Candidature conditions:
• Doctor at recruitment date (French doctorate, PhD or foreign doctorate of equivalent level) for less than 5
years,
• To fill an application on INRA Web site ( www.inra.fr ) before July 31 st .
Contact: Dr. Hélène Carrère (carrere@supagro.inra.fr) and Dr. Jean-Phi Steyer (steyer@supagro.inra.fr)
INRA, UR 050, Laboratoire de biotechnologie de l’Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, 11100 Narbonne,
FRANCE. http://www.montpellier.inra.fr/narbonne
Open PhD positions in Hamburg University
Investigation of the microbial diversity in anaerobic digesters for renewable biomass (sugar beet silage) by FISH
technique.
Investigation of the microbial diversity in anaerobic digesters for renewable biomass (sugar beet silage) by the
RFLP technique.
Contact: Prof. Dr. Paul Scherer
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
Lohbruegger Kirchstr. 65
21033 Hamburg-Bergedorf (Germany)
Tel.: +49/40/42875-6355 or -6351
Fax: +49/40/42875-6359
www.haw-hamburg.de/4357 (profile)
Paul.Scherer@haw-hamburg.de
IWA <strong>Specialist</strong> <strong>Group</strong> on Anaerobic Digestion
6 June 2009 Newsletter