Short biography
Manuel Ribeiro is graduated in Statistics and Information Management (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) and holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering (IST/UL). He is working as a researcher on environmental epidemiology. Main research interests are focused on spatial statistics / machine learning methods applied to public health data for disease mapping and linking environmental exposures to health outcomes.
Highlights
- Geostatistical COVID-19 risk maps prevent fine-scale inference in regions with high-risk uncertainty
- Income and age-structure influenced the spread of disease
- Map-based dashboards are relevant to assist the design of pandemic-related policies
Short Abstract
CERENA and CEGIST have been exploring new tools to fight pandemic. We’ll see three examples: first, a geostatistical model to derive COVID-19 risk maps; then, a functional data analysis to assess impact of socio-demographic factors on COVID-19 transmission; finally, a Web-Delphi process to identify map-based information relevant to support decision-makers.
Short biography
Ana Sofia Amorim is a Chemical Engineer who studied at Instituto Superior Técnico and concluded her master’s degree in 2019. Her thesis dissertation, entitled “Modelling and Optimisation of Vacuum Agitated Bed and Tumble Drying”, was conducted in an industrial environment within Hovione. In March 2020, she joined c5Lab, a collaborative laboratory comprising research centres and cement industry partners. She is working as a researcher to model and optimise the calcium looping process. The goal is to develop a scaled-up optimised model for a pilot plant unit. She is also a PhD student on “Modelling and design of the calcium looping process for carbon capture”.
Highlights
- Calcium-looping (CaL) as a technology for CO2 capture in the cement industry.
- The challenge of estimating sorbent deactivation and CO2 capture efficiency.
- The use of alternative fuels for CaL and possibilities for heat integration.
Short Abstract
Calcium-looping is a post-combustion CO2 capturing technology, showing high compatibility with the cement industry. This technology is still under development, leading to high operating costs. Aiming cost reduction, heat integration possibilities and the use of alternative fuels were studied. These studies were based on a model developed in Aspen Plus, incorporating a Python carbonator model to estimate the CO2 capture efficiency.
Short biography
Helga Jordão is a PhD candidate in Earth Resources at IST, a Fellow researcher at CERENA/IST and a researcher at the Frontier Development Lab (SETI/NASA). Her main research interests are data analysis (statistics, geostatistics, machine learning and deep learning) applied to Natural Resources and Environmental Modelling. She has a licentiate degree in geology and a master’s degree in mining and geological engineering. Helga participated in various research projects, from landslide susceptibility, plastic and ELVs recycling separation techniques to mineral resource modelling.
Highlights
- GAN as an end-to-end framework for generating geological models
- Successfully applied to a complex ore deposit in the Southern area of Portugal
- Uncertainty assessment
Short Abstract
In complex geological environments, the characterization of the spatial domain of different ore types still remains a challenge. In this work we implement a deep learning method, a Generative Adversarial Network, for automatic delimiting the geological domains of an orebody conditioned on drill-hole data. The results show that this approach effectively mitigates the time taken to build and update the geological model compared with traditional methods.
Short biography
João Narciso is a Ph.D. student in Earth Resources at Instituto Superior Técnico and Ghent University, and a research fellow at CERENA. With degrees in Geology and Civil Engineering, both from Univ. of Coimbra, an MSc in Geological and Mining Engineering from U. of Coimbra and an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, has been working in subsurface characterization and modeling applied to seismic hazard, geotechnics, and earth resources.
Currently, his main research interests are related to the development of new geostatistical inversion methods using geophysical data to characterize near-surface complex deposits with potential environments hazards and areas of interest for secondary resource recovery.
Highlights
- Modeling and characterization of subsurface complex deposits.
- Near surface geophysical surveys
- Geostatistical electromagnetic inverse method.
Short Abstract
The detailed characterization of near surface deposits allows the identification of heterogeneous subsurface environments with both environmental and economic impacts. Using electromagnetic data in a geostatistical inversion technique, has the potential to produce high-resolution models of the spatial distribution of electrical conductivity and magnetic susceptibility, and assess their associated uncertainty.
Short biography
Roberto Miele has a BSc in Geology and a MSc in Geology and Land management, both held at the University of Bologna (Italy) in 2015 and 2018, respectively. After a post-graduation internship in CNR (Italian National Research Council), he is now a fellow researcher at CERENA and PhD student in Petroleum Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon). His field of research involves the development of seismic inversion algorithm for the prediction of subsurface geological models. The methods developed under this PhD focuses on CO2 geological storage and plume monitoring, geothermal energy and natural resources extraction.
Highlights
- Subsurface exploration for natural resources and CO2 injection
- Rock physics modeling from seismic data
- Data-driven seismic inversion algorithms
Short Abstract
Data-driven geophysical inversion techniques for rock properties prediction consist in a family of methods to model the spatial distribution of the subsurface physical properties. The goal is to map the link between indirect surface geophysical measurements to the combination of rock properties that generated it, using the available experimental data.
Short biography
Maria de Lurdes Dinis is an Associate professor at Mining Engineering Department of Engineering Faculty of Porto University and Researcher at CERENA-FEUP. My background is mining Engineering with a PhD in Environmental Engineering. Her main research interests are related with exposure assessment, environmental modelling, risk assessment and management, environmental remediation techniques and technologies and occupational exposure. Previous research has been published in NATO Books, IAEA documents, Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology Books, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Journal of Radioprotection. Participation on several IAEA projects, IAEA training courses, IAEA technical meetings. Counterpart of three projects and Designated Team Manager of one Interregional training programme of the IAEA Technical Cooperation Department.
Highlights
- The mining environmental legacy is far from being properly assessed
- Risk maps are relevant to characterize the population potentially exposed
- Inventory of the most appropriate intervention techniques will prevent the exposure
Short Abstract
The North of Portugal is particularly rich in metallic and non-metallic mineral resources, whose exploitation dates back to the 19th century. The high-volume of mining wastes resulting from the exploration and processing of the ores that have been deposited in tailings close to the mines, in most cases without any recovery or maintenance. This work will allow the assessment of the hydropedological impacts associated with mining and industrialization, and their contribute to the mitigation and/or remediation of these impacts, promoting soil protection and health. For this purpose, former areas where coal, Sb-Au and W mines operated, and where mining processing residues were deposited nearby, were selected for physical, chemical and environmental characterization. In addition, an environmental risk analysis will be carried out, and the most appropriate intervention techniques will be inventoried.
Short biography
Abeer Al Mohtar obtained her PhD in nanotechnology and Optics in 2015, from the University of Technology of Troyes, France. Followed by a post-doctoral research experience of two years in the ESPCI-Paris and the University of Paris where her work focused on thermal and optical optimization of nanostructures via electromagnetic simulations and corresponding experimental measurements. In 2018 she joined CERENA as a postdoctoral researcher within the European project NEMOSINE. In which highly selective new adsorbents are being developed, in addition, to building multiscale predictive models of cellulose acetate movie films degradation kinetics. Her research interests are purifying the air from unwanted contaminates, where her work focuses on theoretical investigation and experimental characterization of adsorbent materials.
Highlights
- A short description of the NEMOSINE project will be given where an “active modular smart” package system is being developing.
- The description of “active” package comes from the development of acetic acid adsorbents (metal-organic-frameworks) that capture acetic acid with high selectivity and capacity.
- The description “smart” comes from the fact that the package is equipped with a sensor that transmits data to a multiscale predictive model. The multiscale model will be presented.
Short Abstract
NEMOSINE is a project for the development of innovative packaging solutions for storage and conservation of 20th century cultural heritage objects based on cellulose derivatives. It is funded by the European Union (Horizon 2020 ID 760801), and a joint effort of 16 partners from the industrial sector, from research universities, archives and cultural heritage institutions. The objective of NEMOSINE (www.nemosineproject.eu) is to improve traditional storage solutions by developing an “active modular smart” package system with the main goal of energy saving and extending the lifetime of cultural heritage objects based on cellulose derivatives.
Short biography
Sila Ozkan, a PhD student in Chemical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), obtained her Bachelor and master’s degree in chemical engineering at Kocaeli University, Turkey. Also, she is a former Erasmus student at Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL) and concluded her master thesis at ISEL on “Development of Renewable Based on Fuels for Aviation, using Heterogeneous Catalysis”. She has become a member of CERENA and is working as a researcher on “Use of Liquefied Biomass in Water Co-electrolysis in Order to Produce Synthesis Gas in A Pilot Unit”, CLEANFOREST project.
Highlights
- Presents valorisation of burnt forest products
- Focuses on thermochemical liquefaction of lignocellulosic biomass
- Shows 86.03% bio-oil yield and 36.41 MJ/kg HHV
Short Abstract
Majority of the world's primary energy consumption is based on fossil fuels. Biomass-based fuels can be an alternative to fossil fuels. In this work, burnt pine heartwood was used as raw material, 2- Ethylhexanol as solvent, p-Toluenesulfonic acid as catalyst and the solvent for washing was acetone. The process was applied at different catalyst concentrations, temperatures, and reaction times. It shows an excellent opportunity to valorise woody waste, especially to recover and prevent some of the values lost during forest fires, to produce bio-oil with good yield.
Short biography
Sandra Heleno, born in Lisbon, Portugal. She graduated in Physics Engineering and Technology at Instituto Superior Técnico (ULisboa) and holds a Ph.D. in Physics Engineering and Technology from the same institution. After the PhD, as a FCT fellow, she worked in the field of volcanic seismology. From 2008 to 2013, as a researcher at ICIST, and since then at CERENA, she coordinated and participated in several projects related with remote sensing and natural hazards and published 40 Web of Science papers in these research areas. She presently coordinates an FCT project focusing on drone-based remote sensing of terrain and vegetation.
Highlights
- Tree diameter at breast height is an important parameter in forest management.
- Manually assessing each tree in the field is a prohibitively time-consuming task.
- Drone-based photogrammetry can estimate DBH of single trees with very good accuracy.
Short Abstract
Tree diameter at breast height (DBH) is an important 3D structural parameter in forest inventory and biomass estimation but measuring it on the field is a time-consuming task. We applied drone-based photogrammetry to generate 3D point clouds of forest and agriculture areas, and estimated the diameter of individual trees using a circle fitting statistic tool. By comparing with tape-measured diameters on the ground, we conclude that SfM can measure the DBH of single trees with very good accuracy.
Short biography
Tomás Archer de Carvalho completed the Integrated Master in Chemical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico in 2008. Has more than 10 years of field experience in the industrial sector, especially in the area of Portland cement production: laboratory management and quality control of alternative fuels supplied to cement plants; process engineering, cement grinding manager and production planning manager at SECIL-Outão cement factory. Currently pursuing a PhD degree in Materials Engineering, focusing on the development of geopolymer cement for 3D-Printing applications – a joint research project between Centro para o Desenvolvimento Rápido e Sustentado de Produto (CDRSP, Polytechnic of Leiria) and Centro de Recursos Naturais e Ambiente (Instituto Superior Técnico).
Highlights
- Geopolymer cement (GPC) introduction & applications;
- GPC development for 3D printing: materials, properties & process;
- Preliminary results on reactivity and one-component formulation.
Short Abstract
Geopolymer cement (GPC) is an inorganic binder that results from the polycondensation process of aluminosilicates, obtained by the alkalination of alumina- and silica-containing inorganic materials including a diversity of industrial waste materials.
The current work aims to develop new GPC formulations perfectly suited for extrusion-based 3D-Printing, focusing on maximizing the incorporation of waste materials.
Short biography
Ana Catarina Braz graduated in Chemical Engineering from IST in 2014 and, since 2019, holds a European Doctorate in Refining, Petrochemical and Chemical Engineering also from IST. Her PhD work focused on chemical process modelling and optimisation, using mathematical models to better understand the systems studied and find the optimal conditions that reduce production costs and increase productivity. She is currently an Invited Assistant Professor at IST and is developing research work in the fields of Process Integration and Sustainability Analysis of Processes.
Highlights
- Cost/benefit of process modelling
- Modelling industrial processes
- Challenges of working with industry
Short Abstract
In this presentation, I demonstrate the benefits of process modelling and the main challenges facing researchers when working with the industry. Two case studies are presented from my experience during the PhD and later when coordinating a master thesis, collaborating with two Portuguese chemical companies.
Short biography
Rui Galhano dos Santos holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisboa. He became a CERENA member in 2016. His studies are mainly focused on the development of new strategies to up-cycle biomass and wastes to produce added-valuable chemicals and/or materials, as well as to produce energy carriers. The thermochemical conversion and valorization of biomass, and residues, into valued products, has been deeply exploited in several projects conducted at CERENA. As a result of his research, more than 45 papers in specialized journals were published along with the submission of several patents.
Highlights
- Use of biomass as a sustainable and renewable raw material
- Conversion of biomass through acid-catalyzed liquefaction
- Valorization of bio-oils as chemicals and energy carriers
Short Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass, an abundant, sustainable, and renewable raw material, can be envisaged as a feedstock for producing bio-based chemicals and fuels. Biomass and residues can be converted into products with putative chemical and energetic interest, through liquefaction. The presentation will give a straightforward overview of some of the projects regarding this subject.