Sustainability Webinar | Advances in Waste Biomass and Environmental Sustainability: From Carbon Materials and Sustainable Fuels to Life-Cycle Assessment, 22 October 2026

The transition towards a circular and carbon-neutral economy requires innovative strategies to transform waste biomass into valuable materials, chemicals, and fuels while ensuring that the resulting technologies deliver genuine and measurable sustainability benefits. Achieving this goal requires more than advances in conversion technologies alone: it also calls for process development and robust assessment of environmental performance across the entire life cycle.

This webinar brings together complementary perspectives on the valorization of waste biomass, spanning materials development, catalytic conversion, and sustainability assessment. The presentations will explore the transformation of wastes into functional carbon materials through both established and unconventional approaches, as well as catalytic pathways for converting waste- and biomass-derived feedstocks into sustainable fuels. Beyond technological innovation, the webinar will examine how life-cycle thinking can support the development and scale-up of emerging bio-based technologies. Life-cycle assessment can reveal environmental trade-offs, prevent burden shifting, and help determine whether apparently sustainable solutions provide genuine benefits when considered from feedstock sourcing to final application.

By integrating expertise in carbon materials, catalytic fuel production, and life-cycle assessment, this webinar aims to provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the development of next-generation waste biomass valorization technologies. It will highlight how experimental and sustainability assessment tools can work together to accelerate the transition from waste to value and support the development of more circular and carbon-neutral processes.

Date: 22 October 2026 at 14:00 (CEST) | 8:00 (EDT)
Webinar ID: 819 5001 8434

Program:

Speaker/Presentation	Time in CEST
Ionut-Alexandru Spanu Journal Introduction & Overview of Submission Process	2:00–2:10 p.m.
Prof. Lucília S. Ribeiro (Chair) Webinar Introduction	2:10–2:20 p.m.
Dr. Rui S. Ribeiro Waste-to-Carbon: From Traditional to Unconventional Approaches and Applications	2:20–2:40 p.m.
Dr. José Luis Pinilla From Waste-Derived Feedstocks to Sustainable Fuels: Advances in Catalytic Upgrading	2:40–3:00 p.m.
Dr. Polina Yaseneva Sustainable by Design: Life-Cycle Assessment of Emerging Bio-Based Technologies	3:00–3:20 p.m.
Q&A Session	3:20–3:45 p.m.
Prof. Lucília S. Ribeiro Closing of Webinar	3:45–3:50 p.m.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.
Unable to attend? Register anyway, and we will let you know when the recording is available to watch.

Webinar Chair and Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Lucília Sousa Ribeiro, University of Porto, Portugal;
Dr. Rui S. Ribeiro, University of Porto, Portugal;
Dr. José Luis Pinilla, Instituto de Carboquímica, CSIC, Spain;
Dr. Polina Yaseneva, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; University College London, United Kingdom.

Related Special Issue:

“Advances in Waste Biomass and Environmental Sustainability: 2nd Edition”
Guest Editor: Dr. Lucília Graciosa de Sousa Ribeiro
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026