The Polymer paradox or when durability is a challenge to overcome trough cutting-edge innovation: Meet Stefaan DE WILDEMAN from B4PLASTICS !

Ever since their origin, plastics have been durable lightweight materials for functional articles such as fibers, films, parts and plates. They have merged with our lives as silent spies that commissioned prosperity without claiming anything back. If time is money, why spend a thought on such a cheap thing as plastics? So, we never checked their resources. We hardly noticed their presence. Until now – because suddenly they came back. Somehow, they became much more remarkable than before – although much smaller. In our food. In our natural habitats. In our bodies. And in our anxious dreams. And now that we’re waking up from those dreams, people learned to understand that durability can be too durable. It is time to give up on our first generation of plastics. Let’s thank them for what they brought, but let’s welcome their successors. Those new generation of plastics that can be made from local renewables, produced in our own countries, understood by their users, and designed for smart recycling – into industry or into Nature. For their re-design, it requires scientific know-how. For their success, it requires industrial cooperation and human education. And for their glory, it requires innovators that guide us from the old to the new.

 

  

 

Director

 

 

 

Stefaan DE WILDEMAN graduated as a Chemical Engineer in Applied Biological Sciences (KULeuven, 1998), and finished his Ph.D. after discovering a new bacterial species dehalorespiring chlorinated organic pollutants in groundwater (Ghent University / Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, 2002). 

Since 2002, he joined DSM as an Associate Scientist in the field of Bio-catalysis, one of DSM’s world-leading competences. As a Senior Scientist, he has increasingly explored new options to link renewable raw materials to new bio-based building blocks for novel materials with added functionality.

Since 2013, Stefaan started up research activities, education programs and strategic projects on new bio-based building blocks at Maastricht University and Ghent University.

His hunger for social impact guided him to B4Plastics – a young start-up company that has the mission to “make ecological plastic consumption easier”. By designing novel plastic products for their eco-balanced application from scratch, the company offers custom made oligomeric and polymeric material products with outcompeting eco-profile at acceptable cost. As from 2017, under his guidance, B4Plastics entered into several Belgian and European subsidy programs with leading value chain players in the field of ecological materials sourcing and use. Since 2018, he took the dedicated role of managing director at B4Plastics to further expand the specialty bioplastic product portfolio in both B2C and B2B products and services. Typically, B4plastics engages in design of materials from scratch, prototyping them into first kilograms within several months, and guiding the manufacturing to full scale implementation.

 

You can meet Stefaan DE WILDEMAN and more world-leading experts in Green Chemistry and White Biotech at GreenWin’s International Conferences on 8 & 9 May 2019, at ULB Centre Point in Gosselies (South of Brussels) – Belgium

Please register without any delay by clicking here

The aim of the conferences is to make an inventory of innovative technologies and valuation approaches of green chemistry and white biotechnology activities in the world, to share knowledge and foster the creation of new research and development projects, in both sectors. In 2019, the focus will be on polymers, from alternative raw materials to ecocircularity of those polymers.

Germany will be this year featured country !

The conferences programme is available here.

  

  

> Registration fee: (excl. VAT 21 %)

    • Premium Members: 3 free entries on each day (all additional entries are at the discounted rate of Associated & Regular Members)
    • Associated & Reguler Members : €150.00 (1 day) – €225.00 (2 days)
    • Non-members : €275.00 (1 day) – €450.00 (2 days)
    • Students : €30.00 (1 day) – €50.00 (2 days)

 

 

Cancellation policy: Note that no refund will be made for cancellation. However, the registered person may be replaced. Please inform GreenWin of any alteration as soon as possible, with the full details of the surrogate participant, at the following address info@staffadmin.be

The registration to the event will be on a ‘first come first served’ basis.

B2B SESSIONS:

We suggest you take full advantage of B2B meetings and workshop sessions about European projects, which are aimed at promoting the emergence of new project ideas and new technological and commercial partnerships.

Please join us and create new collaborations and funding opportunities, meet new partners and explore innovative technologies, ideas and concepts, in the inspiring fields of sustainable chemistry and white biotechnologies.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS:

PhD students and researchers are encouraged to submit abstracts for a poster presentation of their research.
The best poster will receive a prize of € 500.00 supported by the MATERIA NOVA Research Centre. One to two selected PhD students will have the opportunity to present her/his work in public.

More information here

Sign up now by clicking here

Venue & carpark: Access Plan
Point Centre
Avenue Georges Lemaître 19B,
6041 Charleroi
Belgium