6/29 Friday – 7/1 Sunday
The visit to RAIZ concluded our planned exchange program. For the next three days the students will be exploring Lisbon and a neighboring town called Cas Cais, before flying back to Atlanta.
6/28 Thursday
Dr. Ragauskas gave a seminar at UA on “Cellulose Green Composites” and had a chance to speak with Carlos and some of the other faculty on their methods of characterization of lignin. After lunch, we visited RAIZ, the wood, paper and pulping research facility for Soporcel. The location where the facility is located a few miles out of Aveiro was once owned by a horticulturist, who is now buried on the grounds. There are 100 Eucalyptus species represented on the approximately 13 ha owned by the company. The facility owns a 97 years old Eucalyptus globulus tree, which is the oldest in
Portugal. The average harvesting age for this species for pulp and paper applications in
Portugal is 9-10 years. However in
Brazil the same species is harvested at the age 5-6, but higher lignin and hemicellulose content result in a lower pulp yield. Other trees on the grounds included Ginko biloba, lemon trees, etc. José Luis Amaral, the director of the facility gave us an overview of the research focuses of the Portucel Soporecl group and the importance and usage of the Eucalyptus globulus to
Portugal. Dr. Ragauskas gave a presentation on “Fiber Modification of Kraft Fibers for Improved Strength and Bonding” and spoke a little about oxygen deligninification.
6/27 Wednesday
We started the day off with a presentation on the general information and the work being done in the Chemistry department of the
University of
Aveiro by Professor Carlos Padcoal Neto. It was very interesting to see how the work being done at UA and the work being done in Dr. Ragauskas’s group at Ga Tech is following a similar path. Afterwards, Dr. Ragaskaus gave a presentation on “Biorefinery and Bioenergy”. After lunch Ronnie Phillips explained the reason we are visiting Portugal and provided information about Georgia Institute of Technology, The
school of
Chemistry and Biochemistry, the life of a graduate student at Ga Tech, and
Atlanta. Elizabeth Cowan and Mate Nagy presented their research. The audience had very good questions for both students concerning their work. After the presentations we were given a guided tour around the campus, chemistry building, and laboratories. The chemistry department shared their exciting news of a new MALDI TOF-TOF mass spectrometer and is excited to be moving into a new, much needed building.
6/26 Tuesday
Today we had a tour of the Soporcel pulp and paper mill a few minutes outside of Aveiro. Several graduate students from the
University of
Aveiro took the opportunity to view the mill and joined us. This was an eye opening experience. We started our tour by learning the specifics of the two paper machines (PMs) used at the mill. PM1 was started in 1986 when the mill first started and was joined my PM2 in 2001. From the diagrams on the wall of the office building I was expecting the paper machines to large; however I was not prepared for the massiveness of each machine. It was fascinating to start at the beginning where Eucalyptus pulp is sprayed on fabric, and follow the process through the pressing, drying, measurement and final rolling stages of papermaking. The paper is rolled onto smaller spools that are cut and wrapped for either shipping or storage. From this point in the tour we were all fascinated by the amount of robotics that are employed and the precision of the robots. The robotics of the mill went as far as an all automatic warehouse with robotic forklifts. The next step is the process is cutting of the paper into sheets and shipping. The stored spools of paper are brought to the cutting line where it is cut into sheets, stacked, wrapped, and boxed, once again all by robotics.
After the pulping mill we went across the yard to the pulping mill. The mill was very proud of the 2 and half year old, 46 meter high recovery furnace and their plans to increase pulping capacity by adding a new continous digester and an oxygen delignification stage to their bleaching sequence. Because of this specific interest of the mill, Dr. Ragauskas was asked to speak about his work with oxygen delignification as well as fiber modification, which he was scheduled to speak about. After the pulp tour, we had lunch with workers from the paper and pulping mills. The whole experience was very exciting and informative.
6/25 Monday
Today was our last day in Covilha. Dr. Ragauskas gave a presentation on “Biorefinery and Bioenergy”. After the seminar, we were treated to lunch by professors João Oueiroz, Rogério Simões and Atika Oudia, a UBI graduate student. We then gathered our belongings, said our good byes and caught the bus to Aveiro. We were greeted at the Aveiro bus station and given a ride to our hotel by Professor Carlos Padcoal Neto. The rest of the day was a day of relaxing, and exploring Aveiro.
6/24 Sunday
Today, we hired the same driver (Carlos) to take us to Spain, so that we could see some of the cultural and historical differences between Spain and
Portugal. We were able to visit Salamanca and Rodrigo. We visited several of the historical castles, the
University of
Salamanca, and the beautiful cathedral. We were most amazed by the cathedral. It was so amazing how much detail went into the design of the cathedral. On the way back from Spain, we visited Almeida, which is a small town in
Portugal. It was a very nice little town with a fortress and an old prison that has been turned into apartments. Today has been a long day, but such a great day. We are so glad we found a driver who could show us around.
6/23 Saturday
Today, the UBI provided us a driver (Carlos) to take us around Covilha. We didn’t realize how beautiful of a town this was. We drove up the mountain to the highest point in
Portugal, Serra de Estrela. It was a nice ride up the mountain, even though the road continuously became narrower. On our way up the mountain, we saw several houses down in the valley, which are occupied for textile production. We learned that the textile industry moved into this area because the free water provided by the mountain streams and springs. On the way down, we stopped at a couple of the local mountain springs, were we could also study the local forest reserves. The scenery was so beautiful and diverse and the guide on the way down stopped to show us several of the trees and plants that are native in the area.
6/23 Saturday
During the morning we had an unofficial meeting with Joao Queiroz, Ana Paula Duarte and Rogerio Simones during breakfast. Art Ragauskas gave his seminar during the morning on “Biorifenery and Bioenergy”. Students gave our seminars after lunch during the afternoon. First Ronnie Phillips gave an introduction of “Georgia Institute of Technology”, Elizabeth Cowan described her research on “Biodegradable Polymers” and Mate Nagy gave a presentation on “Black Liquor Lignin Hydrogenation for Biofuel Applications”. After the seminar series we went on a great tour of the research facilities for textile, pulp and paper, and medicine.
6/22 Friday
Finally we got our luggage around 6:00 PM at the airport. After that in a big rush to the train station we managed to catch the last train to Covilha. We arrived at UBI around midnight where we got a nice three room apartment situated above the building of the chemistry department.
6/21 Thursday
We finally arrived to
Lisbon. I said finally, since it was quite an adventure, since our continental flights got delayed due to the bad weather conditions. Instead of taking the Atlanta – New York – Lisbon, we took the Atlanta – Paris –
Lisbon flight. I said just “we”, because unfortunately our luggage took another one. At the Holiday Inn, the front desk gave us the essentials (toothbrush, etc) so that we could at least look presentable, but I hope we get back our luggage ASAP. However the real problem that concerns us is not that. We supposed to take the
Inter
City train to Covilha today, to get there in time since we have a seminar series to attend tomorrow. We don’t want to leave
Lisbon without our luggage, so we will have to see what happens.
Goal: This NSF sponsored program seeks to leverage the established educational and research expertise in the Center for Innovative Biomaterial Education and Research (CIBER) at Georgia Institute of Technology to develop joint technological exchange program between leading research institutions in the USA and Portugal including.
- Student and faculty exchanges between Georgia Institute of Technology, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and leading universities in Portugal including Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Aveiro directed at teaching the next generation of scientists and engineers about the science/technology and social issues concerning biomass conversion.
- Development of collaborative research programs leveraging the intrinsic research capabilities of the program participants directed at utilizing USA Loblolly pine and Portuguese Eucalyptus pulps and wood resources for innovative biomaterials.
- Web-based learning modules describing the fundamental physiochemical properties of southern USA Loblolly pine and Portuguese Eucalyptus pulps and wood resources.
Acknowledgement: The participants would like to thank NSF (EEC-0525746) for support of these studies
