Conference Programme
Last year’s programme was packed with insights from over 60 industry experts, who shared their operational experience and practical solutions to address the challenges facing the biosolids and bioresources sector.
2024 Technical Sessions
- Advanced Thermal Conversion Processes
- Process Emissions and the Journey to Net Zero
- Landbank Challenges
- Circular Economy and the Role for Nutrient Recovery
- Thermal and Biological Hydrolysis
- Advancing Anaerobic Digestion
- Thickening, Dewatering and Liquor Treatment
- AMP8 and Beyond
Discussion/Panel Sessions
- Advanced Thermal Conversion – Exploring £12million of Ofwat Innovation Projects
- A Conversation about Residual Emissions
- A Conversation on the Viability of Sustaining Recovery of Biosolids to Agriculture
Keynote Speakers
Mat’s talk will address the key areas of work that the Environment Agency is involved with on the topics of soil health, materials to land and the use of sludge in agriculture.
Mat Davis is a soil scientist with the Environment Agency with a lead on materials to land. Before taking this national role in 2002, Mat joined the former Anglian region in 1999 to implement the contaminated land regime. With a degree in Botany & Microbiology and a Masters in Pedology, Soil Survey and Land Evaluation Mat started his career with ADAS. Working on various field experiments, including porous pot nitrate leaching trials, Mat then moved to an environmental consultancy. Nine years followed as a consultant working on soil surveys, land restoration, environmental monitoring, land contamination investigations and archaeological preservation schemes.
Biochar is recognized as a greenhouse gas removal technology and it has been suggested that application of biochar to agricultural soils may provide agronomic benefits alongside carbon sequestration. Defra recently commissioned RSK ADAS to carry out a rapid evidence assessment of the impacts of biochar application to UK agricultural soils. Despina’s presentation will summarise some of the main findings from this review, particularly focusing on current understanding of the impacts of biochar application upon biological, chemical and physical soil properties and key knowledge gaps.
Dr Despina Berdeni is a plant and soil scientist at RSK ADAS. She was the lead author of a recent Defra commissioned review of biochar (RDE320 Biochar; The evaluation of market ready agricultural technology options).
Networking Opportunities
- Post conference drinks reception in the exhibition hall
- Conference dinner at the Grand Pacific restaurant in Manchester
- Over 2 hours of networking breaks each day
Timings
- Registration – from 8:45am on Tuesday 19th November
- Technical sessions on day 1 – 9:30 – 17:00
- Drinks reception in the exhibition hall – 17:00 – 17:45
- Conference dinner (ticket only) – 19:00 onwards
- Technical sessions on day 2 – 9:00 – 15:15
- Grab and go drinks – 15:15 – 15:30
- Conference close – 15:30 on Wednesday 20th November
A detailed timetable will be released 3-4 weeks before the conference date.
Student and Early Career Professionals’* Poster Award
The award will be judged and presented during the conference and is open to students and early career professionals under 35 working in the bioresource and biowaste sectors.
This is an opportunity for you to showcase your work to over 300 industry professionals.
Attending conferences is a great way to improve your professional network and expand your knowledge of the industry. Students and early career professionals are also offered significantly reduced rates.
We are still accepting poster abstracts….Submit here
*Early career professionals must be: an individual working professionally in the wastewater sector for less than 3 years after graduation; or an academic/postgraduate/post doctorate in a permanent position in a UK institution (full or part time), with no more than three years of experience at lecturer level.
CIWEM & Aqua Enviro
We are delighted to announce that CIWEM will be collaborating with Aqua Enviro to publish a special issue of the Water and Environment Journal, which will include expanded versions of the papers presented at this year’s Biosolids conference.
Aqua Enviro events are well recognised and respected worldwide. These annual events act as a unique platform to disseminate technological, processes and science advancements in the interface between academia and industry in both water and wastewater areas, which fit perfectly with the scope of the Water and Environmental Journal.
This opportunity is open to all speakers at the conference.
