Subdepartment of Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development

Within Subdepartment of Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development electoral and compulsory courses at undergraduate study Food Technology, graduate study Process Engineering and postgraduate university study Food Technology and Nutrition have been carried out. Within compulsory courses students gain basic knowledge about the principles and laws of thermodynamics, the law of conservation of mass and energy, and their applications in chemical engineering analysis and calculations. Students gain theoretical knowledge necessary for the work with industrial refrigeration systems and cooling in industrial processes, and the production of technical and industrial steam. Furthermore, students are introduced with the basics of mass and energy balances, basic principles of chemical and biochemical reactors, including microreactors.

Within elective courses, students learn about concept of sustainable development, bioeconomy and circular economy with the special emphasis on the application of ecologically and economically friendly processes with the aim of enhancement of existing and/or development new industrial processes and plants. Students gain knowledge in the field of energy and waste management in food and (bio)processing industry, types of energy losses and methods of improvement, and thermal, chemical and biochemical environmental burdens. Students gain knowledge about methods of waste valorization, life-cycle assessment, types of renewably energy sources with the accent on existing and advance methods of biofuels production.

Scientific interests of the employees of the Subdepartment are in the field of heat and mass transfer, thermal properties of food during processing, application of the circular management strategy according to the "zero-waste" model with the development of innovative transformation techniques of agro-food industry waste into high-value products (functional compounds and materials), enzymatic reaction engineering, application of microorganisms in treatment processes of lignocellulosic materials for the purpose of enzyme production and its further application for waste and wastewater treatment, and industrially important biotransformations. Special focus is in the field of development of new processes of biogas and biodiesel production. 

Chairman:
Marina Tišma, PhD, Full Professor