10TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ENERGY FROM BIOMASS AND WASTE
HOTEL MONACO & GRAND CANAL, VENICE (IT) / 25-27 NOVEMBER 2024

Opening session

OPENING SESSION / 21st November 2022 09:00-12:30
Chair / Presidente: Raffaello Cossu (IT)

h. 09.00-10.00: INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME ADDRESSES

h. 10.00- 10.30: OPENING LECTURE
In accordance with a consolidated tradition, the Symposium will be opened by introductory lecture not strictly linked to Waste. The 9th edition of the Venice Symposium will be opened by: 

Prof. Niels Birbaumer / Institute of Behavioural Neurobiology University of Tubingen in Germany (DE)

BRAIN AND ENERGY
The human brain consumes about 30% of the energy (mostly sugar) of the body despite its minimal size . Most of this energy is used by intracortical systems (“thinking”) , while sensory input-and motor output-systems use only about a third of the available energy supply.Waste is mainly eliminated through the glymphatic system around brain arteries and veins. Thinking is generated by by neuronal assemblies (recurrent associative networks of dendrites and neurons). Despite the dependency of electrical potentials underlying thinking and emotions and memory on some metabolic processes these psychological phenomenons are neurelectric and not chemical. Through the dynamic mathematical analysis of these energy dependent action potentials and other neuroelectic processes the “reading of thoughts” may become possible. First attempts with brain-computer-interfaces (BCI) in patients suffering from paralysis and the complete locked in state (CLIS) (intact mind without any motor output and no communication)and chronic stroke demonstrate verbal communication directly from the thinking brain without any motor or language mediation. Some ethical and philosophical problems arising from BCI research and the communication with these locked-in people is discussed.

Professor Birbaumer is a psychologist and neurobiologist. He is a leading figure in the development of brain-computer interfaces, a field he has researched for 40 years, with a focus on treating brain disturbances. He has been awarded numerous international honors and prizes, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science. 

h. 10.30- 11.00: COFFEE BREAK

h. 11.00- 12.30: INTRODUCTORY LECTURES

R. Stegmann - Hamburg University of Technology (DE)
Giving energy management a higher status in waste management

E. Gidarakos - IWWG President, Technical University of Crete (GR)
Never let a good crisis go to waste

T. Astrup - Technical University of Denmark (DK)
Any energy left in the public debate in Denmark?

M. Nelles - University of Rostock (DE)
Role of bioenergy in the bioeconomy of the future

W.P. Clarke - University of Queensland (AU)
Incentivising the production of bioenergy from organic waste

D. Chen - Tongji University (CN)
State of Waste to Energy in China