Professor Odilio Alves-Filho obtained Master and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering and he has been a Professor and Chair for Advanced Heat and Mass Transport in Porous Media and Multiphase Systems at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He is a former Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical-Electrical Engineering and Head-founder of the Center of Excellence in Dewatering. Additionally, he is Director of Engineering and R&D for Waister AS and CEO of NewDryTech AS.
Professor Alves-Filho has contributed and extended the known border of R&D in the field for which he has received 11 awards from recognized institutions in Europe, Asia and Americas for his work on innovative R&D and applied engineering. This includes ‘Excellence in Drying of 2000’ in the Netherlands, ‘Distinguished Professor Award of 2011’ in Russia, and ‘Best book in green drying technology’ in 2016 in Japan.
He holds 19 patents on precision mechanical systems and new drying processes applied to industry with the major objectives to enhance the product-process quality, to save energy and to zeroing environmental-climate disruption. His two new green technology patents involve energy recovery and transcritical heat pump cycle that are currently licensed to and manufactured by Waister AS. Professor Alves-Filho is the author of hundreds of articles, two books on heat pump drying with industrial applications and he is editor of nine academic proceedings. He is also a co-author of a book covering a new model applied to systematic analysis, evaluation and formulation of expected outcomes and learning methods for effective engineering and sciences curriculum.
He is a founder of the successful Nordic Drying Conference series currently expanded to Nordic Baltic Drying Conference (NBDC).
Professor Trygve M. Eikevik obtained his MSc from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) in 1979, within mechanical engineering, with specialization in refrigeration and heat pumping engineering. He started his scientific work as a researcher in heat pumping technologies at SINTEF Energy Research AS in 1980. From 1995 he acted as Research Director within refrigeration and air conditioning up until 2004. During this period the Dewatering lab was established, focused on different drying technologies, especially heat pump assisted drying system. From the activity in this laboratory in cooperation with Nordic Universities, the series of the Nordic Drying Conference has started.
In 2005 he was appointed as full professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), within refrigeration and heat pump engineering, with focus on food processing. He is leading the research group of Process and Power at NTNU, with a strong cooperation with the industry. Industrial processes, using refrigeration and heat pumping system, gives possibilities for energy efficient and environmentally friendly system. In this area Prof. Eikevik have had a strong focus on utilizing natural working fluids. In the industrial processes the high temperature heat pumps are very important, to make the green transition from oil and gas to clean energy.
Prof. Eikevik has published more than 125 articles and holds 5 patents. He has a strong university cooperation’s with Asian countries like China, Japan, India.
Arne Sloth Jensen got his M. Sc. from the Polytechnic University of Denmark in 1966. He choosed to go be employed by the De Danske Sukkerfabrikker, DDS (The Danissh Sugar Corporation) as there were many tasks to take care of there. He for some years involved in the development of the DDS Diffuser to extract the sugar juice from the beets. It was sold worldwide and 25% of the world beet sugar was produced by that technology. Later he went to Stege Sugar factory in Denmark and became factory manager. Here he developed his interest for optimizing the energy system in a sugar factory. Savings was possible by integrating the different process steps in one energy system. The studies discovered a need for a new technology for drying of the beet pulp to a fodder in a new way: Drying in superheated steam under pressure would give enormous energy saving and pollution free drying, if it was possible. After the oil crisis in 1981 he got 3 engineers, so they could start 2 years study in the laboratory followed by building a pilot plant and finally a prototype steamdryer. After 7 years it was in continuous operation. Under the leadership by Arne Sloth Jensen the development continued and in 1998 he founded the company EnerDry A/S selling the dryers in Europe, USA and Japan.
Ángel Carbonell-Barrachina obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1995, and currently works as a full-professor of Food Sciences and Technology at the Miguel Hernandez University (UMH), where he leads the Group on Food Quality and Safety. Prof. Carbonell-Barrachina has worked all over the world, including visits in the UK, USA, Mexico, India and Poland and has authored more than 300 research articles published in international journals within the areas of Food Sciences and Technology, Environmental Sciences and Agriculture. He has coordinated projects funded by the European Union, World Bank, Spanish Government, US Department of Agriculture, and private food companies.
His early works focused on arsenic speciation which led to conducting projects financed by World Bank and EU in West Bengal (India) near Calcutta. Currently his main research interests include food quality and food safety; particularly the use of sensory evaluation in the food industry, industrialization of pomegranate and minor crops, drying effects on fruits and vegetables, effects of agricultural practices and/or unit operations on the quality of foods, such as ice-creams, confections, chocolate, etc., and occurrence of chemical pollutants in foods, especially inorganic arsenic.
Prof. Carbonell-Barrachina has created the Sensory Analysis and Consumer Behavior Center at UMH in cooperation with the Sensory Analysis Center of Kansas State University. In 2020, he was appointed as doctor honoris causa of the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences (Wrocław, Poland). Later in August 2020, he was named General Director of Science and Research of the Valencian Government (Spain), which is his current position.
Dr. Dolores del Castillo obtained a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Food Science and Technology by Complutense University of Madrid, Spain in 1999. Currently she works as a Research Scientist in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Since 2011, she is Head of Food Bioscience Laboratory at the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL), a research institute belonging to CSIC and the Autonoma University of Madrid (UAM). The group's fundamental line of research is to obtain safe food of high nutritional and sensory quality aimed at achieving sustainable nutrition and health through the reduction of chronic non-communicable diseases that constitute epidemics of the 21st century; as well as, to contribute to the global nutrition security, food system sustainability and circular economy.
Dr. del Castillo has published more than 100 articles and obtained 5 patents. She has been principal investigator of several research projects funded by different agencies and industry, among others from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, Marie Curie, Ramón y Cajal Programme, Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish National Program and EITFOOD. Moreover, she has supervised several Master’s and PhD students.
Dr. del Castillo has received training at the University of Reading, UK and Harvard Medical School, USA. She also collaborates with Universities from Poland, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay and Portugal. She is a member of the Spanish Nutrition Society (SEÑ), American Nutrition Society (ANS), several national and international evaluation committees and editorial committees specialized in the subject of Food Science. Also, she is certified as Functional Foods Scientist by Functional Food Center INC., USA. She develops activities for the transfer of knowledge, scientific dissemination and training of research support staff and researchers.
Professor Luis A. Segura concluded his B.Sc. thesis in 1988 from the University of La Frontera in Temuco, Chile and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile in 2004. Dr. Segura was involved in a research stay at Technion (Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel) in Laboratory of Functional Foods, Nutraceutics and Food Nanoscience in 2008. Professor Segura is currently Director of the Doctorate in Food Engineering program and he has been a Chair for Advanced Heat and Mass Transport at University of Bío-Bío in Chillán, Chile. Additionally, he is a Director of the Laboratories of Modelling & Simulation of Porous Materials and Freeze-Drying of the University of Bío-Bío.
His research has focused mainly on microstructural changes of porous structures during drying. Additionally, he has conducted studies both theoretically and experimentally in processes such as classical drying, freeze-drying, frying, cold plasma, electric fields, high hydrostatic pressure and packaging. During his carrier, Professor Segura has received eight awards in different conferences. He has participated and coordinated many major drying research projects. He has written several book chapters and a large number of peer-review publications in food processing, mainly in drying.
Professor Adam Figiel graduated in 1987 at the Agricultural University of Wrocław (now Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences), where he successively obtained scientific degrees in the field of agricultural engineering. In the years 2013-2017 he was the Director of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering. Currently, he is the head of the Department of Thermal Technology and Process Engineering at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering. He has experience in research on food engineering as well as food processing using drying methods. In particular, he is interested in the drying kinetics, the influence of pre-treatment and drying parameters on the quality of the dried product and the energy consumption of the process. He is the author of over 140 scientific papers (78 issued in JCR journals), 6 chapters in monographs and two patents. He managed 7 projects with particular emphasis on the use of R&D results. Currently, he manages 2 projects on freeze drying, including hybrid heat supply and on-line optimization of product quality parameters, based on artificial intelligence algorithms and spectral measurements. He is a member of the Polish Society of Agrophysics and the Polish Society of Agricultural Engineering as well as the editorial board of Current Microwave Chemistry and Polish Journal of Food Engineering. He is the assistant editor in the Food and Bioprocess Technology journal. He gained scientific experience at Canadian, Spanish and Malaysian universities as part of scholarships, internships, workshops and scientific consultations.
