Senior onderzoeker Biobased Products
Carmen G. Boeriu is senior scientist at Wageningen UR Food & Biobased Research. She developed a large expertise in the area of applied biocatalysis for the production of fine and bulk chemicals. Carmen is involved in a number of national and European R&D projects and coordinator of numerous projects with the industry, and she is a member of the European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence (EPNOE) since 2006. Research projects are interdisciplinary, aiming at the integration of enzyme technology with synthetic and separation technologies for process and product development. She has been active as consultant for several companies for the implementation of enzyme catalysis in selected industrial processes. Specific areas of current research include the biocatalytic conversion of biomass into added value chemicals and (bio)active ingredients, biobased monomers and polymers, the enzymatic synthesis and modification of biopolymers and the development of functional materials derived from biopolymers. Carmen also investigates the application of enzymatic reactions in the polysaccharide and protein chemistry, for the modification of biopolymers as well as for the controlled enzymatic synthesis of bioactive oligo- and polysaccharides saccharides and peptides. Two projects of the past year stand out concerning Carmen’s research and expertise: - Valorisation of chitin (Chit4Value, NWO-ACTS project, 2013-2017) and chitosan (BPM project, ChitoSmart, 2011-2014 and PostDoc project OxyBioChit 2014-2015): developing novel & efficient enzymes for chitin and chitosan conversion, development & optimisation of enzymatic conversion routes to produce bioactive derivatives (e.g. monomers, oligomers and polymers) for cosmetic, pharmaceutical and medical applications; - Utilisation of CO2 as source for chemicals (BioCoMet, Biosolar project, 2011-2016) : development of bioelectrochemical processes for converting CO2 from flue gases into formic acid and/or methanol.
Ik ben gefascineerd door planten. Niet alleen omdat ze kleur geven aan de dag, maar ook omdat ze boordevol ‘groene’ moleculen zitten. Moleculen die we gebruiken voor een breed scala aan biobased toepassingen. Zoals duurzame cosmeticaproducten bijvoorbeeld.