Jesus Ernesto Hernandez Ortega Hernandez Ortega

Our century is witnessing fast changes in the way people create goods and services, probably due to climate change and concerns linked to equity, health, water, food, and energy.

Clean energy and sustainable materials from biomass such as waste, plants, microbes, animals and by-products could progressively replace petroleum materials. Besides, the processing of petroleum, minerals and biomass will gradually be more sustainable thanks to environmentally friendly biotechnologies coupled to computational advances.

Chemicals and processes that are problematic for people, the economy and the environment will be replaced to achieve sustainable goals. This situation is an opportunity to create and apply bioprocesses and biocatalysis for sustainable manufacturing to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

At BIERG we research bioprocesses and biocatalysis and their applications to current sustainability challenges. We investigate a variety of ways to understand and use microbes, enzymes and other cellular chemicals to solve a number of problems currently affecting societies worldwide. We have applied bioprocessing and biocatalysis to convert a variety of biomasses into green energy (biomethane, bioethanol, biodiesel); decontaminate water, soil and sludge; capture smoky carbon dioxide; produce renewable energy, nutrient feedstocks and commodity chemicals in biorefineries; or ease the flow of oil in deep underground oil reservoirs at very high temperatures and pressures.

I am interested in deploying biology and engineering capabilities for a Circular Economy and Sustainable Development through Bioinspired solutions.