The conference will take place two years after the first edition, coordinated by researchers from the ISP-UVa and Rey Juan Carlos University.
Between September 2nd and 4th of 2026, the Serbian city of Novi Sad, on the banks of the Danube River, will host the 2nd International Conference on Novel Photorefineries for Resource Recovery. This event is organised within the framework of the European COST PurpleGain Action and is supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) programme.
The second edition is designed as a three-day scientific conference, complemented by satellite activities within a five-day programme, and aims to promote multidisciplinary dialogue among experts. It will serve as a platform for discussing the latest scientific advances, their industrial applications, and future prospects.
The University of Novi Sad takes over from the University of Valladolid, which hosted the first edition of the conference in 2024. Held in early September 2024, it was attended by more than 160 scientists, engineers, professionals, representatives of public administration and companies. Speakers included internationally renowned researchers in the field of research on photorefineries based on purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB), photocatalytic processes and microalgae, such as James McKinlay, Víctor A. de la Peña, Francisco Gabriel Acién, Guangming Zhang and Joana Frandinho, among others.
Chaired by established researchers Raúl Muñoz, from the Institute of Sustainable Processes (ISP-UVa), and Daniel Puyol, from the Institute for Research in Technologies for Sustainability at Rey Juan Carlos University, the conference was attended by participants from 26 countries, with notable representation from Mexico, China, the United States and Australia. A meeting point for chemical engineers, biotechnologists, microbiologists, biophysicists, as well as experts in the food industry, the wastewater treatment industry and materials science.
The COST PurpleGain 5th and 6th workshops closed the first edition of this conference with seminars on the market for PPB technologies and products based on sustainable biorefineries and the integration of ecological, metabolic and modelling knowledge in genetically modified phototrophic communities for the development and control of PPB-derived processes as the central theme.
The conference ended with visits to Valladolid, a tapas tour, a gala dinner, and the final awards ceremony. In addition, after the seminars and workshops, an excursion was made to the city of Mérida, where the Rincón de Caya and Mérida wastewater treatment plants were visited.
Undoubtedly, the second edition, organised by the Faculty of Technology in Novi Sad in September 2026, with the programme to be announced in August, will offer a platform for discussing the latest scientific advances on light-mediated processes for the sustainable production of value-added products.
