Nickholas Themelis, director from Earth Engineering Center, invited by Columbia University, visited SERC Chile and met with some researchers to share his experience on transforming waste to energy.
Rodrigo Palma, director from SERC Chile, welcomed Nickholas Themelis, lecturer and director from the University of Columbia’s Earth Engineering Center on September 2.
An Innovation Fund for Competitiveness delegation, formed by its director Gonzalo Rivas, and Jaime Álvarez, met with the researcher, who has vast experience in the conversion of waste to energy. The Dean of the Engineering Faculty of Universidad del Desarollo, José Manuel Robles, was also present, as well as Alex Godoy, in charge of environmental issues of this same university; professor Svetlana Ushak, SERC’s line of research 4 researcher, and Gisele Feldman, Latin America Columbia Global Center consultant.
Feldman did not hesitate to emphasize the importance of Themelis’s visit for the development of energy matters in our country.
“This meeting is crucial to achieve that all centers form connections between each other, in order to create a common project in everything related to renewable energies and waste management sustainability”, she commented.
In relation to the possibilities Chile has to develop this matter, the consultant stated that:
‘We are getting there. Globally, 20% of garbage dumps are beginning to recycle. This figure is lower here, but we have the space availability, infrastructure, the professionals and the climate for it to be implemented. It is very useful to increase our knowledge of the waste-to-energy methodology used by Nickholas Themelis since in Chile we only recycle waste to transform it into a new product, but to be able to transform it into energy is something completely new and interesting for us.”
During lunchtime, the participants commented on the nature of their respective functions and explored the possibilities for future partnerships.