During a visit to our country as a guest of Columbia University, Nickholas Themelis, Director of the Earth Engineering Center, visited SERC Chile and met with several of its researchers to discuss his experience in waste-to-energy conversion.

On September 2, the director of SERC Chile, Rodrigo Palma, received Nickholas Themelis, professor and director of the Earth Engineering Center at Columbia University.

A delegation from the National Innovation Council for Competitiveness, composed of its director, Gonzalo Rivas, and Jaime Álvarez, attended the meeting with the researcher, who has extensive experience in waste-to-energy conversion. Also in attendance were José Manuel Robles, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Universidad del Desarrollo; Alex Godoy, head of environmental affairs at the same university; Professor Svetlana Ushak, researcher for SERC research line four; and Gisele Feldman, consultant for the Columbia Global Center in Latin America.

Feldman highlighted the significance of Themelis’s visit for energy advancement in our country.

“This meeting is essential to ensure that all centers connect with one another and move toward a common project regarding renewable energy and the sustainability of waste recycling,” she commented.

Regarding the possibilities for Chile's progress in this matter, the consultant stated:

“We are on our way. Globally, 20% of landfills are beginning to be recycled. Here the figure is lower, but we have the space, the infrastructure, the professionals, and the climate to make implementation possible. Delving into the methodology used by Nickholas Themelis to convert waste into energy is highly useful, as Chile currently focuses on recycling waste into new products, while energy production is entirely new and interesting for us.”

During the lunch, participants described the nature of their respective roles and explored possibilities for future cooperation.