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Roy Posmanik 

Laboratory

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About

Our goal is to recover renewable energy, bio-based chemicals and agricultural nutrients from food production waste streams, while minimizing their carbon footprints. We combine fundamental and applied research to develop sustainable processes by integrating biological and thermo-chemical treatments to recover valuable resources from agricultural waste streams.  

LAB News

Our PRIMA project was selected for funding 
Jan 4, 2023

We are honored to be part of this great consortium to create a circular economy with the black soldier fly 
Jan 4, 2023

How Your Food Waste Could Eventually Power Your Home

Time Magazine article featuring our

Bioresource Technology paper.

Ran Darzi and Osama Khoury gave great talks on the DDD International Conference in Sede Boqer
Jan 4, 2023

It was a great honor to be a part of an Israeli delegation to Prague and discuss issues of sustainable agriculture with our colleagues from the Czech University of Life Science
June 4, 2022

It was a real pleasure to host this great LCA-TEA workshop by Prof. Deborah Sills funded by BARD
March 29, 2022

A new book chapter is now available in IWA publishing
March 29, 2022

Congratulations to Rani who published his first PhD paper on upcycling of plastic waste
March 27, 2022

We are proud to be a part of Volcani Institute were people from all religions are working together in harmony for decades.

A short video from Newe Ya'ar.

June 2, 2021

Our new paper is now available in Bioresource Technology

April 25, 2021

Our new paper is now available in Journal of Environmental Management

February 9, 2021

Home

October 13, 2020

Click here to watch the whole session of Agriculture-Environment-Energy from the previous conference of Science and Environment (in Hebrew).

October 12, 2020

Ran Darzi gave an excellent talk on his research during the annual conference of environmental science 

Click here to watch (in Hebrew).

July 23, 2020

Our BARD proposal is approved :)

May 17, 2020

Our collaboration with UCLA, Cornell University and Ben Gurion University in now available online. 

April 09, 2020

​Our collaboration with the University of Tubingen, Germany on the biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay is now available online. 

February 29, 2020

Our new paper, a collaboration with the beef-cattle section at Newe Ya'ar, is now available online. 

January 01, 2020

Special seminar by Prof. Deborah Sills.

For details please contact Roy.

December 30, 2019

This year the symposium (in Hebrew) will focus on Moringa Oleifera as a new crop in Israel.

Please contact Roy for more details. 

December 25, 2019

We have such a great group of students :)

November 06, 2019

Roy will give a seminar (in English) at The Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot.

The seminar will cover hydrothermal processing of agro-waste: a circular economy approach to improve resource recovery and minimize environmental pollution.

September 25, 2019

Listen to Roy Posmanik's interview on GLZ (in Hebrew)

September 18, 2019

t was a real honor to represent  Volcani Center at the  Wegmans Farm Summit and speak about sustainability and circular economy with organic farmers, Cornell faculty and students.

June 19, 2019

It was a real pleasure to come back the TAU and present our work on circular economy, plastic waste treatment and sustainable agriculture. See you next year. 

June 04, 2019

Come to Sede Boqer campus and meet with us at the annual conference of the Israel Society of Soil Science 

April 18, 2019

Wheat harvest at Newe Ya’ar.

Happy spring break from #PosmanikLab

April 15, 2019

Great panels and lectures by our wonderful students and postdocs following the traditional picnic gathering.

Happy Passover from #PosmanikLab

March 15, 2019

It was a real pleasure to represent Israel at the COST action for sustainable valorization of lignin and learn how we can bring the circular bioeconomy to agriculture.

March 06, 2019

Our abstract for the 13th Dahlia Greidinger Symposium is now available online

January 31, 2019

Our collaboration with University of Tübingen, Germany and Cornell University is now available online.

The paper demonstrates how to circulate the energy, available at dairy farm, not only for heat and power but also to cool down the cows. Very relevant for future climate scenarios. 

February 12, 2019

Ran will present his poster at the annual conference of the Israeli Chemical Society. Good luck Ran!  

February 10, 2019

Roy will present our lab activity regarding circular economy approaches in sustainable agriculture.

Looking forward to establishing new collaboration with Cornell!

December 03, 2018

In this workshop we will present several aspects in this project to start a fruitful dialog between research scientists and local farmers.

August 03, 2018

Our lab invites applications for postdoctoral fellowships. Bringing the circular economy to agriculture and food industries. please visit https://www.agri.gov.il/en/pages/1831.aspx

July 19, 2018

Our collaboration with UCLA and UCR is now available in Bioresource Tecnology.

An interesting circular economy approach to utilize energy, nutrients and waste heat from manure and food waste via integration among anaerobic digestion, hydrothermal liquefaction and membrane distillation.

[Link to visual abstract] 

July 08, 2018

We are looking for excellent students to join the lab.

Please contact Roy.

May 02, 2018

Our collaboration with the University of Tübingen was successfully presented at the 5th International Conference on Renewable Energy Gas Technology, REGATEC 2018.

Link to Poster

February 27, 2018

On behalf of the organizing committee,  I am happy to invite submissions to SWWS2018 - IWA 15th Small Water and Wastewater Treatment systems and 7th Resource Oriented Sanitation conferences that will occur concurrently in Haifa Israel on 14-18 Oct. 2018 

 

www.swws2018.org.il

 

Deadline for submission of abstracts was extended to April 15th 2018. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any query

February 10, 2018

The final version of our article "Characterization of the solid products from hydrothermal liquefaction of waste feedstocks from food and agricultural industries" is now available online.

Welcome Amir Agabaria our new lab manager

January 31, 2018

Happy to announce that our lab has a new lab manager.

Please contact Amir at aamir@volcani.agri.gov.il 

December 26, 2017

Dr. Deborah Sills from Bucknell University will visit our lab and will give two seminars on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA):

1) Sede Boqer Campus (ZIWR, BGU): Dec. 27th at 1pm

2) Neve Ya'ar Research center (ARO): Jan. 2nd at 11am

December 16, 2017

Our collaboration with the University of Valladolid (Spain) and Bucknell university (USA) is now available at ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

December 12, 2017

NBC news article on our story of food waste valorization. 

November 28, 2017

By combining engineering expertise with chemistry and biology, WWTP operators can convert the solid sludge they generate into an array of useful chemical products.

November 25, 2017

​We are looking for excellent master students, doctoral students and postdocs. If you are interested in joining our group please contact Roy Posmanik. 

November 11, 2017

Our recent LCA paper was published in Applied Energy.

November 21, 2017

Roy Posmanik gave a talk about sustainable resource recovery from dairy waste at the International Workshop for Nitrogen Transformation, Nazareth, Israel. [Link to program] 

October 16, 2017

Joe Usack presented our work at the 15th IWA World Conference on Anaerobic Digestion. 

October 04, 2017

Celia Martinez presented our work at the 10th World Congress of Chemical Engineering.

October 02, 2017

A Time magazine article featuring our recent Bioresource Technology paper.

October 02, 2017

Cornell Chronicle tells our story

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Research

Biomass to Energy

Most Waste-to-Energy technologies are still at an emerging stage with a lot of room for innovation. Process optimization requires fundamental research on each one of the conversion processes.  An important step involves experimental research to identify chemical and metabolic pathways that will be essential to maximize conversion yields of biomass to biofuels for both thermochemical and biological platforms..  

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Upcycling of plastic waste

Accumulation of plastic waste is harming eco-systems and it is time to move towards a circular plastic economy. Sustainable production and recycling processes for plastics are challenged mostly by the lack of renewable building blocks. We investigate hydrothermal processing (HTP) as a platform for depolymerization of commonly used plastic polymers. 
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Nutrient Cycling
 
Holistic approaches to valorize waste streams seek to recover nutrients in a reusable form for further agricultural applications. Our lab seeks to better understand the fate of recycled nutrients and their incorporation into the complex plant-soil-atmosphere system.

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Life Cycle Assessment

The development of sustainable and commercial-scale waste to resource systems must be supported by a life cycle environmental impact assessment to define research priorities. In addition, financing conditions, that would make waste to resource systems attractive, have to be determined. Specific parameters that account for uncertainties related to the development of these technologies will provide more useful information for investors and policy makers.

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People

Dr. Roy Posmanik
Group leader

Roy works in the field of environmental science and  engineering with the interest in sustainable resource recovery from agricultural and food processing waste.

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Group pictures

Dr. Matat Zohar

Lab manager

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Matat holds a PhD in biology from Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

She joined the group at 2019, working on the integration between waste management and plant development. 

Dr. Ran Darzi
Postdoctoral fellow

Ran holds a PhD from the Technion. Since 2023 he is a postdoc fellow in the lab working on upcycling of plastic waste 

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Dr. Ezra Orlovski
Postdoctoral fellow

Ezra holds a PhD  from Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

He joined the group at 2020, working on wastewater based epidemiology. 

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Osama Khoury
 
PhD student

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Osama is a PhD candidate co-advised with Prof. Sabrina Spatari, Technion. 

Research: LCA-TEA for hydrothermal systems.

Nadav Halali
 
MSc student

Nadav is an MSc student co-advised with Prof. Sabrina Spatari, Technion. 

Research: Energy optimization in Black Soldier Fly farming

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Itamar Kaffman
 
MSc student

Itamar is an MSc student (HUJI), co-advised with Dr. Guy Levi (ARO and Dr. Michael Borisover (ARO)

Research: Resource recovery from anaerobic digestates

 

  

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Achiya Husrabi
 
MSc student

Achiya is an MSc student (HUJI) co-advised with Dr. Guy Levi (ARO and Dr. Michael Borisover (ARO)

Research: The role of organic carbon in soil amended with anaerobic digestate

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Alumni

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Research: Sustainable co-digestion systems. 

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Research: Biostimulant activity in hydrothermal extracts.

Ran Darzi
PhD student

Research:  Hydrothermal degradation of plastic waste 

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Osama Khoury
 
M.Sc. student

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Research: Phosphorus recovery from municipal solid sludge using hydrothermal treatment.

  

Rachel Ben Efraim

B.Sc. student

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Research: Degradation of plastic polymers using sub-critical water. 

  

Hadeel Mostafa

B.Sc. student

Research: Biodegradability of plastic waste.

  

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Sandra Khoury 
 
B.Sc. student

Research: Antimicrobial activity of hydrothermal process water.

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Elian Srouji
 
B.Sc. student

Research: Nitrogen recovery and reuse from anaerobic digestate.

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