Welcome to the BioProducts Engineering Laboratory
The BioProducts Engineering Laboratory is housed in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.
Our research focused developing the knowledge base and fundamental understanding required to rationally design technologies that recycle carbon that is otherwise a waste stream and produce bioproducts (e.g., liquid fuels, chemicals, and materials) that are important to society. The BioProducts Engineering Laboratory is dedicated to the science and engineering of deriving value-added products from dedicated energy crops, agricultural residues, forest residues, plastic waste streams, etc. using catalytic, thermal, and biological conversion processes. However, the emergence of a sustainable waste-to-bioproducts industry significantly depends on our ability to advance technologies that improve product diversity, value, and yield.
We invite you to take a learn more about the BioProducts Engineering Laboratory.
The BioProducts Engineering Laboratory research emerging technologies for exploitation of biomass as a sustainable source for energy, chemicals and materials production:
- Catalytic depolymerization of biopolymers and plastic waste polymers into value-added products
- Interfacing biological upgrading with catalytic depolymerization of biopolymers
- Novel methods of biomass characterization
- Synthesis and characterization of biomass-derived monomers, polymers, and composites
Open Lab Positions (2022-2023)
- 1-2 PhD student position: depolymerization of lignin or upcycling waste plastics into valuable monomeric products
- 1 PhD student position: fabrication of nanocellulose-based adhesive composite
- 1 postdoc position: expertise in the application of NMR to study of catalyst and catalysis
- 1 postdoc position: expertise in organic synthetic chemistry and natural products labeled with 13C isotopes
- 1 postdoc position: expertise in biomass processing, lignin extraction and characterization
- 1-2 undergraduate positions available (Fall 2022 slots are full)
Major interest
- Heterogeneous and liquid-phase catalysis
- Biopolymer depolymerization
- Operando NMR spectroscopy
- Biomass and biomass depolymerization product characterization
- Renewable synthetic polymers
- Lignin chemistry
- Mechanobiology