Carbon-based molecules are the primary basis of the fuels, chemicals and materials required by society. The rise of the chemical engineering profession coincided with developing technology to convert fossil-derived carbon from oil, natural gas and coal to these valuable products. Biorenewables research is developing analogous technologies that instead use biomass-derived carbon. While the chemical engineering principles refined from fossil-derived carbon have direct applicability to this alternative carbon source, new technologies are required for the distinctly different characteristics of biomass-based feedstocks. New breakthroughs are needed in protein engineering, synthetic biology, microbial metabolic engineering, systems biology, separations, reaction engineering, and catalysis to utilize biomass.
Faculty Researchers
- Dr. Ratul Chowdhury
- Dr. Eric Cochran
- Dr. Laura Jarboe
- Dr. Wenzhen Li
- Dr. Luke Roling
- Dr. Brent Shanks
- Dr. Jacqueline Shanks
- Dr. Zengyi Shao
- Dr. Jean-Philippe Tessonnier
- Dr. R. Dennis Vigil
Student Testimonial – Mark Deaton, senior (undergraduate research)
Research thrusts
- Biofuels/Biorenewable chemicals
- Biochemical separations
- Biomass/natural products
- Biomolecular mechanics
- Electrocatalytic conversion of biorenewables
- AI-driven computational protein design
- Metabolic modeling
