生物质领域专家简介（英国篇-中）

Dr Aimaro Sanna

Assistant Professor, School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Institute of Mechanical, Process & Energy Engineering， Heriot-Watt University

Biography

Dr Aimaro Sanna has been recently appointed as Assistant Professor in the Institute of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering (IMPEE), after successfully completing a 4 years Heriot-Watt Research Fellowship (2014-2017). Aimaro Sanna did is PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham working on catalytic processes towards the conversion of biomass in bio-fuels and bio-chemicals. He then became employed as Research Fellow at the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham (2010-2012) working on clean fossil fuels technologies. From 2012 to 2014, he worked at the School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, on clean fossil fuels technologies and on the development of new generation catalytic systems for understanding and controlling the chemical transformation of biomass-derived oxygenates to fuels.

Research Summary 

The Advanced Biofuels Lab research team is developing novel catalytic systems for the production of inexpensive renewable liquid fuel and commodity chemicals out of renewable products such as microalgae, wood and organic wastes, in collaboration with international researchers.

Also, the team is supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in developing alterative processes for turning their wastes from liability to assets and to decrease their carbon dioxide emissions.

In summary, my research group expertise and interests are in bioenergy and waste valorisation combining catalysis, materials science and chemical engineering aspects, including: catalytic membrane reactors, auger reactors, techno economic assessment, pre and post combustion CO ₂ capture using high temperature solid sorbents, catalytic pyrolysis, gasification, hydrotreating and aqueous phase processing for bio-oils upgrading and mineral carbonation technologies.

Selected Publications

1. Highly selective hydropyrolysis of lignin waste to benzene, toluene and xylene in presence of zirconia supported iron catalyst. Lonchay, W., Bagnato, G. & Sanna, A., Oct 2022, In: Bioresource Technology. 361, 127727.

2. Hydrogenation of biobased aldehydes to mono-alcohols using bimetallic catalysts. Bagnato, G., Signoretto, M., Pizzolitto, C., Menegazzo, F., Xi, X., ten Brink, G. H., Kooi, B. J., Heeres, H. J. & Sanna, A., 17 Aug 2020, In: ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. 8, 32, p. 11994–12004 11 p. 

3.   Catalytic cracking of Etek lignin with zirconia supported metal-oxides for alkyl and alkoxy phenols recovery. Hendry, A., Åhlén, M., Fernandes, T., Cheung, O. & Sanna, A., Dec 2020, In: Bioresource Technology. 317, 124008.

Email:  A.Sanna@hw.ac.uk

Prof Klaus Hellgardt

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor of Chemical Engineering， Imperial College London

Biography

2014- | Professor of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

2008-2014 | Reader in Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

2007 | Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo

2006-2008 | Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

2002-2005 | Senior Lecturer, Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University

1995-2002 | Lecturer, Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University

1995 | Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

1991-1994 | PhD and DIC, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

1989-1991 | Research Assistant, Oil, Gas and Coal Institute, University of Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

1984-1990 | Dipl. Ing. (TH) in Chemical Engineering, University of Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Research Summary

Sustainable Reaction Engineering and Catalysis:

Algae and cyanobacteria (hydrogen, biofuels, biomass, bioceuticals)

Biomass Reforming (APR, biogas, oxygenates),

Biofuels (biodiesel, pyrolysis oil upgrading),

Bio-photolytic and photo-electrochemical Hydrogen Production,

Hydrothermal and supercritical fluids processing (algae, biomass, heavy oil)

Selected Publications

1.  Cardoso A, Pastor-Perez L, Reina TR, Suelves I, Luis Pinilla J, Hellgardt K, Millan Met al., 2021, Lignin to Monoaromatics with a Carbon-Nanofiber-Supported Ni-CeO ₂ -x Catalyst Synthesized in a One-Pot Hydrothermal Process, ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, Vol: 9, Pages: 12800-12812, ISSN: 2168-0485.

2. Cardoso A, Ramirez Reina T, Suelves I, Pinilla JL, Millan M, Hellgardt Ket al., 2018, Effect of carbon-based materials and CeO ₂ on Ni catalysts for Kraft lignin liquefaction in supercritical water, Green Chemistry, Vol: 20, Pages: 4308-4318, ISSN: 1463-9262.

3. Antunes MM, Lima S, Fernandes A, Ribeiro MF, Chadwick D, Hellgardt K, Pillinger M, Valente AAet al., 2019, One-pot hydrogen production and cascade reaction of furfural to bioproducts over bimetallic Pd-Ni TUD-1 type mesoporous catalysts (vol 237, pg 521, 2018), APPLIED CATALYSIS B-ENVIRONMENTAL, Vol: 243, Pages: 801-801, ISSN: 0926-3373

Email: k.hellgardt@imperial.ac.uk

Prof Jason P. Hallett

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor of Sustainable Chemical Technology， I mperial College London

Biography

Prof Jason Hallett performs research involving the solution behaviour of ionic liquids and the use of ionic liquids in the production of lignocellulosic biofuels, sustainable chemical feedstocks, vaccine manufacturing and waste recycling (particularly for metal-contaminated solid materials). This research is supported by both the UKRI and industry.

Prof Hallett currently serves as a core member of the Supergen Bioenergy Hub and the Future Vaccines Manufacturing Research Hub.

He is also co-founder of 6 spin-out companies based on the group’s research:

Lixea, a circular bioeconomy company which uses low-cost ionic liquids to fractionate waste biomass for biofuel, chemical and material production from cellulose and lignin.

Lixea operates a pilot plant in Sweden for the Dendronic process, which is the commercial version of teh group’s ionoSolv process.

Nanomox , which produces advanced materials, especially metal oxides, from metallic waste streams using the ionic-liquid based technology Oxidative Ionothermal Synthesis (OIS), developed in the group.

EcoSAF , which produces bio-derived furan-based surfactants for detergent and personal care applications. The surfactants demonstarte superior performance to petrochemical surfactants but are fully biodegradable, non-toxic and renewable. They have a similar cost point to market detergents.

DyeRecycle , which extracts dyes from waste textiles and transfers them to new fabrics, enabling easier textile recycling and creating the first circular dyeing process. DyeRecycle uses ionic liquids to achieve a waterless dyeing solution.

CO ₂ Co , which is a recently launched direct air capture company developing extremely large-scale CO ₂  removal solutions.

Ionic Recovery , which is a circular economy company that de-metallizes a wide range of waste bio-based feedstocks, such as sewage sludge.

A very special company was also founded by one of the group’s PhD studnts:

Oorja (Dr Clementine Chambon) is a social enterprise dedicated to changing teh lives of rural farmers i nIndia by bring solar electricity for irrigation, commercial and home use to communities without adequate access to power.

Prof Hallett received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He joined Imperial College, first with a Marshall-Sherfield Postdoctoral Fellowship in Sustainable Chemistry and in 2014 was appointed a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, before promotion to Reader in 2016 and Professor in 2018. He has authored over 150 articles and holds 10 patents.

Research Summary

Integrated Biorefinery Research:

This area of research focusses on the simultaneous production of both biofuels and chemical feedstocks from renewable resources, such as from lignocellulosic biomass. This involves a range of research areas in my group, including:

Deconstruction of Biomass using Ionic liquids

Enzymatic Biocatalysis in Protein-friendly Ionic Liquids

Bioprocess Development and Scale-up

Other Ionic Liquids Research:

Vaccine Formulation Development for Room Temperature Storage and Enhanced Delivery

Metal Recovery from Waste Streams

Process, Techno-economic, and Socio-economic Modelling of Ionic Liquid Biorefining

Catalytic Production of Platform Chemicals from Biomass using Ionic Liquids

Interactions of Ionic Liquids with Biopolymers

Recycling Ionic Liquids

Textile and Dye Recycling using Ionic Liquids

Wastewater Treatment using Supported Ionic Liquids

Corrosion in Ionic liquids

Other Research Topics:

Biobased Surfactant Production from Biorefinery Waste

Solvent-based Carbon Capture and Storage Perspectives

Selected Publications

1.     Al Ghatta A, Aravenas RC, Wu Y, Perry JM, Lemus J, Hallett JPet al., 2022, New Biobased Sulfonated Anionic Surfactants Based on the Esterification of Furoic Acid and Fatty Alcohols: A Green Solution for the Replacement of Oil Derivative Surfactants with Superior Proprieties, ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, ISSN: 2168-0485.

2.     Al Ghatta A, Hallett JP, 2022, High yield and isolation of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid from HMF and sugars in ionic liquids, a new prospective for the establishment of a scalable and efficient catalytic route, GREEN CHEMISTRY, Vol: 24, Pages: 3309-3313, ISSN: 1463-9262.

3.     Nakasu PYS, Barbara PV, Firth AEJ, Hallett JPet al., 2022, Pretreatment of biomass with protic ionic liquids, TRENDS IN CHEMISTRY, Vol: 4, Pages: 175-178.

Email:  j.hallett@imperial.ac.uk

Dr Roberto Rinaldi FRSC

Reader in Applied Chemistry

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

Biography

Roberto Rinaldi studied Chemistry at the State University of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil and received his PhD in 2006. A year later, he joined the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung as postdoctoral research fellow where he became a Junior Group Leader in 2009. In 2010 he received the prestigious Sofja-Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, allowing him to launch his independent research group and develop outstanding research on lignin valorisation. For his contribution to advanced concepts for dissolution and deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass, he was awarded the Willi Keim Prize 2014 given by the Advanced Fluids Subject Division of ProcessNet (an initiative of DECHEMA and VDI-GVC). He was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London in 2015 and he has since established his research group (Tomorrow’s Chemical Technologies Lab) and published a number of papers in leading international journals including among others Angewandte Chemie and ChemSusChem. More recently, he was invited to join the International Advisory Board of the journal ChemCatChem and appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Research Summary

In the Tomorrow’s Chemical Technologies Lab, we carry out high-risk/high-gain research into catalytic valorisation of lignin and cellulose by unconventional approaches, such as catalytic transfer hydrogenation, mechanocatalysis and solvent design.

At the forefront of our research is the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass through the Early-Stage Catalytic Conversion of Lignin (ECCL), as known as ‘Lignin-First’ approach. ECCL constitutes an emerging multidisciplinary research field targeting the valorisation of waste lignocellulosic materials (e.g. crop residues) to its fullest. It involves the concurrent extraction and catalytic conversion of the lignin fragments released from plant biomass in a one-pot process. In this manner, ECCL benefits from the intrinsically high reactivity of the lignin oligomers, leading to further depolymerisation (via hydrogenolysis of ether linkages) and, most importantly, to the passivation of the intermediates (via hydrodeoxygenation of aldehyde and ketone groups), thus protecting the lignin fragments not only from recondensation but also redepositing on the cellulosic fibres. In short, this novel approach renders a high yield of mono-aromatic products (>60%) and highly delignified pulps, allowing for the full utilisation of lignocellulose.

We undertake pioneering research at the border of Wood Chemistry, Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, aiming at:

1. Understanding (and control over) the solvolytic release of lignin fragments;

2.   Advancing the molecular understanding of H-transfer reactions catalysed by sponge Ni catalysts to accelerate the discovery of catalytic methods for lignin valorisation;

3. Reaction engineering of the interdependent processing steps for fractionation of the initial biomass feedstock (catalytic upstream biorefining or CUB) to the intended value-added products (catalytic downstream processing).

Selected Publications

1.  Rinaldi, Roberto, et al. "Paving the way for lignin valorisation: recent advances in bioengineering, biorefining and catalysis." Angewandte Chemie International Edition 55.29 (2016): 8164-8215.

2. Ferrini, Paola, and Roberto Rinaldi. "Catalytic biorefining of plant biomass to non‐pyrolytic lignin bio‐oil and carbohydrates through hydrogen transfer reactions." Angewandte Chemie 126.33 (2014): 8778-8783.

3. Cao, Zhengwen, et al. "A convergent approach for a deep converting lignin-first biorefinery rendering high-energy-density drop-in fuels." Joule 2.6 (2018): 1118-1133.

Email: r.rinaldi1@imperial.ac.uk