The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering is hosting distinguished guest Dr. Ning Yan, Faculty of Forestry from UofT for a Speaker Series Seminar.
Talk: Bark Bio-refinery: Conversion of Bark Biomass Residues to Valued Added “Green” Chemical Products.
Date: March 31st
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: 2360 East Mall, CHBE Room 202
ABSTRACT:
Being a biomass residue material available in large quantities, bark contains all major types of wood polymers plus polyphenols and other extractives. With its unique physical and chemical characteristics, bark is well suited to be converted into chemical precursors to synthesize a wide range of chemical products substituting petroleum-derived feedstock. Over the last five years, with the support of a large number of public and private partners, Dr. Yan’s research group at the University of Toronto has done extensive research work to develop enabling technologies for a “bark biorefinery” focused on using bark as feedstock to make a portfolio of industrial chemical products. Her team has successfully developed several chemical conversion platform technologies that can use bark as raw material to produce bark-based adhesive, foam and resin industrial products. These environmentally friendly bio-based products have potential applications in a number of industries ranging from construction to automotive sectors. An overview of these conversion platform technologies will be given in this seminar together with some fundamental understanding of the compositional and performance characteristics of the resulting novel bark-based chemical products. Opportunities and challenges associated with commercialization efforts of these products will also be discussed.
BIO:
Dr. NING YAN is a Professor and Endowed Chair in Value Added Wood and Composites in the Faculty of Forestry with a cross-appointment at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto. Dr. Yan is also an Associate Director of the Pulp and Paper Centre and a founding member of the Centre for Bio-composites and Biomaterials Processing at the University. She is currently leading the “Bark Bio-refinery” initiative funded by the Ontario Research Excellence Program. Dr. Yan has more than 80 peer-reviewed journal publications, 7 patent applications, and more than 80 presentations in international conferences. She is well recognized in the field of forest biomaterials science and has delivered more than 65 invited talks worldwide.
Dr. Yan has won numerous prestigious awards for her excellence in research including the Early Researcher Award, Connaught Innovation Award, and NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplements Award. Prior to joining the University of Toronto as a faculty member in 2001, she has worked for a number of companies including FPInnovations, Trojan Technologies and Xerox Corporation. Dr. Yan obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1997.