Assistant Professor, Department of Biosystems & Bioengineering
Education
- Ph.D. - Chemical Engineering, the University of Maine, 2005-2009
- Master - Chemical Engineering, the University of Maine, 2002-2005
- B.S. - Polymer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 1998-2002
Areas of Interest
- Lignocellulosic biomass valorization to produce fuel, chemical, and materials.
- High value-added by-product development from soybean, corn and oil seeds.
- New generation pulping technologies using non-woody biomass
Biography
Dr. Chen currently is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota and previously worked as a senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He has more than 20 years of experience in biomass preprocessing, extraction, pretreatment, deconstruction, and conversion. Notably, he is the inventor of a patented deacetylation and mechanical refining (DMR) process for converting corn stover to ethanol (U.S. Patent 12,129,342), which has been exclusively licensed to SAFFiRE Renewables, formerly a Southwest Airlines venture-backed company and now part of Conestoga Energy. Conestoga is currently constructing a 10-ton-per-day ethanol pilot facility in Liberal, Kansas, based on Dr. Chen’s DMR technology to demonstrate SAF production.
Research
Dr. Chen’s other research interests include developing high-value added by-products from soy bean, corn and oil seeds; developing new generation pulping technologies as well as improving carbon utilization in existing pulping mills; valorize seaweed for jet fuels, biochar and graphite; developing high-efficiency dryer for biomass.
Select Publications
- A Simultaneous Depolymerization and Hydrodeoxygenation Process to Produce Lignin-Based Jet Fuel in Continuous Flow Reactor, Fuel Processing Technology 2024,Vol23/Issue 1
- Impact of Mechanical Refining Conditions on the Energy Consumption, Enzymatic Digestibility, and Economics of Sugar Production from Corn Stover, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2023, Vol 11/Issue 44
- Simultaneous Dehydration of Glucose and Xylose Present in a Process-Relevant Biorefinery Hydrolysate to Furfurals Using Heterogeneous Solid Acid Catalysts, Energy & Fuels 2023, Vol 37/Issue 17
- Deacetylation and Mechanical Refining (DMR) and Deacetylation and Dilute Acid (DDA) Pretreatment of Corn Stover, Switchgrass, and a 50:50 Corn Stover/Switchgrass Blend, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2020, 8(17): 6734-6743.
- Electrical decoupling of microbial electrochemical reactions enables spontaneous H2 evolution. Energy & Environmental Science, 2020, 13(2): 495-502.
- Modelling a compressible packed bed flow-through washing and deacetylation reactor for corn stover pretreatment. Chemical Engineering Journal. 2021 10.1016/j.cej.2021.128918.
- Microbial electrochemical treatment of biorefinery black liquor and resource recovery. Green Chemistry, 2019, 21(6): 1258-1266.
- Kinetics and Rheological Behavior of Higher Solid (Solids >20%) Enzymatic Hydrolysis Reactions Using Dilute Acid Pretreated, Deacetylation and Disk Refined, and Deacetylation and Mechanical Refined (DMR) Corn Stover Slurries. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2019, 7(1): 1633-1641.
- DMR (deacetylation and mechanical refining) processing of corn stover achieves high monomeric sugar concentrations (230 g L-1) during enzymatic hydrolysis and high ethanol concentrations (> 10% v/v) during fermentation without hydrolysate purification or concentration. Energy & Environmental Science. 2016,9,1237-1245
- Development and characterization of a high-solids deacetylation process. Sustainable Chemical Processes, 2016 4:6
- Improving Sugar Yields and Reducing Enzyme Loadings in the Deacetylation and Mechanical Refining (DMR) Process through Multistage Disk and Szego Refining and Corresponding Techno-Economic Analysis, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 2016 4(1), p324-333
- Use of mechanical refining to improve the production of low-cost sugars from lignocellulosic biomass. Bioresources Technology, 2016 v199, p59-67
- Conversion of corn stover hydrolysates to acids: comparison between Clostridium carboxidivorans P7 and microbial communities developed from lake sediment and an anaerobic digester. Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, 2016 doi:10.1007/s13399-017-0239-9
- Sweet sorghum bagasse and corn stover serving as substrates for producing sophorolipids, Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology, 2016 doi:10.1007/s10295-016-1891-y
- A highly efficient dilute alkali deacetylation and mechanical (disc) refining process for the conversion of renewable biomass to lower cost sugars, Biotechnology for Biofuel, 2014, 7:98
- Techno-economic Analysis of the Deacetylation and Disk Refining Process: Characterizing the Effect of Refining Energy and Enzyme Usage on Minimum Sugar Selling Price and Minimum Ethanol Selling Price, Biotechnology for Biofuels. 2015 8:173
- Improved ethanol yield and reduced MESP by modifying low severity dilute acid pretreatment with deacetylation and mechanical refining: 2) Techno-economical analysis, Biotechnology for Biofuels, 5:69
- Heterologous expression of xylanase enzymes in lipogenic yeast yarrowia lipolytica, PloS one, 2014, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111443
- Noble-metal catalyzed hydrodeoxygenation of biomass-derived lignin to aromatic hydrocarbons, Green Chemistry, 16, 897-910
- Recycling of Dilute Deacetylation Black Liquor to Enable Efficient Recovery and Reuse of Spent Chemicals and Biomass Pretreatment Waste, 2018, Frontiers in Energy Research, Vol. 6
- Deep Eutectic Solvent Extraction of High-Purity Lignin from a Corn Stover Hydrolysate. ChemSusChem 13(17): 4678-4690.
- Characterization and Deconstruction of Oligosaccharides in Black Liquor From Deacetylation Process of Corn Stover, Frontiers in Energy Research 7(54).
- Simultaneous upgrading of biomass-derived sugars to HMF/furfural via enzymatically isomerized ketose intermediates. Biotechnology for Biofuels 12(1): 253.
- Antimicrobial Properties of Corn Stover Lignin Fractions Derived from Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenolysis in Supercritical Ethanol with a Ru/C Catalyst. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 8(50): 18455-18467.
- Senior Research Engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2018-2025
- Research Engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2012-2018
- Postdoctoral researcher at National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2009-2012