Resilient and Sustainable Biorenewable Systems Engineering Model (ReSBio)

Lead Research Organisation: Imperial College London
Department Name: Chemical Engineering

Abstract

Driven by a range of environmental challenges e.g. climate change, energy and material insecurity, a transition from the current fossil-based to a future bio-based economy is expected to evolve progressively and bring a post-petroleum era. The UK government has set out transition policies and strategies to adapt to and mitigate future environmental change and biorenewable carbon resources will play a significant role to meet UK 2050 greenhouse gas reduction targets and support national adaptation efforts. The current EU bioeconomy is estimated to be worth around 2 trillion euros and a wide range of bio-products generated from biomass resources bring great potential. Unlike other renewable sources e.g. tidal or wind energy, biomass provides flexible options to overcome supply instability and un-predictability by deriving thermal and electrical energy on demand and offering potential for transport fuel or bio-chemical generation. Resource assessment shows that the UK biomass could meet almost half of domestic energy needs by 2050 without compromising land use. Biomass-derived value-added chemicals also represent a significant market; with current annual turnover of £60 billion, the UK chemical sector is described as the 'heart of the green economy development'. Such plethora of bio-renewable products can be converted efficiently and sustainably via well-designed integrated biorefinery systems. However, human use of and impacts on the biosphere are now exceeding the multiple environmental limits. Thus the future biorenewable deployment calls for an quantitative transition modelling tool bringing resilience and sustainability thinking approach in biorenewable system design to increase the overall capacity for tackling environmental stresses or socio-economic changes over the coming decades.
This project aims to develop an open-source biorenewable system model from user-perspectives and provide insights into sustainable design of the future biorenewable systems, which best adapt to and mitigate future changes, contribute to UK sustainability and resilience agenda and support bioeconomy evolution. Under ReSBio, seven research streams are organized in work packages (WP) that run in parallel.

WP1 will engage policy-makers, industrial stakeholders, scientists and engineers to scope the model context and objectives under UK sustainability and resilience context and define the model functions, indicators, boundaries, and case studies from user perspectives.
Building on WP1 model functional specifications, WP2 focuses on the open-source model development with the user-oriented architecture and integrating sustainability evaluation, biogeochemistry models and optimisation model.
WP3 expands the WP2 work and highlights the biomass resource modelling and agro-ecosystem C/N cycle simulation by building empirical database and re-parameterising the plant growth sub-model.
WP4 focuses on the environmental and economic performance evaluation of the promising technologies and the biorefinery system integration configurations.
WP5 aims to explore strategic design of representative UK case studies over multiple time periods under future environmental changes and demographic and economic trends.
WP6 will adapt and apply the developed model in representative overseas case studies which are of relevance to the UK.
To ensure ReSBio impacts, WP7 is dedicated to research output synthesis and project dissemination.

ReSBio will help to understand the research merit of biomass and conversion technologies for UK biorenewable value chains under future changes and identify the sustainable and resilient design for UK biorenewables systems over next decades. ReSBio will generate new insights into the biorenewable potential in future UK infrastructure transition strategies and bio-economy.

Planned Impact

The main beneficiaries of knowledge arising from the project 'ReSBio' are anticipated to be the UK government and policy-makers (e.g. Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)), RCUK bodies (e.g. EPSRC, UKERC), UK business stakeholders and networks on biorenewables and energy-water-waste infrastructure (e.g. Energy Futures Lab, NNFCC, The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), Biorenewable Development Centre (BDC), SUPERGEN Bioenergy Hub), UK academic communities and international policy-makers, organisations and stakeholders. They will benefit from the proposed user-oriented biorenewable modelling research by being engaged throughout the model scoping, development, application and dissemination.
The proposed research will contribute to the future UK economic competitiveness and impact sustainability and resilience agenda by informing the decision-makers on strategic design of biorenewable systems at national/regional/corporate levels. The integrated model and generated insights will highlight the opportunities for economic benefits (e.g. cost-optimal solutions with improved resource efficiency) and pave the way for biorenewable sectors, best supporting UK bio-economy and mitigating future demographic and environmental changes. ReSBio will have significant societal impacts by advancing UK innovation and development of biorenewables, which will help to enhance the UK resilience to resource and energy insecurity and enable the UK to step forward towards 2050 GHG reduction targets.
ReSBio research will effectively inform UK government and stakeholders by identifying potential pathways to a sustainable biorenewable future. Firstly, user-oriented modelling approach will ensure model functionality, objectives, architecture to be developed from user perspectives and system indicators, model boundary and case studies to be identified and explored in line with sustainability and resilience agenda at national/corporate levels. The developed open-source model will enable decision-makers to engage better in model application to problem-solving and system-wide design. Secondly, ReSBio concerns the whole biorenewable sector and covers a wide range of feedstock and technologies thus the model will generate holistic insights into biorenewable system design options and impact researchers working in these areas. Such holistic model-derived evidences can effectively inform policy-makers at various policy process stages (e.g. option identification, policy selection) and provide directions for future research. Thirdly, the integrated modelling platform will provide dynamic forecasting insights into the influences of future environmental change on biorenewable systems and optimise the future biorenewable-energy-water infrastructure transition strategies with changing environment and demographic/economic conditions. This will assist decision-makers with incentive programmes and environmentally resilient strategies for the bio-sectors. Finally, knowledge arising from representative biorenewable case studies will provide engaged stakeholders with valuable information on the commercialization feasibility and supply chain optimisation of advanced biorenewables at corporate level.
In addition, the society, policy-makers and stakeholders at EU and international levels will also benefit from the ReSBio research to be carried out in collaboration with project partners as well as their broader stakeholder networks. The integrated model will be adapted to problem-solving under different contexts to derive region-specific bio-renewable systems and the tailored solutions for representative case studies under investigation. Such adapted model with graphical user interfaces will allow for user-interactive configuration of road-mapping for future bio-sectors and inform the investment and policy strategies to be focused on promising systems projected.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description The emerging research gaps have been identified via a successfully-organised workshop at Imperial College, which brought 30 experts across the UK from different sectors (governmental departments, policy-makers, industrial pioneers and experts, academic leaders) to define the model context and objectives under UK bioeconomy and sustainability context and to design the model functions, indicators, boundaries, and case studies from user perspectives. Based on the model scope and functional specifications derived from the workshop discussion and stakeholder engagement, a cross-disciplinary research approach has been adopted and a user-oriented open-source biorenewable system model has been developed beyond state-of-the-art and incorporate lab empirical advances within the overarching modelling framework. Model and use case have been developed with a particular focus on resource-circular biorenewable systems. This Fellowship project has also led to new exploratory research projects in collaboration with industrial and academic partners, such as waste resource recovery, resource-circular manufacturing, precision agriculture systems and optimisation software development, where the mathematical programming approach and cross-disciplinary modelling tools developed under this fellowship have been applied in problem-solving and technology innovation.
Exploitation Route The ReSBio research methodology and modelling tools will be taken forward to applications by project partners and new collaborators via academic knowledge transfer as well as by other potential beneficiaries via engagement activities. Specifically, ReSBio research will be taken forward in the following routes -
1) stakeholder groups/project partners would take the knowledge into problem-solving through their engagement throughout the model and case study development.
2) identified key UK beneficiaries would take the knowledge and ReSBio research finding forward by participation in ReSBio themed events.
3) project partners,ongoing collaborators will take the knowledge forward by ReSBio knowledge exchange activities and our long-term collaboration.
4)International beneficiaries would take this forward by communication at outreach events and our international collaboration. Notably, a wider audience has been reached via my ReSBio research showcase at 2019 Exhibition Road Festival.
5)The research knowledge might be put to use by end-users who have access to my developed models and scientific journal publications. To achieve this, I have followed open-access practice in ReSBio research.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Chemicals

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Energy

Environment

Government

Democracy and Justice

Manufacturing

including Industrial Biotechology

URL http://www.imperial.ac.uk/resbio
 
Description This fellowship research has led to a successful collaboration network, which benefited academic and industrial partners as well as wider beneficiaries e.g. government. The modelling and research approach developed under this fellowship is generating impacts on the industrial applications via academic knowledge transfer schemes e.g. EPSRC KTS scheme. The engagement activities (e.g. model-scoping workshop, invited lectures) raised the awareness of the wider stakeholders from the UK government departments (e.g. BEIS, AFBI), industrial sectors, NGOs and academics to reflect the whole-systems solutions to sustainable bio-economy and resource-circular manufacturing. The insights generated under this fellowship so far have opened up some new research directions e.g. exploratory research on protein-energy recovery from fermentation waste in collaboration with global leading biotechnology pioneers. This fellowship research outputs have also led to follow-on funding opportunities including Royal Academy of Engineering GCRF Seed fund (2019-2020), EPSRC KTS award (2017-2019), Advancing Impact Award under EPSRC IAA at King's College (2020-2021), Research England GCRF award (2018-2019) and 2 PhD studentship awards (2018-2022) as well as attracted industrial funding award (2019-2023). Several follow-on grant applications have been developed building on this EPSRC fellowship project.
First Year Of Impact 2018
Sector Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Energy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology
Impact Types Economic

Policy & public services

 
Description Researher and practitioner training
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description Advancing Impact Award scheme - OpenLCA Optimisation and Data-driven value chains
Amount £60,251 (GBP)
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2020 
End 03/2021
 
Description EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Secondment funding scheme
Amount £46,536 (GBP)
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2017 
End 12/2018
 
Description EPSRC for the Council's Co-operative Awards in Science and Engineering ('CASE' Award)
Amount £102,846 (GBP)
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2018 
End 03/2022
 
Description EPSRC for the Council's Co-operative Awards in Science and Engineering ('CASE' Award)
Amount £107,846 (GBP)
Funding ID 2194316 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2018 
End 03/2022
 
Description Research England GCRF Internal Funding
Amount £173,410 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Department Research England
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2018 
End 07/2019
 
Description Royal Academy of Engineering GCRF Seed Fund
Amount £20,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal Academy of Engineering 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2020 
End 02/2021
 
Description Computer-Aided Decision-Making Tool to Support Precision Farming 
Organisation CNH Industrial America LLC
Country United States 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Under the EPSRC KTS Award support, my team (1 postdoctoral level outward secondee) focus on the knowledge transfer of my EPSRC fellowship to beneficiary (CNH Industrial) i.e. application of mathematical optimisation approach to the arable crop precision farming system.
Collaborator Contribution CNH Industrial/New Holland contributes to the collaboration to host the visit of my team (outward secondee) to CNH industrial and provide expertise and data (sensor data collected from smart machinery) support. As my fellowship partner, CTBE kindly provides support for this research initiative.
Impact This collaboration is sitting at the interface of process system engineering and life sciences. This project started from Dec 2017 and has led to the following outputs - 1) a mathematical optimization tool and a hypothetical sugarcane study have been developed to illustrate the functionality and concept of our modelling research i.e. computer-aided decision-making to optimise precision agriculture operations by interconnected smart machinery and sensor technologies. 2) a research article has been published (Computers and Chemical Engineering,2019, 131: 106585) on data-driven modelling and hybrid solution approach and search algorithms development (metaheuristic/exact algorithms) to reduce CPU time and incorporate data advances into responsive optimisation for sugarcane precision farming. 3) this research attracted wide attention of industry - other potential beneficiaries expressed strong interests in joint research and started preliminary research.
Start Year 2017
 
Description Italian biorenewable case study 
Organisation Novozymes
Country Denmark 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Mathematical model development and case study scoping; biomass sample analyses (lab-based) and biogeochemical model calibration.
Collaborator Contribution CREA-PLF Italy contributed to this collaboration via hosting my visit and granting full access to their experimental plantation as well as staff time assisting with biomass sample collection and processing in the lab; the data/sample derived from the collaboration with CREA-PLF in particular those emerging lignocellulosic biomass with high-yields (e.g. Sida Ermaphrodita, Selfium Perfoliatum) provide basis for model calibration and database development. Novozyme granted access to their internal database on enzyme which is the essential catalyst for conversion of biomass to platform chemicals.
Impact This collaboration is multi-disciplinary at the interface of Plant Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Biogeochemistry and Process System Engineering. The outputs include - 1) The laboratory analyses and field work have been completed which cover the field measurements, analyses of carbon and nitrogen partitioning across biomass (leave, roots, stem, branch) for a given species and genotype; 2) the modelling work, database and case study development, which has the potential to inform decision-making in Italy biorenewable sectors.
Start Year 2017
 
Description Modelling of the water-energy-food nexus via top-down approach coupled with optimisation 
Organisation Imperial College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution As PhD project co-supervisor, I contribute expertise on resources-energy-food nexus modeling.
Collaborator Contribution Imperial College contributes with a DTP studentship and my internal collaborator (PhD primary supervisor) brings expertise on top-down input-output tables and optimisation
Impact This collaboration has led to a DTP supported PhD studentship and a PhD researcher starting in my team from Oct 2018.
Start Year 2018
 
Description Phytoremediation-biorefinery modelling 
Organisation Imperial College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Based on the EPSRC-funded fellowship research, I and my research team are bringing expertise on mathematical modelling and biorefinery in the collaborative research on integration of phytoremediation with bioremediation to bridge the decision spaces and technology innovation across environment and manufacturing.
Collaborator Contribution Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College provides support with a DTP PhD studentship. Project collaborator from School of Environment at Tsinghua University contributes with expertise on sustainable phytoremediation (i.e. use terrestrial plants to stabilize or extract heavy metal from contaminated soils).
Impact This cross-disciplinary research is sitting at the interface of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering. The outputs from this collaboration are as follows - 1) a PhD student under my supervision at Imperial College incorporated phytoremediation in his PhD topic under the collaboration support from Tsinghua Universit 2) two articles have been published - Phytoremediation: Climate change resilience and sustainability assessment at a coastal brownfield redevelopment, Environmental International, 130: 104945; Phytoremediation value chains and modelling, 2019 in Book Sustainable Remediation of Contaminated Soil and Groundwater. 3) I have been invited journal editor (Sci Total Environ) to launch a special issue on this research topic
Start Year 2018
 
Description Phytoremediation-biorefinery modelling 
Organisation Tsinghua University China
Country China 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Based on the EPSRC-funded fellowship research, I and my research team are bringing expertise on mathematical modelling and biorefinery in the collaborative research on integration of phytoremediation with bioremediation to bridge the decision spaces and technology innovation across environment and manufacturing.
Collaborator Contribution Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College provides support with a DTP PhD studentship. Project collaborator from School of Environment at Tsinghua University contributes with expertise on sustainable phytoremediation (i.e. use terrestrial plants to stabilize or extract heavy metal from contaminated soils).
Impact This cross-disciplinary research is sitting at the interface of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering. The outputs from this collaboration are as follows - 1) a PhD student under my supervision at Imperial College incorporated phytoremediation in his PhD topic under the collaboration support from Tsinghua Universit 2) two articles have been published - Phytoremediation: Climate change resilience and sustainability assessment at a coastal brownfield redevelopment, Environmental International, 130: 104945; Phytoremediation value chains and modelling, 2019 in Book Sustainable Remediation of Contaminated Soil and Groundwater. 3) I have been invited journal editor (Sci Total Environ) to launch a special issue on this research topic
Start Year 2018
 
Description Production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste 
Organisation Imperial College London
Department Department of Chemical Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This project is essentially a research derived from the EPSRC funded fellowship project. Resource-circular and food (as high-value bio-products) have been highlighted as research priorities in the ReSBio workshop in 2017. Since then, I have been working actively in the protein-energy-waste nexus and initiated collaboration with Quorn Foods. Further building on my active collaboration with research team from Tsinghua University and network at International Rice Research Institute, I formed this collaboration consortium and applied for the internal funds at Imperial College.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions by each partners are detailed below - 1). Novozymes: access to a range of LCIA results for enzymes based on our internal LCA database and free samples on enzyme products to support experiments 2). Tsinghua University:extensive experience on strain screening, modification, fermentation process control downstream processing and patented airlift fermenter design enabling continuous fermentation 3). International Rice Research Institute: provides rice straw sample support for experiments and expertise support on rice breeding and cultivation as well as value-added products generation from agricultural waste i.e. rice straw. 4). Imperial College London: A collaborator from Chemical Engineering Department to contribute expertise on ionic liquid pretreatment to explore lignocellulosic sugar as food-grade fermentation feedstock; internal funding support through Research England GCRF funds to form the research team and prepare international consortium to respond to future funding opportunities. 5. Quorn: expertise support on mycoprotein production
Impact This collaboration builds on cross-disciplinary knowledge on Chemical Engineering, Green Chemistry, Plant Sciences and Process Systems Engineering. The research outcomes by far include - 1) A Imperial College-led international consortium has been established to respond to future research calls. Kick off project meeting has been organised in Dec 2018 at Imperial; further meetings have been organised including monthly online webinars and workshop at Imperial in 2019. 2) Collaborative research have been carried out, including - straw samples of different rice varieties have been harvested by International Rice Research Institute and delivered to Imperial for experiments; enzyme samples have been delivered from Novozyme to support experiments and modelling; strain screening for animal feed single cell protein has been performed at Tsinghua University; process design for single cell protein production has been completed in my team. 3) Research articles published (Computer-aided Chemical Engineering, 2020, 48:985) or under review. This has the potential to impact industry technology. 4) A PhD research project on this topic is still ongoing.
Start Year 2018
 
Description Production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste 
Organisation International Rice Research Institute
Country Philippines 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution This project is essentially a research derived from the EPSRC funded fellowship project. Resource-circular and food (as high-value bio-products) have been highlighted as research priorities in the ReSBio workshop in 2017. Since then, I have been working actively in the protein-energy-waste nexus and initiated collaboration with Quorn Foods. Further building on my active collaboration with research team from Tsinghua University and network at International Rice Research Institute, I formed this collaboration consortium and applied for the internal funds at Imperial College.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions by each partners are detailed below - 1). Novozymes: access to a range of LCIA results for enzymes based on our internal LCA database and free samples on enzyme products to support experiments 2). Tsinghua University:extensive experience on strain screening, modification, fermentation process control downstream processing and patented airlift fermenter design enabling continuous fermentation 3). International Rice Research Institute: provides rice straw sample support for experiments and expertise support on rice breeding and cultivation as well as value-added products generation from agricultural waste i.e. rice straw. 4). Imperial College London: A collaborator from Chemical Engineering Department to contribute expertise on ionic liquid pretreatment to explore lignocellulosic sugar as food-grade fermentation feedstock; internal funding support through Research England GCRF funds to form the research team and prepare international consortium to respond to future funding opportunities. 5. Quorn: expertise support on mycoprotein production
Impact This collaboration builds on cross-disciplinary knowledge on Chemical Engineering, Green Chemistry, Plant Sciences and Process Systems Engineering. The research outcomes by far include - 1) A Imperial College-led international consortium has been established to respond to future research calls. Kick off project meeting has been organised in Dec 2018 at Imperial; further meetings have been organised including monthly online webinars and workshop at Imperial in 2019. 2) Collaborative research have been carried out, including - straw samples of different rice varieties have been harvested by International Rice Research Institute and delivered to Imperial for experiments; enzyme samples have been delivered from Novozyme to support experiments and modelling; strain screening for animal feed single cell protein has been performed at Tsinghua University; process design for single cell protein production has been completed in my team. 3) Research articles published (Computer-aided Chemical Engineering, 2020, 48:985) or under review. This has the potential to impact industry technology. 4) A PhD research project on this topic is still ongoing.
Start Year 2018
 
Description Production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste 
Organisation Novozymes
Country Denmark 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution This project is essentially a research derived from the EPSRC funded fellowship project. Resource-circular and food (as high-value bio-products) have been highlighted as research priorities in the ReSBio workshop in 2017. Since then, I have been working actively in the protein-energy-waste nexus and initiated collaboration with Quorn Foods. Further building on my active collaboration with research team from Tsinghua University and network at International Rice Research Institute, I formed this collaboration consortium and applied for the internal funds at Imperial College.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions by each partners are detailed below - 1). Novozymes: access to a range of LCIA results for enzymes based on our internal LCA database and free samples on enzyme products to support experiments 2). Tsinghua University:extensive experience on strain screening, modification, fermentation process control downstream processing and patented airlift fermenter design enabling continuous fermentation 3). International Rice Research Institute: provides rice straw sample support for experiments and expertise support on rice breeding and cultivation as well as value-added products generation from agricultural waste i.e. rice straw. 4). Imperial College London: A collaborator from Chemical Engineering Department to contribute expertise on ionic liquid pretreatment to explore lignocellulosic sugar as food-grade fermentation feedstock; internal funding support through Research England GCRF funds to form the research team and prepare international consortium to respond to future funding opportunities. 5. Quorn: expertise support on mycoprotein production
Impact This collaboration builds on cross-disciplinary knowledge on Chemical Engineering, Green Chemistry, Plant Sciences and Process Systems Engineering. The research outcomes by far include - 1) A Imperial College-led international consortium has been established to respond to future research calls. Kick off project meeting has been organised in Dec 2018 at Imperial; further meetings have been organised including monthly online webinars and workshop at Imperial in 2019. 2) Collaborative research have been carried out, including - straw samples of different rice varieties have been harvested by International Rice Research Institute and delivered to Imperial for experiments; enzyme samples have been delivered from Novozyme to support experiments and modelling; strain screening for animal feed single cell protein has been performed at Tsinghua University; process design for single cell protein production has been completed in my team. 3) Research articles published (Computer-aided Chemical Engineering, 2020, 48:985) or under review. This has the potential to impact industry technology. 4) A PhD research project on this topic is still ongoing.
Start Year 2018
 
Description Production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste 
Organisation Quorn Foods Limited
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution This project is essentially a research derived from the EPSRC funded fellowship project. Resource-circular and food (as high-value bio-products) have been highlighted as research priorities in the ReSBio workshop in 2017. Since then, I have been working actively in the protein-energy-waste nexus and initiated collaboration with Quorn Foods. Further building on my active collaboration with research team from Tsinghua University and network at International Rice Research Institute, I formed this collaboration consortium and applied for the internal funds at Imperial College.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions by each partners are detailed below - 1). Novozymes: access to a range of LCIA results for enzymes based on our internal LCA database and free samples on enzyme products to support experiments 2). Tsinghua University:extensive experience on strain screening, modification, fermentation process control downstream processing and patented airlift fermenter design enabling continuous fermentation 3). International Rice Research Institute: provides rice straw sample support for experiments and expertise support on rice breeding and cultivation as well as value-added products generation from agricultural waste i.e. rice straw. 4). Imperial College London: A collaborator from Chemical Engineering Department to contribute expertise on ionic liquid pretreatment to explore lignocellulosic sugar as food-grade fermentation feedstock; internal funding support through Research England GCRF funds to form the research team and prepare international consortium to respond to future funding opportunities. 5. Quorn: expertise support on mycoprotein production
Impact This collaboration builds on cross-disciplinary knowledge on Chemical Engineering, Green Chemistry, Plant Sciences and Process Systems Engineering. The research outcomes by far include - 1) A Imperial College-led international consortium has been established to respond to future research calls. Kick off project meeting has been organised in Dec 2018 at Imperial; further meetings have been organised including monthly online webinars and workshop at Imperial in 2019. 2) Collaborative research have been carried out, including - straw samples of different rice varieties have been harvested by International Rice Research Institute and delivered to Imperial for experiments; enzyme samples have been delivered from Novozyme to support experiments and modelling; strain screening for animal feed single cell protein has been performed at Tsinghua University; process design for single cell protein production has been completed in my team. 3) Research articles published (Computer-aided Chemical Engineering, 2020, 48:985) or under review. This has the potential to impact industry technology. 4) A PhD research project on this topic is still ongoing.
Start Year 2018
 
Description Production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste 
Organisation Tsinghua University China
Country China 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This project is essentially a research derived from the EPSRC funded fellowship project. Resource-circular and food (as high-value bio-products) have been highlighted as research priorities in the ReSBio workshop in 2017. Since then, I have been working actively in the protein-energy-waste nexus and initiated collaboration with Quorn Foods. Further building on my active collaboration with research team from Tsinghua University and network at International Rice Research Institute, I formed this collaboration consortium and applied for the internal funds at Imperial College.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions by each partners are detailed below - 1). Novozymes: access to a range of LCIA results for enzymes based on our internal LCA database and free samples on enzyme products to support experiments 2). Tsinghua University:extensive experience on strain screening, modification, fermentation process control downstream processing and patented airlift fermenter design enabling continuous fermentation 3). International Rice Research Institute: provides rice straw sample support for experiments and expertise support on rice breeding and cultivation as well as value-added products generation from agricultural waste i.e. rice straw. 4). Imperial College London: A collaborator from Chemical Engineering Department to contribute expertise on ionic liquid pretreatment to explore lignocellulosic sugar as food-grade fermentation feedstock; internal funding support through Research England GCRF funds to form the research team and prepare international consortium to respond to future funding opportunities. 5. Quorn: expertise support on mycoprotein production
Impact This collaboration builds on cross-disciplinary knowledge on Chemical Engineering, Green Chemistry, Plant Sciences and Process Systems Engineering. The research outcomes by far include - 1) A Imperial College-led international consortium has been established to respond to future research calls. Kick off project meeting has been organised in Dec 2018 at Imperial; further meetings have been organised including monthly online webinars and workshop at Imperial in 2019. 2) Collaborative research have been carried out, including - straw samples of different rice varieties have been harvested by International Rice Research Institute and delivered to Imperial for experiments; enzyme samples have been delivered from Novozyme to support experiments and modelling; strain screening for animal feed single cell protein has been performed at Tsinghua University; process design for single cell protein production has been completed in my team. 3) Research articles published (Computer-aided Chemical Engineering, 2020, 48:985) or under review. This has the potential to impact industry technology. 4) A PhD research project on this topic is still ongoing.
Start Year 2018
 
Description Protein-energy-waste nexus 
Organisation Imperial College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution My team has been working actively to develop a new closed-loop system solution for the protein-energy co-recovery from fermentation waste. Under the support of internal collaborators (two teams from Departments of Chemical Engineering and Civil& Environmental Engineering as well as Life Sciences), my team (part-time RA, 1 academic visitor funded by China) has been working in the lab from 2017 Dec-Oct 2018 to develop waste-recovery technology solutions (e.g. carbon and nutrient recovery from fermentation effluent). Currently a DTP-funded PhD student in my team is combining experimental innovation with process design and mathematical programming.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions of partners are detailed as below 1) Quorn Foods support this partnership with direct financial support (contribution towards PhD studentship and lab consumables for DNA sequencing), as well as in-kind contribution (including staff time, access to their samples, research/pilot facilities and operational data). 2) Internal collaborators at Imperial College internal offered strong support with full access to their lab facilities (e.g. UPLC-MS, GC, HPLC) and expertise support as well as staff support (e.g. their PIs time) 3) Imperial College supported this project with a EPSRC DTP studentship to support a PhD under my supervision.
Impact This collaboration, which started from Nov 2017, brings expertise from diverse disciplines across Microbial Ecology, Biochemistry, Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering. The research building on our academic knowledge on both modelling and empirical work, is still on-going, which has derived some preliminary lab results. Most importantly, this research under the context of circular bio-economy is expected to lead to long-lasting collaboration on cutting-edge resource-recovery technology development and follow-up funding opportunities. This industrial-academic collaboration has led to the following outputs - 1). three joint journal articles with Chinese academic visitor have been published. 2). industrial funding support on CASE PhD scholarship to support a PhD student in my team at Imperial College 3) very promising experimental results (including analytical experimental results and sequencing data) for technology development to co-recover energy-protein from effluent; experimental results have been integrated with process design and mathematical optimisation (manuscript submitted under review) 5). collaboration research scope expended to upstream single cell protein production, which has led to further funding opportunities (please see entry on 'Production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste')
Start Year 2017
 
Description Protein-energy-waste nexus 
Organisation Quorn Foods Limited
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution My team has been working actively to develop a new closed-loop system solution for the protein-energy co-recovery from fermentation waste. Under the support of internal collaborators (two teams from Departments of Chemical Engineering and Civil& Environmental Engineering as well as Life Sciences), my team (part-time RA, 1 academic visitor funded by China) has been working in the lab from 2017 Dec-Oct 2018 to develop waste-recovery technology solutions (e.g. carbon and nutrient recovery from fermentation effluent). Currently a DTP-funded PhD student in my team is combining experimental innovation with process design and mathematical programming.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions of partners are detailed as below 1) Quorn Foods support this partnership with direct financial support (contribution towards PhD studentship and lab consumables for DNA sequencing), as well as in-kind contribution (including staff time, access to their samples, research/pilot facilities and operational data). 2) Internal collaborators at Imperial College internal offered strong support with full access to their lab facilities (e.g. UPLC-MS, GC, HPLC) and expertise support as well as staff support (e.g. their PIs time) 3) Imperial College supported this project with a EPSRC DTP studentship to support a PhD under my supervision.
Impact This collaboration, which started from Nov 2017, brings expertise from diverse disciplines across Microbial Ecology, Biochemistry, Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering. The research building on our academic knowledge on both modelling and empirical work, is still on-going, which has derived some preliminary lab results. Most importantly, this research under the context of circular bio-economy is expected to lead to long-lasting collaboration on cutting-edge resource-recovery technology development and follow-up funding opportunities. This industrial-academic collaboration has led to the following outputs - 1). three joint journal articles with Chinese academic visitor have been published. 2). industrial funding support on CASE PhD scholarship to support a PhD student in my team at Imperial College 3) very promising experimental results (including analytical experimental results and sequencing data) for technology development to co-recover energy-protein from effluent; experimental results have been integrated with process design and mathematical optimisation (manuscript submitted under review) 5). collaboration research scope expended to upstream single cell protein production, which has led to further funding opportunities (please see entry on 'Production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste')
Start Year 2017
 
Description UK biorenewable systems modelling 
Organisation Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Model scoping workshop organisation at Imperial College, which brought wider stakeholders together from different sectors to define the model context and objectives under UK bioeconomy and sustainability context and to design the model functions, indicators, boundaries, and case studies from user perspectives. Based on the model function specification scoped by workshop and stakeholder engagement, overarching model integrating biogeochemical model and optimisation mathematical model is under progressing.
Collaborator Contribution All partners kindly provided strong support for this collaboration via their valuable expertise in Plant Biology, Resource-circular Bioeconomy and Biorenewables. Specifically, University of Aberdeen contributed to this collaboration significantly via workshop participation, hosting my visit, granting full access to their models and database as well as contributing to joint paper and follow-up grant drafting. AFBI and NNFCC contributed to this collaboration via bringing strong expertise on bioremediation and bioeconomy to model scoping and participating workshop at Imperial in 2017. WRAP contributed to this partnership via one-to-one meetings at Imperial, advising on the model scoping, stakeholder engagement. Rothasted Research brought strong expertise on biomass and contributed to the workshop discussion hosted at Imperial College.
Impact This collaboration is highly cross-disciplinary, combining the expertise in Chemical Engineering, Biology and Biogeochemistry, Chemistry. This research has led to the following outputs - 1) A ReSBio Model Scoping Workshop has been organised, which led to model functional specification, forming the basis for model development under this fellowship project 'ReSBio'. The outcome has been prepared as a comprehensive paper to be submitted to a high-impact journal (under discussion with the journal editor); and the model as well as use case are under development. 2). Another important outcome is the research gaps emerged following-up the workshop and the new research opportunities developed through my collaborator's network e.g. production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste. Such new research is being carried out in strong collaboration with academic and industrial partner and is expected to inform both industrial and policy decision-making via academic knowledge transfer. 3). research articles have been published.
Start Year 2017
 
Description UK biorenewable systems modelling 
Organisation National Non-Food Crops Centre
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Model scoping workshop organisation at Imperial College, which brought wider stakeholders together from different sectors to define the model context and objectives under UK bioeconomy and sustainability context and to design the model functions, indicators, boundaries, and case studies from user perspectives. Based on the model function specification scoped by workshop and stakeholder engagement, overarching model integrating biogeochemical model and optimisation mathematical model is under progressing.
Collaborator Contribution All partners kindly provided strong support for this collaboration via their valuable expertise in Plant Biology, Resource-circular Bioeconomy and Biorenewables. Specifically, University of Aberdeen contributed to this collaboration significantly via workshop participation, hosting my visit, granting full access to their models and database as well as contributing to joint paper and follow-up grant drafting. AFBI and NNFCC contributed to this collaboration via bringing strong expertise on bioremediation and bioeconomy to model scoping and participating workshop at Imperial in 2017. WRAP contributed to this partnership via one-to-one meetings at Imperial, advising on the model scoping, stakeholder engagement. Rothasted Research brought strong expertise on biomass and contributed to the workshop discussion hosted at Imperial College.
Impact This collaboration is highly cross-disciplinary, combining the expertise in Chemical Engineering, Biology and Biogeochemistry, Chemistry. This research has led to the following outputs - 1) A ReSBio Model Scoping Workshop has been organised, which led to model functional specification, forming the basis for model development under this fellowship project 'ReSBio'. The outcome has been prepared as a comprehensive paper to be submitted to a high-impact journal (under discussion with the journal editor); and the model as well as use case are under development. 2). Another important outcome is the research gaps emerged following-up the workshop and the new research opportunities developed through my collaborator's network e.g. production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste. Such new research is being carried out in strong collaboration with academic and industrial partner and is expected to inform both industrial and policy decision-making via academic knowledge transfer. 3). research articles have been published.
Start Year 2017
 
Description UK biorenewable systems modelling 
Organisation Rothamsted Research
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Model scoping workshop organisation at Imperial College, which brought wider stakeholders together from different sectors to define the model context and objectives under UK bioeconomy and sustainability context and to design the model functions, indicators, boundaries, and case studies from user perspectives. Based on the model function specification scoped by workshop and stakeholder engagement, overarching model integrating biogeochemical model and optimisation mathematical model is under progressing.
Collaborator Contribution All partners kindly provided strong support for this collaboration via their valuable expertise in Plant Biology, Resource-circular Bioeconomy and Biorenewables. Specifically, University of Aberdeen contributed to this collaboration significantly via workshop participation, hosting my visit, granting full access to their models and database as well as contributing to joint paper and follow-up grant drafting. AFBI and NNFCC contributed to this collaboration via bringing strong expertise on bioremediation and bioeconomy to model scoping and participating workshop at Imperial in 2017. WRAP contributed to this partnership via one-to-one meetings at Imperial, advising on the model scoping, stakeholder engagement. Rothasted Research brought strong expertise on biomass and contributed to the workshop discussion hosted at Imperial College.
Impact This collaboration is highly cross-disciplinary, combining the expertise in Chemical Engineering, Biology and Biogeochemistry, Chemistry. This research has led to the following outputs - 1) A ReSBio Model Scoping Workshop has been organised, which led to model functional specification, forming the basis for model development under this fellowship project 'ReSBio'. The outcome has been prepared as a comprehensive paper to be submitted to a high-impact journal (under discussion with the journal editor); and the model as well as use case are under development. 2). Another important outcome is the research gaps emerged following-up the workshop and the new research opportunities developed through my collaborator's network e.g. production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste. Such new research is being carried out in strong collaboration with academic and industrial partner and is expected to inform both industrial and policy decision-making via academic knowledge transfer. 3). research articles have been published.
Start Year 2017
 
Description UK biorenewable systems modelling 
Organisation University of Aberdeen
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Model scoping workshop organisation at Imperial College, which brought wider stakeholders together from different sectors to define the model context and objectives under UK bioeconomy and sustainability context and to design the model functions, indicators, boundaries, and case studies from user perspectives. Based on the model function specification scoped by workshop and stakeholder engagement, overarching model integrating biogeochemical model and optimisation mathematical model is under progressing.
Collaborator Contribution All partners kindly provided strong support for this collaboration via their valuable expertise in Plant Biology, Resource-circular Bioeconomy and Biorenewables. Specifically, University of Aberdeen contributed to this collaboration significantly via workshop participation, hosting my visit, granting full access to their models and database as well as contributing to joint paper and follow-up grant drafting. AFBI and NNFCC contributed to this collaboration via bringing strong expertise on bioremediation and bioeconomy to model scoping and participating workshop at Imperial in 2017. WRAP contributed to this partnership via one-to-one meetings at Imperial, advising on the model scoping, stakeholder engagement. Rothasted Research brought strong expertise on biomass and contributed to the workshop discussion hosted at Imperial College.
Impact This collaboration is highly cross-disciplinary, combining the expertise in Chemical Engineering, Biology and Biogeochemistry, Chemistry. This research has led to the following outputs - 1) A ReSBio Model Scoping Workshop has been organised, which led to model functional specification, forming the basis for model development under this fellowship project 'ReSBio'. The outcome has been prepared as a comprehensive paper to be submitted to a high-impact journal (under discussion with the journal editor); and the model as well as use case are under development. 2). Another important outcome is the research gaps emerged following-up the workshop and the new research opportunities developed through my collaborator's network e.g. production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste. Such new research is being carried out in strong collaboration with academic and industrial partner and is expected to inform both industrial and policy decision-making via academic knowledge transfer. 3). research articles have been published.
Start Year 2017
 
Description UK biorenewable systems modelling 
Organisation Waste and Resources Action Programme
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Model scoping workshop organisation at Imperial College, which brought wider stakeholders together from different sectors to define the model context and objectives under UK bioeconomy and sustainability context and to design the model functions, indicators, boundaries, and case studies from user perspectives. Based on the model function specification scoped by workshop and stakeholder engagement, overarching model integrating biogeochemical model and optimisation mathematical model is under progressing.
Collaborator Contribution All partners kindly provided strong support for this collaboration via their valuable expertise in Plant Biology, Resource-circular Bioeconomy and Biorenewables. Specifically, University of Aberdeen contributed to this collaboration significantly via workshop participation, hosting my visit, granting full access to their models and database as well as contributing to joint paper and follow-up grant drafting. AFBI and NNFCC contributed to this collaboration via bringing strong expertise on bioremediation and bioeconomy to model scoping and participating workshop at Imperial in 2017. WRAP contributed to this partnership via one-to-one meetings at Imperial, advising on the model scoping, stakeholder engagement. Rothasted Research brought strong expertise on biomass and contributed to the workshop discussion hosted at Imperial College.
Impact This collaboration is highly cross-disciplinary, combining the expertise in Chemical Engineering, Biology and Biogeochemistry, Chemistry. This research has led to the following outputs - 1) A ReSBio Model Scoping Workshop has been organised, which led to model functional specification, forming the basis for model development under this fellowship project 'ReSBio'. The outcome has been prepared as a comprehensive paper to be submitted to a high-impact journal (under discussion with the journal editor); and the model as well as use case are under development. 2). Another important outcome is the research gaps emerged following-up the workshop and the new research opportunities developed through my collaborator's network e.g. production of single-cell proteins from agricultural and forestry waste. Such new research is being carried out in strong collaboration with academic and industrial partner and is expected to inform both industrial and policy decision-making via academic knowledge transfer. 3). research articles have been published.
Start Year 2017
 
Description Urban-hinterland biorenewable-green infrastructure modelling 
Organisation Imperial College London
Department Department of Chemical Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I brought my multi-disciplinary expertise in particular the process systems engineering and biophysical systems modelling (e.g. plant-land-climate interaction and interdependency with built environment under EPSRC fellowship) to this collaboration and provide support to a part-time postdoc funded by internal feasibility study award at Imperial. I further expanded this collaboration to work with a senior academic from Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London and support a part-time researcher working on landscape optimization for ecosystem services generated by green infrastructure.
Collaborator Contribution Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College provides financial support through internal grant code; additional fund of £10000 was provided by CEI at Imperial through internal funding call. Internal collaborator from Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College brings strong expertise on ecosystem services; Peking University contributes to this project with urban eco-design case development.
Impact 1. This collaboration sits at the border of Landscape Architecture, Life Sciences, Process System Engineering. The knowledge developed under this Fellowship (biorenewable-resource systems) has contributed to the initial internal collaboration on urban energy-water-waste decision-making tool, leading to a published paper on Environmental Science & Technology. Under the CEI seed funds support, this decision-making tool was further extended to incorporate the eco-design concept and green infrastructure components, where my modelling research under EPSRC fellowship contributed. This not only leads to a joint research article but also impacted the decision-making in China in terms of natural resource planning. 2. In Jan 2019, this research topic is further expanded in collaboration with experts from Life Sciences.A researcher (supported by internal funding) was working in my team to develop optimization model to model the ecosystem services =and to optimise the efficiency with which natural resources are used. In this research, terrestrial plants are considered as the green infrastructure, which not only can be converted to value-added products but also provide nature-based solutions to deliver ecosystem services including temperature regulation and carbon mitigation. 3. Two research articles published (Environmental Science & Technolog, 2018, 52(5):3257-3266; ISCIENCE, 2020, 23(11):101743)
Start Year 2018
 
Description Urban-hinterland biorenewable-green infrastructure modelling 
Organisation Peking University
Country China 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I brought my multi-disciplinary expertise in particular the process systems engineering and biophysical systems modelling (e.g. plant-land-climate interaction and interdependency with built environment under EPSRC fellowship) to this collaboration and provide support to a part-time postdoc funded by internal feasibility study award at Imperial. I further expanded this collaboration to work with a senior academic from Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London and support a part-time researcher working on landscape optimization for ecosystem services generated by green infrastructure.
Collaborator Contribution Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College provides financial support through internal grant code; additional fund of £10000 was provided by CEI at Imperial through internal funding call. Internal collaborator from Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College brings strong expertise on ecosystem services; Peking University contributes to this project with urban eco-design case development.
Impact 1. This collaboration sits at the border of Landscape Architecture, Life Sciences, Process System Engineering. The knowledge developed under this Fellowship (biorenewable-resource systems) has contributed to the initial internal collaboration on urban energy-water-waste decision-making tool, leading to a published paper on Environmental Science & Technology. Under the CEI seed funds support, this decision-making tool was further extended to incorporate the eco-design concept and green infrastructure components, where my modelling research under EPSRC fellowship contributed. This not only leads to a joint research article but also impacted the decision-making in China in terms of natural resource planning. 2. In Jan 2019, this research topic is further expanded in collaboration with experts from Life Sciences.A researcher (supported by internal funding) was working in my team to develop optimization model to model the ecosystem services =and to optimise the efficiency with which natural resources are used. In this research, terrestrial plants are considered as the green infrastructure, which not only can be converted to value-added products but also provide nature-based solutions to deliver ecosystem services including temperature regulation and carbon mitigation. 3. Two research articles published (Environmental Science & Technolog, 2018, 52(5):3257-3266; ISCIENCE, 2020, 23(11):101743)
Start Year 2018
 
Description Waste-to-resource system modelling 
Organisation Chinese Academy of Sciences
Department Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences
Country China 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The modelling methods developed under this fellowship has contributed to the model development in collaboration with CAS and NTU. Under this collaboration, I have been leading the research and designing the case studies.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions of project partners are detailed as below - 1) Nanyang Technology University (NTU) contributed to this collaboration via expert advice on promising technologies for waste water and organic waste treatment and resource recovery; NTU also provided strong support for my new research line with fully-covered lab consumables and wider stakeholder engagement (e.g. CAS). 2) CHinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) supported database development using their extensive experimental data developed in their previous and ongoing research activities and also provided fully-funded staff time supporting data collection. 3)Hydromantis supported our collaboration with fully-covered access to full range of advanced Hydromantis modelling tools (e.g. GPS-X™, CapdetWorks™).
Impact This multi-disciplinary collaboration builds on the extensive expertise from NTU and CAS as well as my team, sitting at the interface of Environmental Science Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Process System Engineering. This collaboration has led to - 1) one conference paper/book chapter 'Optimisation of Wastewater Treatment and Recovery Solutions in Industrial Parks ' published in 2018 (Computer-aided Chemical Engineering, 43: 1407-1413) 2) joint journal article on phosphorus recovery have been published in 2019 (ChemistryOpen, 2019, 8(8): p. 1109-1120); 3) 1 journal article with CAS on optimisation model and case study has been published in 2020 (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2020, 381: 122643)
Start Year 2017
 
Description Waste-to-resource system modelling 
Organisation Hydromantis Environmental Software Solutions, Inc.
Country Canada 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The modelling methods developed under this fellowship has contributed to the model development in collaboration with CAS and NTU. Under this collaboration, I have been leading the research and designing the case studies.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions of project partners are detailed as below - 1) Nanyang Technology University (NTU) contributed to this collaboration via expert advice on promising technologies for waste water and organic waste treatment and resource recovery; NTU also provided strong support for my new research line with fully-covered lab consumables and wider stakeholder engagement (e.g. CAS). 2) CHinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) supported database development using their extensive experimental data developed in their previous and ongoing research activities and also provided fully-funded staff time supporting data collection. 3)Hydromantis supported our collaboration with fully-covered access to full range of advanced Hydromantis modelling tools (e.g. GPS-X™, CapdetWorks™).
Impact This multi-disciplinary collaboration builds on the extensive expertise from NTU and CAS as well as my team, sitting at the interface of Environmental Science Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Process System Engineering. This collaboration has led to - 1) one conference paper/book chapter 'Optimisation of Wastewater Treatment and Recovery Solutions in Industrial Parks ' published in 2018 (Computer-aided Chemical Engineering, 43: 1407-1413) 2) joint journal article on phosphorus recovery have been published in 2019 (ChemistryOpen, 2019, 8(8): p. 1109-1120); 3) 1 journal article with CAS on optimisation model and case study has been published in 2020 (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2020, 381: 122643)
Start Year 2017
 
Description Waste-to-resource system modelling 
Organisation Nanyang Technological University
Country Singapore 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The modelling methods developed under this fellowship has contributed to the model development in collaboration with CAS and NTU. Under this collaboration, I have been leading the research and designing the case studies.
Collaborator Contribution The contributions of project partners are detailed as below - 1) Nanyang Technology University (NTU) contributed to this collaboration via expert advice on promising technologies for waste water and organic waste treatment and resource recovery; NTU also provided strong support for my new research line with fully-covered lab consumables and wider stakeholder engagement (e.g. CAS). 2) CHinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) supported database development using their extensive experimental data developed in their previous and ongoing research activities and also provided fully-funded staff time supporting data collection. 3)Hydromantis supported our collaboration with fully-covered access to full range of advanced Hydromantis modelling tools (e.g. GPS-X™, CapdetWorks™).
Impact This multi-disciplinary collaboration builds on the extensive expertise from NTU and CAS as well as my team, sitting at the interface of Environmental Science Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Process System Engineering. This collaboration has led to - 1) one conference paper/book chapter 'Optimisation of Wastewater Treatment and Recovery Solutions in Industrial Parks ' published in 2018 (Computer-aided Chemical Engineering, 43: 1407-1413) 2) joint journal article on phosphorus recovery have been published in 2019 (ChemistryOpen, 2019, 8(8): p. 1109-1120); 3) 1 journal article with CAS on optimisation model and case study has been published in 2020 (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2020, 381: 122643)
Start Year 2017
 
Description 2019 AICHE and IWA conference presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentations at two international conferences -2019 AICHE Annual Meeting held in Orlando in Nov and 2019 IWA Resource Recovery held in Italy in Sep
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/559401
 
Description 3 open seminars organisation 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact I hosted three expert teams from abroad and organised three well received open seminars at Imperial College, which aimed to engage academics and wider audience from industry and policy-making and government. Under the support of Energy Futures Lab at Imperial College, the seminars have been very successful. Three seminars focused on -1)biorenewable from biochemical routes using agriculture waste; 2) energy recovery from bio-based renewable resources through thermo-chemical conversion; 3) phytoremediation to extract heavy metals from contaminated soils in developing country context. The seminars are very well received, which led to a lot follow-up dialogues between decision-makers and academics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Delivered presentations at conferences and talks 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Delivered several presentations and invited talks at international conferences and organisations, which aimed to disseminate EPSRC funded ReSBio research and engage wider audience and beneficiaries. Selected recent seminars are listed below as examples.
1) 26th March 2018, Invited seminar 'Biorenewable-resource-waste systems modelling', Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology.
This seminar led to the invitation from Director of CAS, to establish a China-funded joint research centre with Imperial College
2) 22nd March 2018, Invited seminar 'Biorenewable-resource-waste systems modelling and sustainable design', School of Environment, Tsinghua University
This seminar resulted in new collaboration with Deyi Hou's group and the funding offer for exchange programme to support my team to visit Tsinghua; this also led to a joint Royal Society Challenge-led Grant application
3) 4th May 2017 Invited seminar 'Whole systems modelling of circular bioeconomy' at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Lab of Environmental Biotechnology.
This invited seminar led to a co-supervised postgraduate research programme on system modelling of smart wastewater resource recovery at CAS
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018
 
Description Invited lecturer on Bioeconomy Systems at Aberystwyth University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact July 27th 2017, lecture on Bioeconomy Systems at Aberystwyth University under MSc e-learning module on Drivers of the Bioeconomy upon invitation from Stephen Chapman (course coordinator). My lecture covered the topics on- bioeconomy driver, structure (linear vs. circular), bioeconomy transition &challenges, biorenewables (advanced bioeconomy component), resources, thermochemical and biochemical technologies, multi-scale modelling and optimisation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description ReSBio Model Scoping Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The ReSBio Model Scoping Workshop was successfully organised in early 2017. The workshop brought stakeholders together from different sectors (policy and governmental departments, industrial sectors, and academics, NGOs) to define the model context and objectives under UK bioeconomy and sustainability context and to design the model functions, indicators, boundaries, and case studies from user perspectives (e.g. UK bioenergy/biochemical needs, UK-tailored econo-environmental performance indicators, biorenewable value chain case studies). The workshop agenda include The workshop agenda -
10:30-11:00 Arrival & coffee
11:00-11:15 welcome and brief introduction of workshop objectives
11:15-12:30 small group in-depth discussion
12:30-13:15 working lunch and networking
13:15-14:45 workshop discussion (small group feedback mind-maps)
14:45-15:00 closing remarks
30 experts across the UK from BEIS, Greater London Authority, AFBI, CPI, NNFCC, Shell, RReS, CEH, Supergen Hub, BBIA, WRAP, ADBA, Aberdeen, Aberystwyth participated in the workshop. The workshop identified the modelling gaps and scoped the stakeholder-driven model functional specifications, which formed the basis for modelling development under this fellowship. It was a very successful event; the participants sent very positive feedback and have contacted me to enquire about the follow-up feedback workshop on modelling outcomes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.imperial.ac.uk/biorenewable-systems/news-and-events/resbio-model-scoping-workshop/
 
Description Research showcase at 2019 The Great Exhibition Road Festival including designed interactive presentation, on-site fermentation demonstration and sustainable protein tasting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In collaboration with Quorn Foods, our research showcase was hosted at V&A Museum stand No. F2. It has been a very successful event. Our research has attracted extensive interests from the public; we received over 500 visitors per hour on average.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://prezi.com/view/rveDIWxd0TEhkIOSOqJV/
 
Description Website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I established a website to communicate the up-to-date research progress and outcomes derived from this fellowship project. This has not only attracted attention for wider beneficiary engagement but also inspired potential PhD applicants who expressed interests to join the research team.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017,2018
URL http://www.imperial.ac.uk/biorenewable-systems/research/
 
Description Workshops organisation 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Successfully organised two workshops to engage experts from academics and industry, which lead to further research collaboration opportunities. Also the academic knowledge exchange activities at the workshop impacted the decision-making of industrial participants, who are more engaged with follow-on collaboration with academics at Imperial College . In particular I organised an industrial stakeholder engagement workshop in July 2018, where several academics across departments of Life Sciences, Environmental Engineering and Chemical Engineering have been engaged in a research initiative on closed-loop protein manufacturing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018