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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: August 18, 2016
Kelly B. Smith, kelly.smith@gatech.edu
Visit The Lignin Group's new website and check out the lastest research involving this major component of all plants and the second most abundant resource of renewable organic material.
Summary Sentence:
Group researches cost-efficient, sustainable processes from lignin
Full Summary:
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Carsten Sievers, The Lignin GroupResearch groups from three Georgia Tech Schools have teamed up with the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) to form the Lignin Group. Through this research collaboration, experts from Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Industrial and Systems Engineering are seeking to develop cost-efficient, ecologically sustainable processes from lignin to defined chemical compounds.
In order to increase outreach, as well as share research projects and publications, the group recently launched its own website.
“We felt it was very important to have a presence on Georgia Tech’s web platform,” said Thomas Kwok, a ChBE Ph.D. candidate and one of the website’s developers. “We hope our research will both inform and inspire the community to see lignin’s great potential.
Lignin is a major component of all plants, and it is the second most abundant resource of renewable organic material. Lignin is typically seen as a waste product to be burned as a low value fuel for cellulosic processes. However, the Lignin Group sees the complex aromatic structure as a precursor for fine chemicals and fuels.
“Utilization of lignin for renewable chemicals and fuels will revolutionize both the chemical industry as well as the production of fuels,” said Professor Andreas S. Bommarius, ChBE.
In order for this transformation to take place, the Lignin Group is emphasizing collaboration in both current and future research. This approach has ignited tremendous excitement in graduate students such as Alex Brittain (ChBE).
“I’m looking forward to learning about other lignin research at Tech, as well as in the lignin community as a whole, outside of Tech,” Brittain said. “I know this group is going to give me new connections and insights for my own research on mechanocatalytic depolymerization of lignin.”
This academic year, four new projects for incoming graduate students will be funded through RBI’s Paper Science and Engineering (PSE) Fellowship program, and a research collaboration has been opened with American Process Inc. With individual funding successes, many faculty members said the Lignin Group will provide them with even more opportunities.
“Many government initiatives call for integrated, multidisciplinary concepts,” said Professor Carsten Sievers. “The Lignin Group will position Georgia Tech to successfully compete for such projects.”
