Education
University of British Columbia, Canada, 1994, Ph.D.
Tsinghua University, China, 1988, Master
Tsinghua University, China, 1985, Bachelor
Qualifications
Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow
Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (APEGBC), Member
Canadian Society of Chemical Engineers (CSChE), Member
American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE), Member
Fluidization Research Centre (FRC), Manager
Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC), Associate Director
Biomass and Bioenergy Research Group (BBRG), Member
UBC Bridge Program, Mentor
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, Guest Professor
China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China, Guest Professor
Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China, Guest Professor
CAS Institute of Process Engineering, Beijing, China, Guest Professor
Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, Guest Professor
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, Guest Professor
CAS Guangzhou Institute for Energy Conversion, Guangzhou, China, Guest Professor
Research Interests
Green Engineering, Clean Energy and Sustainability: Green engineering is the design, commercialization and use of processes and products, which are feasible and economical while minimizing impacts on ecosystems over the full life-cycle. In contrary to traditional engineering approaches in which both technical and economical aspects of a technology are the focal point, green engineering extends our research and development beyond the manufacturing of the material and product to include the ecological impacts of a process/product or a technology on the renewability and sustainability of the raw materials, the toxicity and health risks during the product use, and the recycleability and degradability at the end of the product use. We have been developing environmental systems analysis and life cycle analysis tools to model and evaluate biomass energy systems, including Canadian wood pellets, animal wastes and agricultural residues, as well as integrated impacts assessment of biomass combustion, gasification, torrefaction and pelletization processes. In collaboration with local fuel cell companies, we also work on the development of core-shell nano electro-catalyst particles for applications in PEM fuel cells. Both clean energy and green engineering will be key areas of my research and teaching in the near future.
Fluidization and Multiphase Reactors: Fluidized bed reactors have been widely used in industrial processes for conducting both catalytic and non-catalytic reactions, fuel combustion, particulate drying, powder coating and granulation, electrolysis etc. I started my research career on fluidization in 1985, and have conducted research over many areas, including hydrodynamics, flow patterns and flow regimes, heat transfer, mass transfer, reactor performance testing, modeling and simulation, scaling and scale-up, commercial reactor trouble-shooting etc. covering gas-solids, liquid-solids, gas-liquid-solids bubbling, turbulent and circulating fluidized beds. My current fluidization research is focused on electrostatic charging of dielectric particles in gas-solids fluidized beds, dual fluidized bed for biomass steam gasification and novel i-CFB reactors for catalytic NOx reduction.