Deconstruction Engineering Group
Aurelia Cheng
Aurelia is an undergraduate student in her third year at UC Berkeley, double majoring in Chinese and Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis on Biochemistry. Her goals in the Deconstruction Division include: ionic liquid characterization, optimization of crude biomass processing and fractionation using ionic liquids, and characterization of biomass fractions.
Dean Dibble
Dean Dibble is researching pretreatment technology utilizing biomass solvents or ionic liquids as reaction media. The impact of different pretreatment approaches on enzyme-substrate interactions is directly visualized with high resolution scanning probe microscopy to help identify processes that increase saccharification efficiency.
Blake Simmons
Blake Simmons is the manager of the Energy Systems Department of the Sandia National Laboratory. A chemical engineer by training, his expertise includes biofuel cells, nanophotonic materials, microfluidics, nanofluidics, desalination, biomineralization and enzyme engineering. Most recently, he has been studying enzymes isolated from extremophile organisms that could be applied to the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuel material.
Pretreatment Process Engineering Group
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