Abigail Engelberth

PULSe Contributor - not currently hosting students for laboratory rotations or recruiting students in the laboratory

Current Research Interests:

Abigail Engelberth is an Assistant Professor in Agricultural and Biological Engineering and in Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. She earned a B.S. and M.E. in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arkansas. Dr. Engelberth was a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Maine and built a process model to emulate the conversion of hemicellulose into liquid fuels via anaerobic digestion. Dr. Engelberth’s research can be broken down into three sections. The first section is to identify new bioproducts or identify new sources from which to obtain existing bioproducts. The second piece is to develop methods to recover bioproducts. This piece will emply separations techniques to extract and/or purify the desired product. The third section involves a simulation of the process model for the recovery and purification steps in order to effectively scale-up the process. The process model will aid in the determination of how much it will 1) cost to produce the product, both in energy and operations, and 2) the market price of the product to either break even or to make a profit. The process mode adds a key feature – determining the actual value of the additional product – that is currently missing in many biomass co-product studies.

Selected Publications:

1. Engelberth, A. S. and G. P. van Walsum (2012). Adding Value to the Integrated Forest Biorefinery with Co-Products from Hemicellulose-Rich Pre-Pulping Extract Biorefinery Co-Products: Phytochemicals, Primary Metabolites and Value-Added Biomass Processing. C. Bergeron, D. J. Carrier and S. Ramaswamy, Wiley: 287-306.

2. Engelberth, A. S., E. C. Clausen, et al. (2010). "Comparing extraction methods to recover ginseng saponins from American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium), followed by purification using fast centrifugal partition chromatography with HPLC verification." Separation and Purification Technology 72(1): 1-6.

3. Engelberth, A. S., D. J. Carrier, et al. (2008). "Separation of Silymarins from Milk Thistle (Silybum MarianumL.) Extracted with Pressurized Hot Water using Fast Centrifugal Partition Chromatography." Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies 31(19): 3001-3011.