Dr. Abigail Engelberth, Associate Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering and Agricultural & Biological Engineering at Purdue University will give a talk titled "Evaluating Resource Potential in Undervalued Process Streams."

Abstract
Creating new opportunities for underutilized materials and process streams is the overall goal of my research group. To accomplish this goal, computational modeling is combined with experimental measurements to develop more effective and efficient separations techniques. This combined approach shortens the period of development to implement new approaches or tools for estimating behavior of a component in a solution. The behavior of solutions affects the solubility, partitioning between solvent
phases, interactions with surfaces, and molecule-to-molecule interactions. Fundamental understanding of solution behavior enables the development of processing and purification technologies that enable purification of target biomolecules from complex mixtures, which is of critical impact since biomolecules in natural systems are in complex mixtures often with multiple phases (liquid, solid, gas) present.

A major goal is to develop strategies for purification at 1) the structural level using a molecular modeling approach to better understand partitioning; 2) industrial scale for adding value to the proposed biorefinery; and 3) within streams generally considered to be waste to identify and purify biomolecules or contaminants. At the molecular level, our group has utilized a new method to identify a unique solvent system to purify hemicellulose sugars that can function as probiotics. On a larger scale, we have demonstrated that implementation of a liquid-liquid extraction unit to remove a fermentation inhibitor could reduce the Minimum Ethanol Selling Price (MESP) from the biorefinery by $0.14/gallon. Additionally, we have worked to optimize the conditions, both primary and secondary factors, to produce lactic acid from food waste co-digested with primary sludge – a product that could be highly beneficial to the production of biodegradable plastics. While the individual projects are distinct, all use the same principles and have the same end goal: to recognize and recover potential products from undervalued process streams.