Waste should not be wasted—it’s too valuable. At a molecular level, this project aims to recapture the energy from municipal waste (food, biomass) and convert it into usable fuels, chemicals, and materials. In a practical sense, it means combing processing techniques to grind, blend, hydrothermally convert and characterize performance. This project includes lab experiments, analytical measurements; based on interest, inclusion of technoeconomic or life cycle modeling is possible.

Faculty Advisor: Andrew Teixeira | WPI (Chemical Engineering)

Teacher Component: The teacher will conduct hydrothermal liquefaction in high pressure/temperature autoclave reactors by preparing a food waste slurry then loading/running the reactor. They will also be responsible using laboratory techniques such as filtration, rotovaping and solvent extraction followed by analytical characterization by gas chromatography, total organic carbon analysis, infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, etc. to shed insight into the molecular processes occurring when the waste is converted to fuels.