MSE Talk: Jillian Goldfarb, Cornell University

Speaker: Jillian Goldfarb, Cornell University

Title:: Carbon Recovery by Design: Modular Pathways to Advanced Materials from Hydrothermal Liquefaction Byproducts

Abstract: Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising route to convert wet biomass into fuels and functional materials. Yet despite decades of research, commercial viability remains elusive, largely due to the partitioning of up to half the biomass’ carbon into a solid hydrochar and an organic-laden aqueous phase. This seminar explores how tuning process conditions, leveraging synthetic biology, and designing thermochemical strategies downstream can synergistically unlock new uses for this fugitive carbon. We examine the potential of hydrochars, the residual solids leftover from HTL, to serve as solid fuels, a use case often proposed due to their coal-like properties. However, we recently demonstrated hydrochars ignite 4 to 5 times faster than coal, revealing overlooked combustion dynamics. Yet the chemical shortcomings of these hydrochars can be leveraged to design industrially viable fuels and high-value porous carbons for use as adsorbents, soil amendments and electrodes in supercapacitors. The aqueous phase (AP) poses a greater challenge, containing organics often beyond their solubility limits. While biological treatment is typically hindered by cytotoxicity, we demonstrate that Gluconobacter oxydans can grow on HTL AP, producing valuable biolixiviants, products up to two orders of magnitude more valuable than biogas. This thermodynamically unconstrained route to valorize fugitive carbon is currently under investigation for its ability to produce bacterial nanocellulose, a high-value carbon scaffold for myriad electrochemical, catalytic and medicinal applications. Together, these studies reframe HTL byproducts as feedstocks for a modular biorefinery, where every carbon atom has a purpose.

Bio: Dr. Jillian Goldfarb received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University and Ph.D. from Brown University. She is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University and holds appointments in Systems Engineering, Biological and Environmental Engineering and Archaeology. Dr. Goldfarb’s research tackles challenges surrounding energy generation and its impact on the environment. Her work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the USDA, BARD, and foundations and industry contracts. She has developed new concepts for solid waste to green material conversion and proposed new biorefinery pathways for renewable biofuels, which she’s translated to analytical methods to recover organic residues from ancient pottery. Her work on public understanding of science was highlighted by Dr. Fauci at a White House briefing during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is an outspoken leader on LinkedIn, where she uncovers the Hidden Curriculum to enhance equity in graduate STEM education and improve faculty mentoring. She is a recipient of a NSF CAREER Award, an ACS Green Chemistry Institute GreenX: Rising Star Award, and was a 2017 Fulbright Scholar to Italy. She was named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2023 in recognition of her work on sustainable biofuels and materials, advancing the science policy, and longstanding service to the ACS.