News: CBE

December 9, 2021 Researchers at Cornell University, partially funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, recently published a study that outlines ways to sustainably repurpose used lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries to reduce their carbon footprint. The researchers investigated how battery chemistry, reuse and recycling influence the energy output and environmental impact of lithium-ion EV batteries. The analysis, published in Science Advances, found that the carbon footprint of a lithium-ion EV battery can be reduced by up to 17% if it is reused before being recycled. Batteries with... Read more

Abstract Soft matter provides the basis of a wide range of consumer products (from skin creams to salad dressings), yet our ability to engineer dynamic interfacial phenomena that underlie the structure and function of many of these products remains primitive. This presentation will explore how liquid crystalline oils can provide new methods to study non-equilibrium states of oil-water interfaces and new designs of functional soft matter. A first example will describe surfactant-driven flows at interfaces of liquid crystals, revealing how liquid crystals enable optical characterization of the... Read more

The Technical University of Denmark features Professor Fengqi You. He discusses quantum computing opportunities in chemical and biological manufacturing and highlights the importance of international collaboration and academic-industry partnership in this field. Read more

Every year, Nazih Kassem sits down to sort through heaps of data detailing the amount of organic waste, in tons, discarded by every restaurant, brewery, distillery, grocery store, farm, and school in New York State. Food waste floods our landfills, while agricultural waste, such as manure, is typically applied to fields. In either case, the waste decomposes and produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. Kassem, a PhD student in Biological and Environmental Engineering, believes that we can redirect organic waste and extract... Read more

A new Cornell-led study identifies several keys to sustainably managing the influx, with an emphasis on battery chemistry, second-life applications and recycling. The study was led by Cornell Engineering Dean Lynden Archer, Systems field member Fengqi You and Systems Ph.D. student Yanqiu Tao. Read more

Fengqi You, Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor at Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was elected as a Director of the Chemical and Technology Operating Council (CTOC). The appointment was recently approved by the Board of Directors of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). As a Director of the CTOC, Professor You will work with fellow council members in two major areas: leading the frontier of chemical engineering in knowledge advancement and disseminating that knowledge. The key stakeholders for CTOC are all AIChE members and the entities - divisions... Read more

Matt DeLisa, the William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering and Director of the Cornell Institute of Biotechnology, was selected as the 2021 recipient of the Biotechnology Progress Award for Excellence in Biological Engineering Publication. The award, which is presented annually at the AIChE Annual Meeting, celebrates excellence and foundational contributions to biotechnology and biological engineering through a body of work: a seminal paper, a review, a research report, or other material of significant interest and importance. Read more

A recently published article from the Escobedo, Stroock, Hanrath, and Cohen groups at Cornell demonstrates via simulations and a simple experimental strategy how a single monolayer of particles can be coaxed to form lattices with either hexagonal or square symmetry. The unique phase behavior observed in this work can provide a template for designing materials for speciality applications with switchable hexagonal↔square packings, e.g., to fabricate optical switches, and optical biosensors. Abstract The entropy-driven monolayer assembly of hexagonal prisms and cylinders was studied under hard... Read more

Matt DeLisa, the William L. Lewis Pressor of Engineering and Director of the Cornell Institute of Biotechnology, published a new study in the Sep. 28 issue of PNAS. The study, "Shotgun scanning glycomutagenesis: A simple and efficient strategy for constructing and characterizing neoglycoproteins," focuses on a glycoprotein engineering strategy that enables systematic investigation of the structural and functional consequences of glycan installation at every position along a protein backbone and provides a new route to bespoke glycoproteins. Asparagine-linked (N-linked) protein glycosylation... Read more

The study was published in the Aug. 30 issue of ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Read more