Dr. Junli Liu is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) and the Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering (LORRE) at Purdue University. He has been awarded over $1,000,000 from the USDA, John Deere,  Illinois Soybean Association, and the Indiana Soybean Alliance since 2022. He has been actively teaching two undergraduate courses since 2022: ABE 202 Thermodynamics in Biological Systems and ABE 301 Numerical Modeling and Computation in Biological Engineering. 

Research Areas:  

Agricultural, Biological, and Chemical Engineering, Recovery of Critical Mineral Elements (CME) and Rare Earth Element (REE), Seaweeds Utilization and Biorefining, Process Intensification, Carbon Sequestration, biorefining, ultrasound technology, and AI/ML integration in these processes and technologies

The ongoing projects:

• Biokerosene, biolubricants, and biodielectric coolants from ozone cracking of lipids

• Lipid production via fermentation

• Sensors for chemical/biological reactions and downstream refining

• Nonthermal ultrasound-mediated separation of aqueous-organic systems: purification of biobutanol from fermentation broth 

• Glycerol carbonate synthesis from soybean oil-derived glycerol