Hanwu Lei

Background

About Hanwu Lei

Dr. Hanwu Lei is a professor and graduate faculty at Department of Biological Systems Engineering and Center for Bioproducts and Bioenergy at Washington State University. Prior to his arrival at WSU, Dr. Lei was an assistant professor and bioprocess engineer and graduate faculty of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at South Dakota State University. Dr. Lei has worked for more than fifteen years in novel approaches for renewable energy and value added process development for agricultural feedstocks and products. Dr. Lei’s research interests include biomass thermochemical conversions (torrefaction, pyrolysis, liquefaction, aqueous phase reforming, catalytic processes, and bio-oil upgrading) to produce phenols, aromatics, hydrocarbons, hydrogen, syngas, biofuels, bioproducts, and use of biochar as a form of carbon sequestration on the impact of fuels process and environment. Dr. Lei’s research activities also include biomass pretreatment for biological or chemical conversion to renewable energy and bioproducts, especially working on hydrothermal pretreatment and clean fractionation processes. Dr. Lei’s research involves design and development of processing technology, optimization of processes, reaction kinetics, and process modeling, and value added product development. Together with his team and collaborators, he is working on a number of exciting research projects. Dr. Lei is the author and co-author of over 150 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He has 13 US patent applications and invention disclosures. Dr. Lei is the US DOE and USDA proposal reviewer/panelist, Division Editor of Renewable Energy System and Associate Editor of Agro-Product and Food Processing Engineering, and is serving on the editorial board for the International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Dr. Lei is a peer reviewer for more that 25 technical journals, such as Green Chemistry, Bioresource Technology, etc.