(2fp) Heterogeneous Catalysis and Process Development for Sustainable Growth

Research Interests

The vision of my independent research group will be to develop heterogeneous catalytic processes that valorize biomass and waste feedstocks in response to the energy/water/climate crisis. To achieve this vision, our future research will include rational design and characterization of heterogeneous catalysts, operation and optimization of bench-scale catalysis, analysis of economic and environmental impact, and development of catalytic processes toward large-scale and integrated technologies. These research capabilities will be leveraged for advanced energy and environmental applications, including 1) the production of sustainable fuels and chemicals from biomass and renewable waste and 2) renewable feedstock-derived membranes for CO₂ capture and wastewater treatment.

Postdoctoral Research (National Renewable Energy Laboratory with Gregg Beckham). At NREL, as a postdoctoral researcher, my current research focuses on catalysis and process development of lignin-first biorefining to improve its industrial potential. Based on the techno-economic and life-cycle analyses, we addressed and investigated the biorefinery's key energy and cost drivers. Primarily, we devised a reaction engineering strategy, the ‘multi-pass flow-through concept, to reduce overall solvent usage without detrimental process performance. Additionally, we examined the impact of a high-boiling point solvent system with reduced reactor pressure. To suggest a truly feedstock-agnostic biorefinery process, we tested various types of biomass feedstock in batch and flow-through reactor configurations. We are extending our capabilities in the lignin first biorefinery to produce sustainable aviation fuel blendstocks.

1. Jun Hee Jang, David G. Brandner, Reagan J. Dreiling, Arik J. Ringsby, Jeremy R. Bussard, Lisa M. Stanley, Renee M. Happs, Anjaneya S. Kovvali, Joshua I. Cutler, Tom Renders, James R. Bielenberg, Yuriy Román-Leshkov*, and Gregg T. Beckham*, “Multi-Pass Flow-Through Reductive Catalytic Fractionation”, Joule, In press
2. Jun Hee Jang†, Ana Rita C. Morais†, Megan Browning, David G. Brandner, Jacob K. Kenny, Anjaneya S. Kovvali, Joshua I. Cutler, Brian M. Moreno, Yuriy Román-Leshkov*, James R. Bielenberg*, and Gregg T. Beckham*, “Toward Feedstock-Agnostic Reductive Catalytic Fractionation”, In preparation († = co-first author)
3. Abhay Athaley†, Jun Hee Jang†, Rebecca Hanes, David G. Brandner, Jeremy R. Bussard, Andrew Bartling*, and Gregg T. Beckham*, “Techno-Economic Analysis of a Lignin-First Biorefinery Using Reductive Catalytic Fractionation with Butanol-Water Solvent Mixture”, In preparation († = co-first author)

Doctoral Research (University of California, Santa Barbara with Mahdi Abu-Omar). During my Ph.D. at UCSB, my primary research focused on the molecular level reaction mechanism of hydrodeoxygenation of biomass-derived polyols using solid metal oxide catalysts based on in-situ and ex-situ spectroscopic studies and isotope experiments. With kinetic and mechanistic insights, we developed multi-functional heterogeneous catalysts for the efficient and green valorization of biomass-derived intermediates. Resultantly, we proposed a combination of hydrodeoxygenation and catalytic transfer hydrogenation over bifunctional catalysts to convert sugar acids to value-added dicarboxylic acids in one step.

1. Jun Hee Jang, Insoo Ro, Phillip Christopher, and Mahdi M. Abu-Omar*, “A Heterogeneous Catalyst for Making Renewable Adipates in One-Step from Sugar Acids”, ACS Catal., 11 (2021), 95-109
2. Jun Hee Jang and Mahdi M. Abu-Omar*, “Deoxydehydration and Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation: New Strategy to Valorize Tartaric Acid and Succinic Acid to γ-Butyrolactone and Tetrahydrofuran”, Energies, 13 (2020), 6402-6412
3. Jun Hee Jang, Hyuntae Sohn, Jefferey Camacho-Bunquin, Dali Yang, Massimiliano Delferro*, and Mahdi M. Abu-Omar*, “Deoxydehydration of Biomass-Derived Polyols with a Reusable Unsupported Rhenium Nanoparticles Catalyst”, ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng., 7 (2019), 11438-11447
4. Jun Hee Jang†, Jack T. Hopper†, Insoo Ro, Phillip Christopher, and Mahdi M. Abu-Omar*, “One-Step Production of Renewable Adipic Acid Esters from Mucic Acid over a Reusable Ir-ReOx/C Catalyst with Low Ir Loading”, Submitted to Sci. Technol. († = co-first author)

Master’s Research (Seoul National University with Chung-Hak Lee). Prior to starting Ph.D., my M.S. research aimed to leverage polymeric membrane and surface pattern to address the membrane fouling problems. We fabricated ultra- and nano-filtration membranes with micro- and nano-sized surface patterns and investigated their impact on fouling problems in water treatment via coupling of particle deposition and fluid dynamics.

1. Jun Hee Jang, Jaewoo Lee, Seon Yeop Jung, Dong-Chan Choi, Young-June Won, Pyung Kyu Park, Kyung Hyun Ahn, and Chung-Hak Lee*, “Correlation between Particle Deposition and the Size Ratio of Particles to Patterns in Nano- and Micro-Patterned Membranes”, Purif. Technol., 156 (2015), 608-616

Teaching Interests

My pedagogy has been shaped through the teaching experiences in my career. As a senior student in undergraduate, I trained college students to simulate chemical processes with Aspen Plus. This was the time that I recognized the importance of active teaching approaches. It made the students actively engage in trial-and-error to create new solutions. In my Ph.D., I served as a teaching assistant in undergraduate courses (General chemistry lab and Chemical engineering lab) and a graduate course (Advanced reaction engineering). During this time, I developed my teaching skills. With numerous positive feedback from my students and faculty members, I realized that teaching is very rewarding as I saw how students respond and grow. I became more confident with my teaching philosophy and more passionate about teaching. Since then, I have further developed my teaching skills. I participated in creating learning glass videos that bridge general chemistry textbook knowledge and real-world technologies. In addition, I took a pedagogy class at UCSB. It is my belief that the core of chemical engineering education is to impart basic knowledge, to bridge the gap between knowledge and real-world problems, and to expand students’ abilities to create innovative solutions in response to future challenges. To conclude, I am well prepared to teach undergraduate and graduate level core courses in chemical engineering. My particular interest area to teach includes kinetics, thermodynamics, heterogeneous catalysis, and renewable energy & sustainability.