Members
Group Members
Professor Lian Zhang
Professor Lian Zhang specialises in the Research, Development and Deployment related to a broad range of high-efficiency and low-emission clean energy technologies, particularly for the advanced utilisation of low-rank coal, biomass and industrial waste. He has also been conducting interdisciplinary research including hydrometallurgical leaching of low-rank coal and biochar for the selective removal of troublesome elements; extraction of specific metals to make construction materials such as MgO nanowires and MgO-Board from low-rank coal fly ash and steelmaking slag; as well as the use of synchrotron – based facilities for both ex-situ and in-situ characterisation of a variety of solid products collected from the clean energy processes.
Research Fellows
Dr Baiqian Dai
Dr Baiqian Dai received his PhD degree from Monash University. He starts working as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Monash University since 2017. He starts his role in the department as a senior lecture since 6th Jan 2020. Dr Dai has published 51 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index of 15. Dr Dai is actively participating in the management of ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Nanoscience-based Construction Material Manufacturing and ARC industrial transformation research hub for energy-efficient separation since 2017.Dr Dai Baiqian's track record on managing and delivering collaborative research innovations have been demonstrated by the awards, research funding, strong publication records and the employment at Monash University
Dr Lei (Leo) Zhang
Dr. Lei Zhang holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Curtin University. He has two postdoctoral experiences at Fuels and Energy Technology Institute in Curtin University and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the University of British Columbia. He is now a Research Engineer in Advanced Fuel Innovation (AFI) and an Adjunct Research Fellow in Monash University, focusing on the research and development of technologies for waste volatilisaion.
Dr Sasha Yang
Sasha Yang completed her bachelor degree in 2013 and then she was offered the admission to study for a master degree without taking the exam in Chemical Engineering at China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing). In 2018, Sasha joined Dr Lian Zhang's group as a PhD student at Monash University. PhD was granted in 2022. Her current research interests include the interaction of biomass components during pyrolysis; catalytic upgrading of bio-oil by ketonisation; synthesis of catalysts from coal fly ash; controlling of HCN and NOx emission from FCC catalysts during regeneration, the migration and transformation of nitrogen during coal pyrolysis and gasification.
Post-graduate students
Nauman Ahmad
Nauman Ahmad received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemical Engineering from University of the Punjab, Pakistan. Initially, he worked on various positions in Industry. His previous research mainly focused on biomass conversion to valuable added chemicals and fuels, including process design and techno-economic analysis. He received the 'Award of Appreciation' for poster presentation at 17th Young Researcher Conference organized by South Korea Waste Resource Recycling Society in 2019, South Korea. He will join Dr. Lian Zhang's research group as PhD student and will be working on 'Catalytic hydrogenation of biomass-derived phenolic compounds to cyclohexanone for bio-oil upgradation'.
Yuneng Tang
Yuneng Tang received his Bachelor's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2020. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at Monash University under the main supervision of Dr. Baiqian Dai in Lian Zhang's group. His present research focuses on oxy-fuel combustion and catalysts regeneration.
Wahyu Narulita Dewi
Wahyu Narulita Dewi completed her bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and master's degree in Bio-Application and System Engineering at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. During her study in Japan, she got fully-funded scholarships from Monbukagakusho (MEXT's scholarship) and Yoneyama Rotary' scholarship for bachelor's and master's degrees, respectively. She had experience in research in developing catalysts to make bio-fuel and simulation of coal gasification power plant with ASPEN Plus. As a current Ph.D. student of Monash University, she is conducting research on upcycling plastic waste and other solid waste material into high-valuable chemicals.
Jingwei Wang
Jingwei Wang completed her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Renewable Energy Engineering at Shenyang Aerospace University, China. She then completed her Master Degree at Energy Research Institute, Shandong Academy of Sciences (Qilu University of Technology). Her previous research includes hydrogen production from biomass and catalysts design, which combines calculations based on Density Function Theory (DFT) and experiments together. Jingwei's PhD research area is catalytic upgrading of pyrolysis bio-vapours upon using modified catalysts, which also includes the combination of DFT calculations and experiments.
Alfred Bekoe Appiagyei
Alfred Bekoe Appiagyei holds a Bachelor's degree in Petrochemical Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He also received a Master's degree in Energy and Materials Engineering from Dongguk University, South Korea. During this period, he worked on nanomaterials for electrochemical capacitors. He will be focusing on developing catalysts for dry methane reforming for his PhD studies at Monash University. Alfred has ardent interest in interdisciplinary projects that require understanding of chemistry, engineering and nanotechnology.
John Nikko Salvilla
John Nikko Salvilla obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering and Master of Science Degree in Energy Engineering from the University of the Philippines where he was also an Assistant Professor for two years. His research interests include the thermochemical and biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels.
Ahmad Alzeraim Alsuwaidi
Ahmad is a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering. He got his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University . His MSc thesis focused on Hierarchical Metal Organic Frameworks for liquid hydrocarbons separation. Currently, Ahmad is working on regenerating FCC catalyst through Oxyfuel Combustion.
Hafeez Ullah
Hafeez did bachelors in Chemical Engineering from UET Peshawar, Pakistan. He holds a Master degree in Process Systems Engineering from the National University of Science & Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan, where he worked on the application of Machine learning in the thermochemical conversion of biomass. Now, he will be focusing on the optimization of catalyst structure using DFT Simulation coupled with Artificial Intelligence for his PhD studies at Monash University.
Alumni
Former Postdoctoral Fellows
- Dr Tara Hosseini
- Dr Baiqian Dai
- Dr Anthony De Girolamo
- Dr Lei Shi
- Dr Lei Qin
- Dr Shenyong Li
- Dr Qiaoqiao Zhou
- Dr Song Zhou
- Dr Kenji Taira
PhD Graduates
- Dr Niken Wijaya
- Dr Fiona Low
- Dr Wirhan Prationo
- Dr Teck Kwang Choo
- Dr Tara Hosseini
- Dr Baiqain Dai
- Dr Anthony De Girolamo
- Dr Iman Ja’Baz
- Dr Song Zhou
- Dr Miriam Issac
- Dr Vincent Tan
- Dr Binbin Qian
- Dr Qiaoqiao Zhou
- Dr Tanvir Alam
- Dr Sasha Yang
- Dr Yu Qi
- Dr Cheng Liu