Dr. Yulin Deng, ChBE, has been tapped to deliver the keynote address at the upcoming 2nd annual International Conference on Green Energy & Expo, November 28-30, in Atlanta. His presentation, entitled “Low Temperature and High Efficiency Biomass Fuel Cell and Bio-Hydrogen Production,” ties into the theme of this year’s expo, “Renewable Energy for a Sustainable World.”

Deng’s research interests include renewable energy; nanomaterial synthesis and self-assembling; biofuel and biomass materials; colloid and interface science and engineering; polymer synthesis; and papermaking.

His research group has reported a novel fuel cell that directly consumes natural polymeric biomasses, such as starch, cellulose, lignin, and even switchgrass and wood powders.  This fuel cell combines some features of solar cells, fuel cells, and redox flow batteries. Specifically, the polyoxomatelate forms a charge transfer complex with the biomass by either absorbing solar light or heat energy. The complex releases their electrons to anode. These electrons pass through anode to cathode where oxygen captures the electrons.  Unlike most cell technologies that are sensitive to impurities, the cell reported in this study is inert to most organic and inorganic contaminants present in the fuels.  The fuel cell is completely noble metal free. The similar system was investigated for low temperature hydrogen production using native biomass directly.

In the area of biofuel, his group has focused on novel pretreatment of lignocellulose for biofuel production and low temperature catalytic depolymerization of lignin for fuel applications.

Dr. Deng, an RBI-affiliated faculty member, is an elected Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science, a member of AIChE and TAPPI.  He received several awards, including AIChE Forest Bioproducts Division Chase Award, IPST President Research Award.  He serves editorial board member for five journals, and associate editor for two journals.

Green Energy- 2016 provides a platform for researchers/scientists to share and globalize their research work while the participants from industry can promote their products thus felicitating dissemination of knowledge. We anticipate more than 300 participants around the globe with thought provoking keynote lectures, oral and poster presentations. The attending delegates include Editorial Board Members of related journals. The scope of Green Energy -2016 is to bring the advancements in the field of renewable energy and environmental sciences.

Tracks include renewable energy, biofuels, bioenergy, green technology, energy conservation, sustainable energy policies, green economy, energy and environment, nano environmental technologies and bioremediation.