Green Chemistry 25th anniversary celebration symposium: Biorefinery for a low-carbon society

Buxing Han, Professor at Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences; Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries; Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry. He is Director of CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics; Director of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes.

His research interests include physicochemical properties of green solvent systems and application of green solvents in green chemistry, especially on transformation of CO2, biomass, and organic wastes into valuable chemicals and fuels. He has published more than 900 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, such as Science, Nat. Chem. Nat. Commun., Sci. Adv., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Chem. Rev., Acc. Chem. Res. He has also published 80 patents, and has presented more than 300 plenary or invited lectures at different conferences. He received a number of awards, such as 2nd-Class Award of Chinese Government for Development of Natural Science, Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

He is the Chairman of Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Chief Scientist of China Innovation Think Tank; Chairman of Green Chemistry Division, Chinese Chemical Society; President of Beijing Energy and Environment Society; Former Chairman of Subcommittee on Green Chemistry of IUPAC, former Titular Member of Division III of IUPAC, and former Chairman of Thermodynamics and Thermal Analysis Committee, Chinese Chemical Society. He is an Editor-in-Chief of The Innovation, Associate Editors of Chinese Sci. Bulletin, Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica, Chemical Journal of Chinese Universities, and is serving more than 10 other peer-reviewed scientific journals as Editorial Board Member or Advisory Board Member.  

Prof. Qilong Ren is an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and a Professor at Zhejiang University in China. He is currently the director of the Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering (Zhejiang University), the president of the Zhejiang University Industrial Technology Research Institute, the president of the Institute of Zhejiang University-Quzhou, the vice president of the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and the president of the Zhejiang Chemical Industry Society. He is mainly engaged in the academic research and engineering practice in the field of separation engineering and plasma technology, and he has headed more than 30 projects including the National Key R&D Projects, the National Natural Science Foundation Key Projects and Enterprise R&D projects. He has published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals including Science and Nat. Commun., and he also holds over 100 patents. Based on his research results, more than ten production lines have been built, creating significant economic and social benefits.  He has won two Second Prize of the State Technological Invention Award, two First Prize of the Scientific and Technological Award of Zhejiang Province, the Zhao Yonggao Science and Technology Innovation Award of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF), the 9th China Patent Excellence Award, and the Creative Founder Award of China Association of Inventions (CAI).

Dr. Xueqing Qiu is a professor leading the research group of high utilization of lignocellulose at Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT). Prof. Qiu serves as the president of GDUT and is recognized as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Prior to his presidency at GDUT, he held the position of vice president at South China University of Technology for 12 years. Additionally he serves as the vice chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Association for Science and Technology, fellow of the Global Chinese Scholars Association for Chemical Engineering, and executive director of the Guangdong Provincial Chemical Society.
Renowned for his expertise in lignocellulose biorefinery, particularly lignin into green fine chemicals and advanced materials, Prof. Qiu has 500+ journal papers with 18,000+ citations, holds 200+ patents, has established 13 production bases and produced more than 20 lignin-based fine chemical products. He initiated and organized the inaugural (2019), the second (2021) and the third (2023) National Lignin Technology and Application Seminars. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (2009), the second prize of National Technical Invention twice (2007 and 2015), the Guanghua Engineering Science Award, and the Min Enze Award for Outstanding Contribution to Energy and Chemical Industry from the Chinese Academy of Engineering. 

Changwei Hu, got his Bachelor, Master, Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry at Sichuan University. He is now professor in the College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, China; Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society; Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry; Member of the Scientific Board of the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3); RSC Green Chemistry series Editorial Board (advisor); International Advisory Board of ChemSusChem; Associate Editor of Sustainable Chemistry for the Environment; Associate Editor of Innovation Discovery;  Member of Editorial Board for Catalysts, Biomass, Current Organocatalysis, Journal of Modern Agriculture and Biotechnology; etc. Highly Cited Scholar in China by Elsevier since 2021, Excellent National Teacher of Teaching (China), and Special Allowances Expert of the State Council, China. His current research interests include the catalytic conversion of bio-based materials (bio-oil, sugars, raw algae, and lignocellulosic biomass) into fuels and useful chemicals; catalytic functionalization of C-H bonds from the viewpoint of atom economy; catalytic activation of green house gases; molecular modeling on catalytic systems; and other green chemistry interrelated researches. He has published about 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and authored 33 patents. He is now the director of the Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology, MOE (China)

Prof. Feng Wang earned his Ph.D. at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP). Dr. Wang serves as the Vice Director of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (2021 to present). Dr. Wang is mainly interested to the field in heterogeneous catalysis and biomass conversion, contributing over 190 research articles published. Dr. Wang is serving as an Associate Editor for ACS Catalysis. Dr. Wang is the recipient of the awards and honors, including the 2020 ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Leadership Awards, the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, NSFC-RS Newton Advanced Fellowship, Jiaxi Lu Excellent Mentor Award.

Prof. Haichao Liu is Changjiang Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Peking University, China. He received his B.S. degree in 1990 and M.S. degree from Sichuan University in 1993, and his Ph.D degree from Beijing Research Institute of Petroleum Processing in 1996. From 1997 to 2003, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Tokyo and the University of California at Berkeley. He then joined the faculty of Peking University. He is an associate editor of Chinese Journal of Catalysis, Green Energy & Environment and RSC Sustainability, and an editor of Journal of Catalysis. His research group works in the area of molecular catalysis and sustainable energy chemistry, focusing on the fundamental studies of the catalyst structures and reaction mechanisms, towards the design of heterogeneous catalysts and control of reaction pathways for selective conversion of biomass and its derivatives to bulk and fine chemicals, as well as other reactions important in renewable energy conversion and utilization.

Prof. Qingbiao Li received his B. Eng., M. Eng., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Tianjin University (China) in 1983, 1986, and 1991, respectively. Following postdoctoral work at Nankai University, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Xiamen University in 1993. He was promoted to Full Professor in 1997. Then he worked at Quanzhou Normal University as President from 2013 to 2017. Afterward, he served as the President of Jimei University from 2017 to 2023. Currently, he is a Distinguished Professor at Xiamen University. He has won many honorary titles such as "Excellent Teacher of Fujian Province", "Excellent Scientific and Technological Worker of National Petroleum and Chemical Industry", etc. Particularly, in 2018, he was elected as the first batch of Fellow of Chemical Industry Society of China. To date, he has hosted more than 30 scientific research projects and published more than 300 peer-reviewed research papers in well-reputed journals. His major research interests are focused on bio-nanotechnology in the chemical engineering, environmental engineering, and food fields. Based on these research works, he won the first Prize in the Science and Technology Award of Fujian Province, the second prize in the Natural Science Award of the Ministry of Education (China), and many other scientific awards.

Prof. Xuehui Li completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in the Department of Chemistry of Hunan Normal University in 1992 and 1995, respectively, and received his Ph.D. from South China University of Technology (SCUT) in 1998. He initially joined in SCUT as a Lecturer in 1998 and was promoted to full Professor in 2008. Currently, Prof. Li is the leader of the Center of Green Catalysis and Energy affiliated with the Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Green Chemical Product Technology at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and also appointed as  the Dean of the School of Light Industry and Engineering of SCUT. His research interests focus on high-value-added utilization of biomass renewable resources, fabrication of new green and functional materials, and catalytic elimination of small molecule pollutants. He has undertaken 40 projects including Natural Science Foundation of China (Key Program) and published more than 100 papers in journals such as Chem, Applied Catalysis B, Journal of Catalysis, and Green Chemistry, also filed more than 40 patents in his research fields. He has been invited to give more than 30 keynotes at academic conferences, and been the recipient of many honors such as New Century Talents Project national candidates, Outstanding Mid-Aged Experts, Special Government Allowances of the State Council, and Guangdong Province May 1 Labor Medal.

Professor Run-Cang Sun, ligniocellulosic chemist, got bachelor degree in chemistry in 1982 and PhD degree in 1996 at the University of Wales, Bangor, UK. He worked at University of Wales, South China University of Technology and Beijing Forestry University. He was the director of State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering  (2008.8-2015.5, part time) and Dean of College of Materials Science and Technology (2011.10-2014.9). Since March 2019 Prof. Sun has being working in Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, China. He has being focused on  biomaterials, biofuels, and chemicals from lignocellulose. He has published 995 SCI papers in peer reviewed international journals, which have been totally cited over 65,000 citations  (his Google Scholar h-index of 125). As invited author, he also authored 36 book chapters regarding utilization of lignocelluloses for biomaterials. He has awarded 164 patents for inventions. He is the receipient of the ACS Cell Division Anselme Payen Award 2020. He has ranked No. 1904 in the ranking of The Top 100,000 Scientists in the World (2022).
Prof. Sun is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry, UK in 2003 and an Editor-in-Chief of Industrial Crops and Products, Associate Editor of Carbohydrate Polymers, Frontiers In Energy Research and Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy. He is also a member of editorial board in ChemSusChem, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, International Journal of Cellulose Chemistry and Technology, Bioresources and Bioprocess, Molecules, EcoMat, etc. 

Prof. Tao Zhang is a Professor at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was the director of DICP in the period of 2007-2017. He was officially selected as Academician by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013, and was a vice president of Chinese academy of sciences in the period of 2017-2023. He was elected as a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences in 2018, and an International Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2020. Prof. Zhang works in heterogeneous catalysis, especially in the field of nano- and single-atom catalysis. He has led new concepts in “single-atom catalysis” and currently focuses on the design, synthesis and industrial application of single-atom catalysts for applications in energy conversion (such as biomass catalytic conversion, CO2 reduction and propellant decomposition) and environmental control (such as NOx-SCR and CO removal).  Prof. Zhang has also received several research awards, including Science China Materials Innovation Award (2018), The Science and Technology Progress Award of HLHL Foundation (2016), Distinguished Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2010), Zhou Guang Zhao Foundation Award for Applied Science (2009), Excellent Young Scientist Award of Chinese Catalysis Society (2008), and National Award of Technology Invention (Second Grade, 2008, 2006, 2005).

Prof. Tianwei Tan is a full professor and an Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering. He serves the President of Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) as well as the Chairman of China Renewable Energy Society and the Vice President for the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China (CIESC). Prof. Tan’s research focuses on Biochemical Engineering and Industrial Biotechnology. He has co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed articles in journals including Nature Catalysis, PNAS, Biotechnology Advances, and he has been licensed over 60 patents. Prof. Tan received two times the second prize of National Award for Technological Invention, four times the first prize of Science and Technology Progress Award from Provincial Governments and Ministries, the Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation in 2006, YABEC award in 2008, and the Tan Jiazhen Life Science Innovation Award in 2009.

Professor Meifang Zhu, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, TWAS Fellow. Currently, she is the dean of the College of Materials Science and Engineering and the director of the State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials at Donghua University. She also serves as the vice-president for Chinese Materials Research Society (C-MRS), for Chinese Association of Women Scientific Workers, and for China Textile Engineering Society, as well as the Editor-in-Chief for Advanced Fiber Materials. Prof. Zhu has long been engaged in the research of functional fibers, nanofibers and intelligent fiber materials, organic /inorganic hybrid materials. She published 10 books (chapters) and more than 500 SCI papers in peer-reviewed journals. She is also the author or co-author for more than 300 National Invention Patents. Her honors and awards include Second Prize of National Award for Technological Inventions, Second Prize of National Award for Progress in Science and Technology, National Innovation Competition Award, First Prize of Shanghai Natural Science Award, the Cheung Kong Scholars, Shanghai Science and Technology Elite, etc.

Dr. Yingjin Yuan is an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a professor of Tianjin University. He was awarded the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. Dr. Yuan was the academic leader of the Innovation Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the chief scientist of the National Key Basic Research Program, and the National Key Research and Development Program of China. He is the director of Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology (Ministry of Education), and the editor-in-chief of the Synthetic Biology Journal. Dr. Yuan has been dedicated to the scientific research and teaching in synthetic biology. He developed the key technologies for the synthesis of artificial yeast genome synthesis, and two yeast artificial chromosomes, synV and syn X, were successfully synthesized. He also developed a series of artificial yeast cells that efficiently synthesize important products. The achievement was awarded the China's top 10 scientific advances, etc.

Chun Li is a distinguished Professor at Department of Chemical Engineering and a Director of institute of biochemical engineering, Tsinghua University. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering at Tianjing University in 2001. From 2001-2003, 2003-2006 and 2006-2020, he worked at Tsinghua, Shihezi University and Beijing Institute of Technology, respectively. He has been interested in Biocatalysis and Synthetic Biology for biomanufacturing of plant natural products and design of industrial microorganisms with intelligent and multiple-stress resistance, focusing on enzymatic transformation and microbial synthesis of plant terpenoids and flavonoids. He is a chief scientist of “Synthetic Biology” of the National Key Research and Development Program of China. He has obtained 36 authorized invention patents and has published above 400 journal papers with H factor of 51. He has compiled 9 books as chief editor or associate editor. Among them, Synthetic Biology, Introduction to Biological Engineering and Biochemistry have been widely used as textbooks in many universities. Professor LI Chun is an associate director of Branch of Biochemical Engineering, The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and an associate director of Branch of Synthetic Biology, Chinese Society of Biotechnology. He also is an Executive Chief-in-Editor of Synthetic Biology Journal.

Prof. Dr. An-Hui Lu currently works at the State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology. His research interests include synthesis of porous materials for heterogeneous catalysis, adsorption, energy storage and conversion. He has established methods for the precise control over the pore structure and morphology of nanomaterials, enabling the efficient integration of their functions for CO2 capture, C3H6/C3H8 separation and hydrogen purification, and also contributed to field of converting low-carbon resources to value added chemicals including ethanol conversion to high-carbon alcohols and aromatic aldehydes, propane dehydrogenation to propylene over boron-based catalysts. He has authored and co-authored more than 320 papers cited over 30,000 times and 61 issued patents, and been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher in Chemistry by Elsevier for multiple consecutive years.

Feng Xu is full Professor of College of Materials Science and Technology, Beijing Forestry University. She is the Expert of the Special Government Allowance of the State Council, and the Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Sciences. She serves as Associate Editor of "Journal of Beijing Forestry University". Her research focuses on the isolation and utilization of chemical components from lignocellulosic biomass. Her work prioritizes the identification of lignin and polysaccharides distribution within the cell wall of wood for efficient utilization of woody resources. By employing environmentally friendly and effective methods to separate the main components of wood, she has been able to transform these elements into valuable chemicals and functional materials. Her significant achievements include the green dissolution of cellulose, facilitating the application of cellulose-based functional materials. Renowned nationally as a wood scientist, she has been recognized for her scientific contributions since 2008, receiving fundings from several prestigious sources, including the 13th Five-Year Plan National Key R&D Initiative Project, the 12th Five-Year Science and Technology Support Plan, and the National Outstanding Youth Foundation, et al. She has published over 200 SCI Journal articles, 8 Book Chapters and hold 15 national invention patents of China.

Prof. Haiping Yang is focused on Biomass/solid wastes thermochemical conversion for green H2 production, liquid fuel and carbon contained materials and chemicals. So far she has published over 200 SCI papers, 10 book chapters and SCI citation is over 20000 with 10 papers cited in ESI and the highest citation is over 5000. Now she owns National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars program (China), the Excellent Young Scholars program (China), Newton Advanced Fellowships, the Most Cited Chinese Researchers (Elsevier, 2014-2023) and also Top 2% of Scientists on Stanford List 2022-2023. She is an associated editor of Fuel Processing Technology, and board member of Energy Conversion and Management, Fuel, Journal of the Energy Institute, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, Cabon Capture Science and Technology and Green carbon, she is also Board Directors member of Combustion Institute and Chinese Renewable Energy Society.

Shufen Zhang is the winner of the National Excellent Youth Science Fund, fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society and LiaoNing Revitalization Talent of the first batch. Her research mainly focuses on dye chemistry and structural color materials, biomass resources and new fine chemical synthesis technologies. She has been authorized 101 invention patents in China, the United States, and Germany in the research of macromolecular reactive dyes with nearly 100% fixation, continuous flow azo dye synthesis technology, and biomass polysaccharide functional additives; She has published 391 academic papers indexed by SCI and 262 papers indexed by the China Citation Database, with over ten thousand citations; She has won one second prize for National Technology Invention and one second prize for National Science and Technology Progress, five first prizes for provincial and ministerial level scientific and technological achievements, Heliang HelLi Science and Technology Innovation Award, and China Dyestuff Centennial Science and Technology Contribution Award.

Prof. Zongbao Kent Zhao currently works at Dalian University of Technology (DUT), China. He received PhD (1998) from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China. He did postdoctoral research at University of Minnesota (1998–2001) and University of Texas at Austin (2001–2003). Afterwards, he started independent research focused on bioenergy at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, where he led the “Biomass Conversion Technology” group for 20 years. At the end of 2023, he moved to School of Bioengineering of DUT. His research interests include energy biotechnology and synthetic microbiology, with special focus on biological conversion of biomass and non-natural redox cofactor-mediated metabolism. He published over 280 papers and received over 14,600 citations with an h-index of 61 (Google Scholar). He currently serves as Editor for FEMS Yeast Research, and Bioresources and Bioprocessing.