Jillian Goldfarb
Cornell University, NY·Engineering·Early-career
Wet wastes, such as food processing scraps and fast-growing crops, contain a great deal of energy. The challenge is turning them into fuels that work as well as coal or petroleum without first spending energy to dry them.
- Fields
Engineering
Earth & Environmental Science
Chemistry
- Topics
biofuels
biomass
hydrothermal carbonization
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Dec 2028
What they work on
- Design drop-in solid biofuels that can replace coal by matching carbonization levels between hydrothermal carbonization hydrochars and torrefied biochars, aiming for higher energy density and thermal stability.
- Develop a rapid thermogravimetric analysis method to predict ignition delay, combustion mode and burning rate, and to measure how tarry secondary char changes these behaviors.
- Build a statistical model to find the optimal secondary char composition and hydrochar–biochar blend ratios for strong, water-resistant fuel pellets.
- Build an apparatus to measure the dielectric constant and solubility of model hydrothermal liquefaction compounds at high temperature and pressure, and test whether supersaturation controls reaction yields and selectivity.
- Improve thermodynamic models of product partitioning, and test recovery of organics from process water using kosmotropic salting out with liquid–liquid extraction.
More about the research
Both projects use hot, pressurized water to convert wet biomass into fuel. One makes solid fuels and the other makes liquid biofuels. Both focus on the basic chemistry and thermodynamics needed to predict and control what these processes produce.
Why it matters
Coal-replacing pellets made from regional food waste and crops could create new markets and support energy independence in rural U.S. areas. More predictable liquid biofuel production with cleaner process water could make wet-waste-to-fuel conversion economically workable. Both advances support a shift toward renewable fuels.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jacqueline O'Connor
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Engineering
Design drop-in solid biofuel blends by matching carbonization levels of hydrochars from hydrothermal carbonization with torrefied biochars, to reduce fuel separation and raise thermal stability and energy density.
Omid Samimi Abianeh
Wayne State University, MI·Engineering
Measure flame propagation speed of ammonia–dimethyl ether blends across a wide range of temperatures, pressures, fuel-to-air ratios and Damköhler numbers using the RCM-FLAME apparatus.
Daniel Shoemaker
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Materials Science
Measure and build predictive models for the chemical potentials of dissolved ions in non-aqueous organic solvents such as ethanol, ammonia, acetonitrile and DMSO, combining experimental thermochemistry with computational modeling.
The school
Cornell University: 37 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 537 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.