Professor Xiaotao Bi Fluidization, Reactor Design, Electrostatics, PEM Fuel Cells, Pollution Control, Biomass Processing, Green Engineering Chemical and Biological Engineering University of British Columbia, Canada Email: tony.bi@ubc.ca

Professor Xiaotao Bi's topic is on "Torrefaction of biomass residues for the production of high quality torrefied wood pellets" at the 6th International Conference on Biomass Energy (ICBE2018).

Education

University of British Columbia, 1994, Ph.D.

Tsinghua University, China, 1988, M.A.Sc.

Tsinghua University, China, 1985, B.A.Sc.

Qualifications

Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow

Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (APEGBC), Member

Canadian Society of Chemical Engineers (CSChE), Member

American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE), Member

Fluidization Research Centre (FRC), Manager

Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC), Associate Director

Biomass and Bioenergy Research Group (BBRG), Member

UBC Bridge Program, Mentor

Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, Guest Professor

China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China, Guest Professor

Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China, Guest Professor

CAS Institute of Process Engineering, Beijing, China, Guest Professor

Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, Guest Professor

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, Guest Professor

CAS Guangzhou Institute for Energy Conversion, Guangzhou, China, Guest Professor

Research Interests

Green Engineering, Clean Energy and Sustainability: Green engineering is the design, commercialization and use of processes and products, which are feasible and economical while minimizing impacts on ecosystems over the full life-cycle. In contrary to traditional engineering approaches in which both technical and economical aspects of a technology are the focal point, green engineering extends our research and development beyond the manufacturing of the material and product to include the ecological impacts of a process/product or a technology on the renewability and sustainability of the raw materials, the toxicity and health risks during the product use, and the recycleability and degradability at the end of the product use. We have been developing environmental systems analysis and life cycle analysis tools to model and evaluate biomass energy systems, including Canadian wood pellets, animal wastes and agricultural residues, as well as integrated impacts assessment of biomass combustion, gasification, torrefaction and pelletization processes. In collaboration with local fuel cell companies, we also work on the development of core-shell nano electro-catalyst particles for applications in PEM fuel cells. Both clean energy and green engineering will be key areas of my research and teaching in the near future.

Fluidization and Multiphase Reactors: Fluidized bed reactors have been widely used in industrial processes for conducting both catalytic and non-catalytic reactions, fuel combustion, particulate drying, powder coating and granulation, electrolysis etc. I started my research career on fluidization in 1985, and have conducted research over many areas, including hydrodynamics, flow patterns and flow regimes, heat transfer, mass transfer, reactor performance testing, modeling and simulation, scaling and scale-up, commercial reactor trouble-shooting etc. covering gas-solids, liquid-solids, gas-liquid-solids bubbling, turbulent and circulating fluidized beds. My current fluidization research is focused on electrostatic charging of dielectric particles in gas-solids fluidized beds, dual fluidized bed for biomass steam gasification and novel i-CFB reactors for catalytic NOx reduction.