OUR TEAM

Dr. Shao-Yuan (Ben) Leu
Associate Professor

Dr. Shao-Yuan (Ben) Leu’s research interests are in Biorefinery, Biomass valorization, and Biological system for water and wastewater treatment. He obtained his BS/MS on Wood Processing Techniques from the National Taiwan University (1993-97) and PhD from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of UCLA (2003-09). He was a lecturer at UC Riverside (2010-11) and a postdoctoral fellow at USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin (2011-13). In Hong Kong, Dr. Leu established the BioEnergy Lab to forge biorefinery principle into practices. He constructed a few biorefinery systems to convert lignocellulosic biomass and food wastes into biofuels and other valuable bio-products, i.e., bioethanol, lactate, and 2,3-BDO (using novel strains isolated by his team); and realized the diol-based organosolv pretreatment process using a 15-L rotating vessel. Since joining PolyU in 2013, Dr. Leu has secured more than HK$35 million research grants from the academia, governmental, and industrial sectors on biorefinery research, including RGC, EPD (via Green Tech Fund and Environment Conservation Funds), Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF), Drainage Service Department (DSD), Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement, SINOPEC-Hong Kong, HKOWRC, and RecycleGreen Ltd. Dr. Leu has published 110 peer-reviewed articles in well-recognized journals, such as Green Chemistry, Biotechnology for Biofeuls, and Chemical Engineering Journal. He has also filed 4 patents, edited 1 book, and received a few awards, including the Outstanding Reviewer Award in ACS Environ. Sci. & Tech. (2015) and Dean’s Award in Research Funding (2020).

Shazia Rehman
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Shazia Rehman, Postdoctoral Fellow (Nov 2022 – Present), Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Energy, Myongji University, South Korea. B.S. in Microbiology, University of Karachi, Pakistan. Shazia is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at GEPL, CEE, PolyU. She She received her Ph.D. degree from PolyU (Hong Kong), M.S. (Environmental Engineering & Energy) from Myongji University (South Korea), and B.S. (Applied & Environmental Microbiology) from University of Karachi (Pakistan). Her major research area is the biological conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels and value-added products. Her expertise is in Environmental Microbiology, Biofuels and Biorefinery, and Fermentation technology, of which she successfully isolated functional xylose-utilizing strains for whole sugar conversion of biomass into biochemicals (majorly 2,3-Butanediol). She is interested in exploring the metabolic pathways involved in 2,3-butanediol production via omics-based technologies and bioinformatics using her novel bacterial strains.

Huichuan Zhuang
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Huichuan Zhuang is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dr. Shao-Yuan Leu’s (Ben) group. He obtained a Doctorate in environmental engineering from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in December 2021. During his Ph.D. study, he focused on third-generation sequencing and bioinformatics analysis for methanogenesis anaerobic digestion system, thermodynamics and kinetics coupling agent-based modeling for anaerobic processes, and bioenergetics of anaerobic microbial metabolism. Dr Zhuang is an expert in biochemical conversion of solid waste and production of high value-added chemicals. At GEPL, he is engaged in lignin-first fungal pre-treatment of lignocellulosic waste.

Yanwen Wang
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Yanwen Wang is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof. Shao-Yuan Leu's group. He obtained the PhD in Thermal Energy Engineering from the School of Mechanical Engineering in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Research interests: Biomass Conversion, Reactive Porous Flow Modeling, Chemical Kinetic Calculation.

Rabia Jalil
PhD Candidate

Rabia is currently third year Ph.D. student at PolyU under Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS). She received her M.S. degree in Environmental Sciences from COMSATS University (Pakistan). Her research interests include water and wastewater treatment using membrane-based technologies and novel adsorbent materials. Besides, she also works on the valorisation of lignin in composite systems for advanced engineering applications.

Chun Yin (Chris) Lau
PhD Candidate

Chris obtained his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and masters’ degree in Earth System Science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is currently a PhD student in Dr Ben Leu’s team. His research mainly focuses on the catalytic and photocatalytic degradation of wastewater inorganic and organic pollutants and convert them to useful products. He utilizes organometallic and macrocyclic catalysts on partial oxidation of sulfide species in wastewater to elemental sulfur with the utilization of aeration for inputting oxygen into wastewater for the sulfide removal process. He is also interested in the development of heterogeneous catalysts for organic compound degradation in wastewater.

Raffel Dharma Patria
PhD Candidate

I am Raffel Dharma Patria, a PhD candidate in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Dr. Ben Shao-Yuan Leu’s group. Prior to my PhD study, I obtained my degrees of M.S. Chemical Engineering in University of California, Berkeley and B.Eng. Chemical Engineering in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. My research interest is biomass pretreatment and fermentation. Currently in our laboratory, we process lignocellulosic biomass and convert it into value-added products such as biofuel and bioplastics by pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation. For biofuel, pretreated biomass is enzymatically hydrolyzed to produce hydrolysate containing rich glucose. Then, the hydrolysate is used in a fermentation to produce valuable biofuels or other chemical commodities. For bioplastics, the biomass is pretreated to separate its cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, then molded into biodegradable bioplastics. Then, the results are analyzed through various analytical equipment like HPLC, NMR, and material characterization. In the future, we may utilize advanced analytical equipment like solid state NMR to further characterize the bioplastics. Our laboratory promotes green biorefinery and circular economy approach to convert waste feedstocks to valuable and environmentally friendly products.

Jianyu Guan
PhD Candidate

Jerry is currently a second year Ph.D. student in Dr. Ben Leu’s Team. He received his M.S.degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2018. He is particularly skillful in Biorefinery, Mathematical dynamic analysis in sewage treatment (Modelling), and various instruments analyses such as NMR (HSQC), GC-FID/MS, GPC. His research interests include the Lignin first biorefinery processes and the relationship between lignin structure modification and lignin hydrogenation. He is now investigating the C–C bond and ether-linked cleave in high β-5 content lignin for the efficient production of biofuels and value-added chemicals (Monomer).

Yvette
PhD Candidate

Yvette is a Ph.D. student who joined PolyU in 2022. She received her M.S. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research is in the area of environmental engineering and environmental microbiology, with an emphasis on biotechnologies for food-related waste stream valorization. Her work focuses on third-generation sequencing, bioinformatics, and biochemical analysis on medium chain fatty acid (MCFA) production through carboxylate chain elongation.

Aamir Khan
PhD Student

Aamir is a PhD student in Dr. Ben Leu’s group since Sep 2022. He received his Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Pakistan. He also served as a Lab Engineer and Visiting Lecturer at NUST Pakistan for 7 years. His research interests include the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels and value-added products. He currently uses different organic solvents with various experimental variations to fractionate the biomass minimizing the need for prior physical size reduction and finally depolymerize the lignin to produce aromatic monomers and value-added products.

Xue Yue
Research Assistant

Xue Yue is the research assistant since August 2023 working under the guidance of Dr. Leu at CEE, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She obtained her master's degree from Harbin University of Commerce in 2022. Her main research interests are the preparation of wood-plastic composites from biomass, the production of wood-plastic composite by using the biomass and the application of photocatalyst in wastewater treatment.

Hailey Choi
Project Associate

Hailey has been the project associate since June 2024 and was the research assistant from January to May 2024 in Dr. Shao-Yuan Leu’s (Ben) group. She is currently a student in the Master's program in Medical Imaging at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She obtained a Master's degree from National Taiwan University in 2023 and a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Technology from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2021. She was in charge of the organization and administration of the Global Chinese Environment Protection Conference (GCEPC) held in May 2024.

Dolphin Cheng
Research Assistant

Dolphin is a research assistant since August 2024 working under the guidance of Dr. Ben Leu at CEE, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his BSc degree in Environmental Science from the University of Hong Kong in 2024. He is currently assisting in the analysis of wood chemical composition to facilitate the investigation on vegetation carbon sequestration potential and the research on the valorization of wood wastes. He has extensive knowledge on environmental chemistry, climate change, and biogeochemical cycles. He is also interested in water and wastewater treatment systems and the potential to harvest bioenergy from organic wastes to promote circular economy.

Scott Cheung
Student Assistant

Scott is a student assistant of Dr. Leu since 2023, assisting various Research Assistant and PhD student with their laboratory works. He is currently a student in Bachelor of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His interest includes waste utilization, renewable material, biomass conversion, wastewater treatment, etc.

Alumni / Previous members
  • Ms. Sze Nga (Jenny) Wong, Research Assistant (Sep. 2022 – Aug., 2024), B.Eng. in Environment and Sustainable Development at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
  • Mr. Chun Yin (Jacky) Yu, Research Assistant (Sep. 2022 – June, 2024), B.Eng. in Environment and Sustainable Development at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
  • Dr. Yanlin Zhang, Ph.D. (Sep. 2019 – May, 2024), B.Eng. in School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China (Hong Kong Ph.D. Fellowship awardee).
  • Mr. Talha Zulfiqar, Research Assistant (May 2023 – Feb., 2024), MSc Energy Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore; BSc Environmental Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad.
  • Dr. Shuwen Han, Ph.D. (Fall, 2020 – Feb. 2024), Investigation of the Emission Characteristics and Practical Control Techniques of the Cooking Oil Fumes.
  • Dr. Xinwei Li, Ph.D. (Fall, 2020 – Feb. 2024), Degradation, Mechanism Study, and Practical Application of Ambient Air Pollution by Nanotechnology.
  • Dr. Waqas Qamar Zaman, Postdoctoral Fellow (June 2023 – Mar. 2024), Ph.D. School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology.
  • Dr. Arun Krishna Vuppaladadiyam, Postdoctoral Fellow (Hong Kong Postdoctoral Fellow Awardee), (Sept. 2021 – July 2023), Ph.D. from the School of Environment, Tsinghua University. [Current Post] Postdoctoral Fellow, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
  • Mr. Chun Bong (Bryan) Yuen, Research Assistant (Sep 2022 – Sep 2023), Bachelor of Science in Natural Sciences, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
  • Dr. Leng Ling, Research Assistant Professor (Jan 2022 – May 2023), Ph.D. in CEE, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
  • Dr. Ho-Yin (Leo) TSE, Research Assistant, M.Phil., & Ph.D. (Sep 2017 – Feb 2023), B.S. in Natural Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; [Current Post] Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Yale School of the Environment.
  • Dr. Huaimin Wang, Postdoctoral Fellow (Aug 2019 – Feb 2022), Ph.D. of School of Energy and Environment (Synthetic Biology, Fermentation Engineering), City University of Hong Kong; Doctor of Philosophy; [Current Post] Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Texas at Austin.
  • Dr. Chi-Shun (Oliver) Yeung, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Dec 2016 – Feb 2022), B.S./Ph.D. of Science at University of Hong Kong; [Current Post] Research Associate (Chemistry), University of Hong Kong.
  • Dr. Ka-Lai Chan, Research Assistant and Ph.D. (Sep. 2015 – Jan 2021), B.S. in Environment and Sustainable Development at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
  • Dr. Md Khairul Islam, Ph.D. (Fall, 2017 – Sep 2021), B.S./M.S. in Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Rajshahi; [Current Post] Assistant Professor at University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
  • Dr. Ying Wang, Postdoctoral Fellow (Sep. 2016 – 28 Jan. 2020), Ph.D. of Microbiology Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan; [Current Post] Associate Professor at Department of Biological Science, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan Normal University.
  • Dr. Chengyu Dong, PhD student and Postdoctoral Fellow (Dec., 2018 – Dec., 2019), Ph.D. of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, dissertation defended at Oct. 24th, 2018; [Current Post] Lecturer at Biomass Group, College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
  • Ms. Uen Ling Ho, Research Assistant (Sep. 2018 – Dec. 2018), B.S. in Geomatics at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
  • Dr. Shazia Farzana, Research Associate (July, 2018 – April, 2019), Ph.D. of Environmental Science at the City University of Hong Kong.
  • Dr. Lan Pan, Research Associate (June, 2016 – Dec., 2016), Ph.D. of Biology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; [Current Post] Assistant Professor, South China Agricultural University.
  • Dr. Pejman Hadi Myavagh, Postdoctoral Fellow (Sep., 2015 – Apr., 2016), Ph.D. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; [Current Post] Director of Engineering at Rice Industries LLC, USA.
  • Dr. Hao Liu, Postdoctoral Fellow (Oct. 2015 – Dec., 2016), Ph.D. of Pulp and paper engineering at the South China University of Technology; [Current Post] Associate Professor, South China University of Technology.
  • Ms. Han Zhang, Research Assistant (Sep. 2014 – May. 2016), M.S. in School of Life Science, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, [Current Post] PhD student, South China Agricultural University.
  • Dr. Akansha Bhatia, Research Associate (Aug. 2014 – May, 2016), Ph.D. of Environmental Science at the Gurukul Kangri University Haridwar, India; [Current Post] Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India.
Visiting Scholars
  • Prof. Diego Rosso (Feb. 2018 – Mar. 2018), Professor and Director, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of California, Irvine (under ITF project Wastewater-derived Energy for Smart Towns);
  • Prof. Jerry C.C. Chan (Nov. 2017 – Dec. 2017) Professor, Dept. Chemistry, National Taiwan University (visiting grant supported by the Kwang-Hua Education Foundation, Hong Kong);
  • Prof. Chun-Han Ko (Jan. 2015 – Feb. 2015), Professor and Chairman, School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University (visiting grant supported by the Kwang-Hua Education Foundation, Hong Kong)

Copyright 2024 GEPL. All rights reserved.

‌

HTML Creator