Engineering for Sustainability
Welcome
The Guest Research Group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign specializes in the development of sustainable technologies and infrastructure. The core goal of our group is to advance circular bioeconomies to achieve equitable, healthy, and prosperous communities while simultaneously enhancing the ecosystems that support them. Our group’s contributions toward this goal center on two thrusts: (i) increasing access to and the sustainability of sanitation in both developing and technologically advanced communities, which we pursue by developing technologies and service delivery models that manage sanitation media (i.e., human bodily excreta) as a renewable resource; and (ii) expediting the research, development, and deployment of technologies that advance the sustainability of agriculture and the conversion of plants to bioproducts, biofuels, and nutritious foods.
Our Approach
Technology Innovation Platform
Our group integrates experimentation, modeling, and quantitative sustainable design (QSD) to catalyze innovation of technologies and infrastructure. With this integrated approach, we leverage fundamental insight into molecular-scale processes (gained through experimentation and modeling) to advance the sustainability of coupled natural and human systems.
In our QSD research, we link traditional engineering metrics with economics, environmental impacts, and social factors to elucidate the implications of design, policy, and resource management decisions. A central theme of our QSD work is the navigation of trade-offs across scales (space and time) and dimensions (environmental, economic, social, and performance) of sustainability. This approach enables our group to establish technology innovation pathways and to develop resilient infrastructure systems that adapt to society’s evolving needs and align human and environmental interactions along more sustainable trajectories.
Societal Need + Sustainable Design
Advancing sustainability by transforming...
ENERGY
HEALTH
AGRICULTURE
News!
Jianan Feng, a PhD student in the Guest Group, was awarded with the 1st prize in a poster contest organized by the North East Biosolids & Residual Association. Congratulation Jianan!
Our Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability (PreFerS) in Singapore was funded! The funding for the center, which will focus on advancing technologies for microbial cell engineering to formulate “safe, nutritious and appetizing” foods, has been given by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF). https://www.
Jayne Allen graduated and is working at the ADM Science & Technology Center! https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-allen22
Jianan Feng, a PhD student student in Guest Group, received the Loh Kwan Chen Fellowship. The award is named after a UIUC alumnis, Loh Kwan Chen, and recognizes students with excellent research accomplishments, as well as outreach and leadership activities. Congratulations Jianan!
Xinyi “Joy” Zhang successfully defended her dissertation and transitioned to a postdoctoral position within the group. Congratulations Dr. Zhang!
Yoel Cortes-Peña successfully defended his dissertation and accepted a postdoctoral position in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Congratulations Dr. Cortes-Peña!
Andy Hur successfully defended his dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Hur!
Emma Brace, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Guest Group, has accepted a job at Boston College. Congratulations Emma!
A CABBI team led by Jeremy Guest and Yalin Li designed a process that simultaneously treats wastewater and recovers biogas energy that could generate revenue for biorefineries — while lowering costs and greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional treatment systems. Read more about the work here!
Yalin Li, a Research Scientist in the Guest Group, has accepted a job at Rutgers University as an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. Congratulations Yalin!
Dalton Stewart, a PhD student in Guest Group, published his paper titled “Implications of Biorefinery Policy Incentives and Location-Specific Economic Parameters for the Financial Viability of Biofuels”. Read the paper here!
Hannah Lohman, a PhD student in the Guest Group, received the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship! Hannah will be working with the Climate Adaptation Partnerships team within the NOAA OAR Climate Program Office as a key part of the program’s efforts to expand society’s regional capacity to adapt to climate impacts in the U.S. Learn more about Hannah and the other 2023 Illinois-Indiana Knauss fellows here. Congratulations Hannah!
Two papers enabled by the QSDsan platform are published! Read QSDsan’s anchor paper led by Yalin and Joy in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology and the Pyrolysis Omni Process paper led by Stetson in ACS Environmental Au.
Dalton Stewart, a PhD student in the Guest Group, is participating in the new Policy and Research Legislative Fellowship program to work with an Illinois state senator on renewable energy policy this summer. Great work Dalton!
Hannah Lohman, a PhD student in the Guest Group, received the National Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Outstanding Collegiate Member award. Each year, the society selects 10 students (among both undergraduate and graduate applicants across the country) to receive the award. It is presented to SWE collegiate members with at least 2 years of SWE collegiate involvement that have made an outstanding contribution to SWE, other engineering organizations (including but not limited to SWE’s partner organizations), their community and campus. Congratulations Hannah!
Dr. Yalin Li, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Guest Group, was awarded (as the lead PI) a CABBI Director’s Fund on “Connecting modeling platforms to enable high-resolution field-to-gate analysis of economic and environmental sustainability of bioenergy and bioproducts”. This work will fund Emily and Dalton’s research. Congratulations Yalin!
Dalton Stewart, a PhD student in Guest Group, completed his M.S. in May 2021, mentored an undergraduate student through the CABBI RISE program over the summer of 2021, and passed his qualifying exam this fall. Congratulations Dalton!
Sarang Bhagwat, a PhD student in Guest Group, published his paper titled “Sustainable Production of Acrylic Acid via 3-Hydroxypropionic Acid from Lignocellulosic Biomass”. Read the paper here!
Desarae Echevarria, a M.S. graduate of Guest Group, published their paper titled “Defining Nutrient Colocation Typologies for Human-Derived Supply and Crop Demand To Advance Resource Recovery”. Read the paper here!
A research team will work to accelerate the commercialization of a distributed water treatment technology that provides energy-positive treatment of high-strength food and beverage industry wastewater, thanks to a grant from the Department of Energy (DOE). CEE associate professor Jeremy Guest is conducting the University of Illinois portion of the research, for which his team will receive DOE funding of nearly $420,000.
Shion Watabe, a master’s student in Guest Group, is committed to making a positive impact through her research. Read more about her background and motivation as a researcher here!
Dr. Jeremy Guest has taken on the role of Acting Associate Director for Research at the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), effective January 1, 2021. Jeremy will guide new iSEE research initiatives and support existing programs.
Dr. Jeremy Guest was awarded the 2021 James J. Morgan Early Career Award. Named after the first Editor-in-Chief of the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the award recognizes the contributions of early career researchers who are leading the fields covered by ES&T and ES&T Letters in new directions.
A research team led by Dr. Jeremy Guest has been awarded $2 million by the U.S. Department of Energy to study the use of algae to purify wastewater while simultaneously producing biomass for fuel production. Over the course of this three-year project, researchers will collaborate with a provider of algal treatment systems, a municipality that is implementing one, and colleagues at Northeastern University and the University at Buffalo, to better understand this system that promises to treat wastewater and produce fuel from a renewable supply of water, nutrients and sunlight.
Guest group alumnus, Dr. John Trimmer, was awarded the 2020 Paul V. Roberts/AEESP Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award for his dissertation, “Resource Recovery from Sanitation to Amplify Development: Navigating Global and Local Possibilities.” AEESP gives the prestigious award annually to recognize a rigorous and innovative doctoral thesis that advances the science and practice of water quality engineering.
Guest group alumnus, Dr. Rui Shi, has started a new position as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Penn State. Learn more about Prof. Shi’s research group at the Pennsylvania State University.
Xinyi “Joy” Zhang successfully passed her PhD qualifying exam! Congratulations Joy!
Dr. Yalin Li and Dr. Jeremy Guest organized the Sustainable Technologies for a Circular Economy: From Benchtop Experimentation through System Analyses symposium for the Division of Environmental Chemistry during the ACS Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo on August 17-20, 2020.
Dr. Yalin Li presented the talk Sustainable Lactic Acid Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass at the 2nd Bioenergy Sustainability Conference (Virtual) on October 13-15, 2020. Sarang, Yoel, and Jeremy are co-authors of the presentation.