MechSE teaching assistant professor Jiajun He is leading an interdisciplinary research team that has received a 2026-27 seed fund from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) to develop a circular approach for transforming food waste into sustainable fuels and carbon capture materials. He’s award was one of just four selected by iSEE for this year’s program, with each receiving $30K to launch new collaborations and generate preliminary results for larger research initiatives ().
The project, “Circular Carbon Platform for Food Waste: Integrated Production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel and CO2 Capture Materials,” brings together He with Yuanhui Zhang, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Illinois. The collaboration combines Zhang’s expertise in hydrothermal biomass conversion and fuel production with He’s work in porous carbon materials, adsorption science, and sustainability analysis.
Food waste represents a major underutilized carbon resource. Rather than treating it solely as waste, the researchers aim to use different carbon fractions to create valuable products.
“Food waste contains a significant amount of carbon that we currently do not fully utilize,” He said. “Our goal is to develop an integrated approach that converts different carbon fractions into useful products rather than generating another low-value waste stream.”
Their proposed platform will first convert food waste through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), producing an energy-rich biocrude that can be upgraded into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), along with carbon-rich solid residues.
He’s group will transform the solid residues into hierarchical porous carbon materials for CO2 capture through controlled activation and pyrolysis. By tailoring their pore structures and surface chemistry, the researchers aim to improve the materials’ CO2 adsorption performance.
The team will also investigate how food waste components, including lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates, transform during hydrothermal processing and how carbon is partitioned among fuels, solids, gases, and other products. Techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment will evaluate the economic feasibility and environmental benefits of the integrated process.
“The idea is to connect waste-to-fuel conversion with carbon capture materials in the same platform,” He said. “By integrating fuel production, carbon capture, and sustainability analysis, we hope to establish a new pathway for circular carbon utilization.”
The seed project will generate preliminary data to support larger external research initiatives in sustainable aviation fuel, carbon management, and the circular bioeconomy.