Wenzhen Li

Biography

Our research is at the interface of science and engineering. With the world’s increasing energy demand, the depletion of “easy” oil and gas fields, and the impact of CO₂ emissions on the Earth’s climate, people have been forced to seek clean and sustainable energy resources. Lignocellulosic biomass can significantly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, alleviate greenhouse gas emissions, and improve energy security, and thus it is expected to share a big portion in our future energy landscape. The mission of our Catalysis and Electrochemical Energy Lab (CEEL) is to explore electrocatalytic processing of biomass-derived compounds (and CO₂) to efficient production of electricity, valuable chemicals and fuels. Our current research work include advanced electrocatalysts and electrochemical processes, cogeneration of electricity and valuable chemicals from biorenewable polyols, electrocatalytic processing of biomass, storage of renewable electricity into hydrocarbon fuels from ligocellulosic compounds (electrobiofuels),  electroreduction of CO2 to fuels (electrofuels), and high-performance, low cost fuel cells. Our research is currently supported by NSF, ACS-PRF and DOD-NRL.