Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering successfully hosted 2023 IFT-EFFoST International Nonthermal Processing Workshop and Short Course.

Professor Roger Ruan, PhD, has been named a National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow and will be inducted into the NAI at the academy’s annual meeting in June 2024.

Professor Ruan was among the Minnesota Observers at the COP26 Climate Summit at Glasgow between November 7 and 12, 2021.  He shared his impression of the meeting and also his reflection on how technology development can help achieve the goal in an article published on BBE's website. Here is the link to the article:

https://bbe.umn.edu/news/cop26-reflection

Researchers at the Center for Biorefining received $1 million grant from Xcel Energy RDF program. The three years project, led by Drs. Roger Ruan and Paul Chen, is aimed to develop and demonstrate innovative technology to convert Minnesota biomass to renewable electricity. The core of the proposed technology is fast microwave assisted gasification (fMAG). In the past, the researchers focused on microwave assisted pyrolysis of biomass, whose primary product is liquid fuel. Unlike biomass incineration, biomass gasification is cleaner and more efficient, and the produced syngas offers greater flexibility and applications in a wider varieties of power generation methods. In addition, gasification technology can be operated in scales suitable for distributed/decentralized power generation, and hence compatible with the distributed nature of biomass feedstock production. The key deliverable of the project is the construction and demonstration of a biomass to electricity equipment upon completion of the project.

Powdered foods such as milk powder, egg powder, spices, etc., are widely used as ingredients in manufacturing processed foods or consumed directly by humans and animals for their energy and nutrient contents. Inappropriate and insufficient decontamination have led to numerous outbreaks of foodborne diseases in recent years. Different physical and chemical processes have been used to decontaminate powdered foods. However, these processes have various defects, making their application ineffective and sometime impractical. A UMN team led by Dr. Roger Ruan was awarded $3.6 million to develop and demonstrate technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods.  This Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) project, integrating research with extension activities, addresses the program area “Enhancing Food Safety through Improved Processing Technologies” by developing an intense pulsed light (IPL) based technology for non-thermal pasteurization of powdered foods. IPL is an emerging technology for overcoming these defects. In this project, a continuous IPL process will be investigated for its germicidal effectiveness and also its impacts on physical, chemical, nutritional, and sensory properties of representative powdered foods. A prototype IPL system will be designed and constructed through the consultations with industry partners and stakeholders. The research activities on the system will cover process optimization in lab and the field trials with industry partners, while the extension activities will include workshops to demonstrate its usage to the stakeholders.

In a separate project funded by a major powdered food manufacturer, Dr. Ruan and his co-workers are developing non-thermal plasma based technology to pasteurize milk powder.

For more information and progress on the project, please visit http://iplforfoodsafety.cfans.umn.edu.