Biotechnology PhD Dissertation Defense of Mohan Konduri

The Biotechnology PhD candidate, Mohan Konduri will present his research entitled New Generation of Dispersants by Grafting Lignin or Xylan on Thursday, May 11th 2017 at 1:00 pm in ATAC 2015.

Although synthetic dispersants are commonly used in the stabilization of various colloidal suspensions, their non-biodegradable and toxic nature limits their applications; and thus always there is a need for green dispersants. In Mohan`s work, lignin or xylan, the most abundant and sustainable biopolymers on earth which are produced as byproducts of pulping and cellulosic ethanol industries were considered as raw materials for production of green dispersants. New methodologies were developed to modify and characterize the biopolymers (lignin or xylan) in order to improve their functional properties. Furthermore, in this work stabilization of coal or clay suspensions were fundamentally investigated, which facilitated in developing lignin or xylan based dispersants superior to commercial synthetic dispersants. Above all, this work will significantly substantiate the process of converting Canadian pulp mills to biorefineries.

Committee Members: Dr. Pedram Fatehi (supervisor), Dr. Baoqiang Liao, Dr. Sudip Rakshit, and Dr. Ying Zheng (external)

Everyone is welcome. For more information contact Brenda at phd.ses@lakeheadu.ca