Thomas Kwan Receives Fellowship from the American Oil Chemists’ Society

For his work in lipid processing, Thomas Kwan has received the Ralph H. Potts Memorial Fellowship from the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS).

Kwan, a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Julie Zimmerman, professor of chemical & environmental engineering, has developed a method to separate and purify lipids from microalgae. With a process called fractionation, he uses carbon dioxide (CO2) as a solvent to essentially “tune” the extraction and target specific lipids by adjusting the temperature and pressures.

As part of the fellowship, he will receive a $2,000 honorarium and give a lecture at the organization’s conference next month in Minneapolis, Minn.

Kwan’s process is a potential step toward creating a bio-based economy by finding cost-effective ways to produce biofuels and other products from a sustainable feedstock.

The products that can be made through this process span a wide range. Some of the lipids extracted – usually the larger ones – can be used for their nutritional values in foods because they contain Omega 3 fatty acids. Smaller lipids tend to be better for industry use - producing polymers and other materials, for instance.

Kwan’s research bridges the divide between the fundamental and applied science. “What I’ve shown is when you separate these lipids from a biomass or a renewable feedstock – specifically, microalgae - they can behave differently from controlled scientific experiments,” Kwan said. Through his research, Kwan has demonstrated that despite these differences, you can still successfully fractionate it for different uses.

Kwan steers his research to address social, environmental and economic needs of society (a practice known as the “triple bottom line”). He has also conducted a number of outreach efforts about his research, including workshops, conferences and hosting a webinar.

The award’s nominators praised Kwan for his innovative thinking.

“This project has the significant potential to improve the overall energy and material efficiency of bio-based feedstocks and advance the notion of an integrated bio-refinery by isolating both fuel and other value-added chemicals,” one of the nominators wrote.

The award, sponsored by NobelAkzo, is named in honor of Ralph H. Potts, considered by many to be the father of the oleochemical industry.