Christopher Luettgen, professor of the practice at the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and associate director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) has been named as the new Executive Director of the Alliance for Pulp & Paper Technology Innovation (APPTI), effective April 1, 2023. 

Luettgen has over 25 years of industry experience, with Scott Paper and Kimberly-Clark Corp., where he most recently served as senior research and engineering manager for the Kimberly-Clark Professional business sector. He has held positions in product development and innovation as well as in capital project management and manufacturing facility leadership.

For several years, Luettgen has served on the RBI Industry Board of Advisors, and he is the current Chairman of the Board of the Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry. He earned his bachelor's degree in Paper Engineering at Western Michigan University (’85), his master’s degree at the Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, WI (’87), and his Ph.D. at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology - now the Renewable Bioproducts Institute at Georgia Tech (’91).

He rejoined Georgia Tech in November 2014 as a Professor of the Practice in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Associate Director of Pulp and Paper at RBI. He also serves as Director of Industry Strategic Partnerships in the Georgia Tech Professional Education Division.

His areas of interest include: Recycled fiber, renewable cellulosic feedstocks, tissue manufacturing and converting and manufacturing leadership / operations excellence.

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This is part two of the student experiences series. Tanner Hickman, fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in chemical and biomolecular engineering shares his experience from the 2023 RBI Spring Workshop on "Innovations in Packaging and Circular Economy."

Tell us about yourself.

I am Tanner Hickman and I completed my bachelor’s degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of South Alabama. Here at Georgia Tech, I am a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in chemical and biomolecular engineering, advised by Carson Meredith and Natalie Stingelin. My research focuses on exploring different ways to control the properties of natural polymers to make them useful for new applications.

How was your experience at the RBI workshop?

The RBI workshop provided incredibly valuable insights. I gained a comprehensive understanding of the persistent challenges within sustainable packaging, as well as the ongoing research endeavors aimed at tackling them. A key lesson I extracted from the workshop underscores the imperative of a circular economy within the packaging sector. However, it's crucial to note that our focus shouldn't solely revolve around product research; we must also direct attention toward addressing social concerns and broader issues.

What was your main takeaway from the poster session?

One of the best parts of RBI workshops is the opportunities to talk with people from different technical backgrounds, and poster sessions are one of the best ways to get the exchange of ideas flowing. I talked with several people from industry, who all had valuable advice on what it takes to bring benchtop research to application on a larger scale. At the same time, discussions with other researchers in academia are vital for brainstorming new projects, forming collaborations, etc.

What more would you like to see in future events at the Renewable Bioproducts Institute?

I would like to see a workshop that incorporates more interactive elements (in addition to the poster session) to engage participants. For instance, roundtable discussions or panel sessions where experts and attendees can openly exchange ideas and insights could enhance the learning experience.

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Who We Are and the Paper Museum

The Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking houses hand papermaking artifacts from around the world. Dard Hunter, a renowned paper historian and founder of the museum, collected many of these objects throughout the early 1900s as he sought to gain more knowledge about this craft. Nearly 100 years later, the museum continues its mission to collect, preserve, increase, and disseminate knowledge about papermaking to the general public. By collaborating with Georgia Tech researchers, and the larger Atlanta community, by using scientific tools, we can unlock hidden information held within the objects, both from a historical and scientific perspective. Recently, two Georgia Tech Postdoctoral Fellows, Nasreen Khan (Paper Museum/RBI) and Daniel Vallejo (School of Chemistry and Biochemistry) sought to uncover more about a loom in the museum’s collection, connected with the history of the Indian subcontinent and Gandhi.

Dard Hunter and Background of the Loom

In the 1930s, Dard Hunter traveled to Asia and the Indian subcontinent (I.e., India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir) to document hand papermaking techniques and collect tools and paper samples. At that time many people, including Mahatma Gandhi, aimed to revitalize the Indian hand papermaking tradition by supporting and creating schools to teach the craft [1-3]. Dard Hunter visited several papermaking villages and schools, including those helped founded by Gandhi. Hunter brought a loom back to America that was used to weave a chapri (paper-mold cover or screen), but the information of the specific origins of this loom was lost.

What’s Missing?

While Hunter and other researchers documented and studied hand papermaking tools and materials of this region and time, it was primarily from a historical and cultural perspective [1-5]. Much of their focus has been on the plant materials used to make the paper and molds [1-5]. However, some parts of the handmade molds in Asia were known to also use biological materials sourced from animals, such as silk and animal hair [1-4]. Since the exact origin of the loom and the fibers used to construct the paper mold was not known, the museum was interested in learning more about this object.

With scientific tools, the study aimed to understand more about the fibers commonly used in traditional handmade paper-mold covers in the 1930s Indian subcontinent by using scientific tools. With the availability of high-resolution microscopy technologies and historical documentation at Georgia Tech and the Museum, researchers aimed to either prove or disprove whether the origin of preserved fibers on the loom was from an animal and determine with historical context where the loom was acquired.

What we did and what we discovered

Are the Fibers Really Horsehair?

In forensic analysis, typically the first step to identify unknown fiber or hair samples is to conduct microscopy. Microscopy, or the science of using microscopes to view samples & objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye, is the gold standard for analyzing and identifying unknown fibers by comparison to a library of known reference materials. This is possible because hair from different sources or animals have different “morphologies”, or physical features, that help identify their origin. Thanks to the Materials Innovation and Learning Laboratory (MILL), a hub of scientific equipment for hands-on scientific training of undergraduates at Georgia Tech, the researchers were able to use two different microscope techniques: Light microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Thanks to Little Creek Farm Conservancy in Decatur and Kristine Parson, the researchers were able to obtain reference materials for tail and mane horsehair from two horses: Angus and Lightening.

Click the link below to continue reading the story.

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The Bark Rhythms exhibit continues at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking through August. It features historical examples of hand-beaten bark papers, barkcloths, and traditional beaters, paired with the work of contemporary artists from global communities who use bark fiber materials and techniques. Photos taken June 24 by Joya Chapman.

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Since leaving Georgia Tech, Laura (Mast) Stoy, PhD EnvE 21, has continued to pursue her research, this time as an entrepreneur.

The environmental engineering graduate founded Rivalia Chemical Co. with her sights set on commercializing her work as a PhD student. Over the past two years, Stoy has been selected for a competitive business incubator and a prestigious fellowship for entrepreneurs.

Stoy and her advisor, Turnipseed Family Chair and Professor Ching-Hua Huang, discovered that by applying an ionic liquid directly to solid coal fly ash, rare-earth elements (REEs) can be successfully removed in a safe process that creates little waste.

REEs are a set of elements that are necessary to manufacture technology like smart phones and LED screens, and play important roles in clean tech applications like electric vehicles and wind turbines.

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Professor Christopher Jones was selected as the recipient of the 2023 Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. (AIChE).

Jones, the John F. Brock III School Chair of Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE@GT), will receive the award at the AIChE meeting in Orlando, Florida, this November. 

This award recognizes his contributions to ultra-dilute CO2 separations, such as the extraction of CO2 from air, also referred to as “direct air capture” or DAC. The Jones group has played a foundational role in developing materials and processes for CO2 removal from air, and in conjunction with the Lively, Realff, Sholl, and other groups in ChBE@GT, no academic institution has authored more publications on DAC than Georgia Tech. 

Professors Jones, Matthew Realff, and Ryan Lively are founding members of the Georgia Tech Direct Air Capture Center, or DirACC.

Akanksha Menon, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded $3 million in funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of their Energy Earthshots™ Initiative to advance clean energy technologies within the decade. 

The initiative includes a total of $264 million in funding that will support 11 new Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs) led by DOE National Laboratories and 18 university research teams addressing one or more of the specific Energy Earthshots™ that aim to accelerate affordable and reliable clean energy solutions to mitigate the climate crisis to reach a net-zero carbon goal in 2050. 

Menon's project, titled Thermo-Chemo-Mechanical Transformations in Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Composites, will bring together Matthew McDowell, associate professor in the Woodruff School, Claudio Di Leo, assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, and Jeff Urban from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to provide a fundamental understanding of the coupled thermo-chemo-mechanical phenomena in thermal energy storage (TES) materials that will enable low-cost and stable storage.

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School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) faculty member Martha Grover has been named the College’s Thomas A. Fanning Chair in Equity Centered Engineering. Grover was selected for her efforts to educate engineers who approach their work with an intent to close societal gaps of wealth, power, and privilege by ensuring equitable access to opportunity.

The endowed position was established via the Southern Company Foundation by Southern Company, which has been regularly recognized for its efforts to promote an organizational culture that ensures representation of all groups. Fanning recently retired as chairman, president, and CEO.

Grover is a systems engineer whose work addresses the complexity of molecular organization and how it can solve complicated grand challenges. For instance, she has worked with the Department of Energy for 10 years to create processes for separation and immobilization of millions of gallons of liquid nuclear waste at the Hanford Site in Washington and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. She’s developed real-time process monitoring of nuclear waste slurries to increase throughput and enhance safety.

Grover’s research also focuses on the origins of life and understanding the essential role of diversity and cooperation. Her other work includes modeling and engineering the self-assembly of atoms and small molecules to create larger scale structures and complex functionality.

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The Energy Policy Innovation Center (EPICenter), along with the Beneficial Electrification League and Wells Fargo, hosted the Georgia Electrification Leadership Summit on the Georgia Tech campus. More than 140 people from the energy industry participated in the highly engaged event that included discussions on innovations and challenges in electrification in the transportation, residential, and industrial sectors. Additionally, the event addressed the economic development that the recent federal funding in the energy area is expected to bring to the state of Georgia.

The event began with a virtual welcome address by Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, followed by an introduction by Joe Hagerman, the director of EPIcenter, that operates within the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech. EPICenter was created to provide an unbiased and interdisciplinary framework for stimulating innovation in energy policy and technology for the Southeast region. Keith Dennis, founder and CEO of the Beneficial Electrification League, engaged the audience with his presentation on the benefits of electrification, followed by key energy industry leaders from the state of Georgia discussing their viewpoints on electrification opportunities in their industry. The morning keynote by Bentina Terry, senior vice president of Customer Strategy and Solutions at Georgia Power, brought focus on the everyday customer. Terry said they can be swayed with energy solutions only if the solutions providers advocate the benefits through the lens of the consumer.    

The stakeholder dialogue on electric transportation included Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols, who emphasized that the state of Georgia needs to focus on expanding the state’s transportation infrastructure to meet the rising EVs on Georgia roads and the urgent need for electrification in transportation. Richard Simmons, director of Research and Studies at the Strategic Energy Institute, also brought home the fact that transportation sector has caught on to the benefits of electrification more than any other sector in the country. GDOT team member in the discussion revealed the timeline of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program that has $135 million in funds apportioned to the state of Georgia.

On electrification in residential homes, panelists including Anita Moreno, Michelle Moore and Andrea Pinabell shared different perspectives and examples of the huge impact electrification has in residential homes, especially in low and moderate income and rural communities of Georgia.

The team from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, an entity that funds environmental infrastructure projects in the state, discussed the historical funding coming through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) and Inflation Reduction Act. With more than $300 million coming through the Georgia State Energy Office and most of the funding residential focused, the team discussed the challenges and consumer expectations and how they ensure projects that get funded save money and lead to client satisfaction.

Stakeholder dialogue on electrification of commercial technology included Chandra Farley, the chief sustainability officer of the City of Atlanta, who discussed decarbonization of public buildings, training the workforce, and electrification of the public fleet, while advancing the city’s goal to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035. Panelists also discussed heat pumps as a cost-effective method of supplying low-temperature heat for industrial processes and the advantages of industrial heat pumps over combustion technologies for electrification and energy efficiency.

“At EPICenter, we leverage Georgia Tech’s expertise and innovation to help inform energy policy and technology for the Southeast,” said Hagerman. “The GA Electrification Leadership Summit is another example of how we have brought together diverse stakeholders to foster collaboration and dialogue on Georgia’s energy future. EPICenter will continue to support electrification, energy access, and deep community engagement. Georgia Tech and EPICenter can play an outsized role in helping the Southeast achieve a vibrant, clean, and competitive energy future for all Georgians.”

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