Assistant Professor, Dr Iris Yu was listed as one of the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific 2023. Launched in 1999 to celebrate MIT Technology Review’s centennial anniversary, “Innovators under 35” (TR35) aims to select and recognize top-notch young innovators from various cutting-edge S&T and industry fields annually and accelerate the pace of S&T innovations from around the globe. Over the past two decades, TR35 gradually become today’s “35 Innovators under 35” and has demonstrated tremendous international influence and thought leadership.
Food waste significantly makes up 20-60% of the municipal solid waste in many countries including Singapore, Thailand, China, etc. Landfill disposal and incineration (together with other waste streams) remain as the major treatments worldwide, which have raised concerns over the considerable carbon and pollutant emissions.
To achieve zero carbon and mitigate climate change, new upcycling technologies are needed to turn the bio-wastes into bio-renewable products, in particular, with market potential to exercise circular bio-economies in the context of sustainable development. To this end, Iris K.M. Yu sets a new research landscape of microwave-assisted biorefinery, pursuing energy-efficient valorization of bioresources into platform chemicals and functionalized materials via innovative engineering solutions.
Yu strives to advance the knowledge about microwave effects within catalytic systems, particularly in the domains of Microwave activation of feedstock, Microwave-catalyst synergy, and Solvent-mediated catalysis. She envisions to reap the benefit of “microwave superheating” for designing high-efficiency biorefinery processes as the pathway to actualize food waste circular economy. Successful deployment of the technology will enable diversity and build resilience in food waste management agenda, marking a revolutionary change in the recycling business ecosystem where biological processes currently hold the largest market share.
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