SEE Postgraduate Student Won the Best Presentation in Materials Circularity Award in the 2nd International Conference on Thermal Treatment and Resource Recovery 2025
Under the supervision of Prof. Charles Xu and Prof. Carol Lin, Mr. Di WU (Woody), a postgraduate student at the School of Energy and Environment (SEE), won the Best Presentation Award in Materials Circularity at the 2nd International Conference on Thermal Treatment and Resource Recovery (T2R2 2025), organized by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The conference took place at HKUST from December 14 to 17, 2025. The T2R2 Conference focuses on cutting-edge research, explores advanced thermal treatment methods, and is committed to converting waste materials into valuable resources such as renewable energy and biofuels, while also considering environmental friendliness and economic feasibility.
Woody’s presentation, titled “Upcycling the Food Waste Lipids into Bio-based Non-Isocyanate Polyurethanes”, introduces an innovative food waste biorefinery scheme to valorise food waste lipids (FWL) into bio-based non-isocyanate polyurethane (NIPU) foams. Due to their versatility, these bio-based NIPU foams will serve as an eco-friendly, high-performing soilless planting medium, revolutionizing urban greening and farming. The utilization of FWLs, with their high free fatty acid (FFA) content as feedstock, embodies the “Waste-to-Wealth’ principle of the circular economy. The proposed methodology enables efficient conversion of the FWL feedstock into cyclic carbonates via reaction with CO2. This strategy provides a robust, scalable pathway for converting heterogeneous FWLs into high value-added NIPU foams, advancing waste valorization and carbon neutrality.