Roger Ruan

Roger Ruan stands with his arms folded and wears a striped button down shirt.
Professor
Director of the Bioproducts and Biosystems Science, Engineering and Management graduate program
[email protected]
+1 612 625 1710
206 BioAgEng Building

1390 Eckles Ave
St. Paul, MN 55108
United States

Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, and Center for Biorefining
Education

Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

M.S. in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Oklahoma State University

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, China Agricultural University

Areas of Interest

Renewable Engineering and Environment, and Food Engineering

Biography

Dr. Ruan is widely recognized for his research in biomass and solid waste conversion, including plastic waste pyrolysis and gasification for the production of chemicals, materials, fuels, and energy. His work extends to innovative wastewater treatment solutions, airborne pathogen disinfection, catalytic non-thermal plasma, microwave and photocatalytic technologies, and food engineering advancements. His research has resulted in significant contributions to engineering knowledge, with over 43,000 citations, an h-index of 106, and an i10-index of 531. Dr. Ruan is also a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (Class of 2023), and a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). Most recently, Dr. Ruan was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (Class of 2025). 

Teaching

BBE 4733/5733 Renewable Energy Technologies

BBE 4723/5723 Food Process Engineering

BBE 8703 Managing Water in Food and Biological Systems

Research

Renewable energy and environment technologies for sustainable development and circular economy; Biomass and solid wastes (e.g., plastic wastes) and liquid wastes value-added utilization; and Food engineering.

Select Publications

  • Roger Ruan, Yaning Zhang, Paul Chen, Shiyu Liu, Liangliang Fan, Nan Zhou, Kuan Ding, Peng Peng, Min Addy, Yanling Cheng, Erik Anderson, Yunpu Wang, Yuhuan Liu, Hanwu Lei, Bingxi Li. 2019. Chapter 1 - Biofuels: Introduction, Editor(s): Ashok Pandey, Christian Larroche, Claude-Gilles Dussap, Edgard Gnansounou, Samir Kumar Khanal, Steven Ricke, In Biomass, Biofuels, Biochemicals, Biofuels: Alternative Feedstocks and Conversion Processes for the Production of Liquid and Gaseous Biofuels (Second Edition), Academic Press, 2019, Pages 3-43.
  • Leilei Dai, Nan Zhou, Hui Li, Yunpu Wang, Yuhuan Liu, Kirk Cobb, Yanling Cheng, Hanwu Lei, Paul Chen, Roger Ruan. 2021. Catalytic fast pyrolysis of low density polyethylene into naphtha with high selectivity by dual-catalyst tandem catalysis. Science of The Total Environment. Volume 771, 1 June 2021, 144995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.144995.
  • Dongjie Chen, Shuhao Huo, Pengfei Cheng, Yanling Cheng, Nan Zhou, Paul Chen, Yunpu Wang, Kun Li, Peng Peng, Roger Ruan. 2021. Treatment and nutrient recovery from acetophenone based wastewater by an integrated catalytic intense pulsed light and Tribonema sp. cultivation. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification. Volume 160, March 2021, 108276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2020.108276.
  • Pengfei Cheng, Ruirui Chu, Xuezhi Zhang, Lirong Song, Dongjie Chen, Chengxu Zhou, Xiaojun Yan, Jay J. Cheng, Roger Ruan. 2020. Screening of the dominant Chlorella pyrenoidosa for biofilm attached culture and feed production while treating swine wastewater. Bioresource Technology. Volume 318, December 2020, 124054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124054.
  • Peng, Peng; Schiappacasse, Charles; Zhou, Nan; Addy, Min; Cheng, Yanling; Zhang, Yaning; Anderson, Erik; Chen, Dongjie; Wang, Yunpu; Liu, Yuhuan; Chen, Paul; Ruan, Roger. 2019. Plasma in situ gas-liquid nitrogen fixation using concentrated high-intensity electric field. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. 52 (2019) 494001 (8pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ab3ea6

Honors and Awards

2022 Pandey Research Excellence Award

2020 Scientist of IAAM Award

2019 CAFS Professional Achievement Award

2019 IFT Fellow

2015 ASABE Fellow