News

2022

11/16/2022. Michigan Tech will receive more than $8.1M funding from the Department of Energy along with more than $2M cost matching to further develop, scale-up, and demonstrate disruptive battery recycling processes. Dr. Pan is the PI. [link]. News release from Senators Peters and Stabenow. Thank you!!

10/27/2022. This lab was awarded a project from DOE ARPA-E to develop a technology to increase the domestic supply of critical minerals and increase the carbon uptake in minerals [link]. 

10/5/2022, Peijia Lin joined this group as a research fellow (soon to be postdoctoral fellow)!

10/1/2022, this lab received a new contract from CDC-NIOSH. This project is a collaborative effort with Dr. Miller and Dr Wang's group at University of Utah, Dr. Sarver's group at Virginia Tech, and Dr. Assemi. Thanks to our partners and colloborators at NIOSH. 

9/27/2022, Congratulations to Tinu for Dupoint Gold  Award. Congratulation! 

9/1/2022, We started a new MTRAC project with our mine partner, Eagle Mine. Thank you!

9/1/2022, this Fall, we are so thrilled to have Alayna back to the lab. We are also welcoming our new UR nathan. 

5/15/2022, This summer, we have Katie Liberman and Michael Durbin as our summer undergraduate research interns. They are fantastic!!! 

5/15/2022, Summer has been busy, busy, and busy. But, we all enjoy beautiful UP summer! 

1/5/2022, We are welcoming Kobina join this group. He is our new PhD student. 

1/1/2022, Happy New Year!

2021

10/11/2021, Tinuade Folayan is NOBCChE Award Recipient! Congratulations! [link].

9/30/2021, Ruiting is now officially Dr. Zhan. Congratulations!

8/23/2021, John (BS in ChE from Michigan Tech) is becoming a PhD student in our group. He is passionate at feeding our group with lake superior fish.   

8/15/2021, we are thrilled to have Dr. Phan from University of Iowa joining our group. He will be helping many team members on surface chemistry tasks. 

8/8/2021, Tinu's first paper on cathode/cathode separation by froth flotation was published! It is great!!!

05/01/2021, we are back to normal! Thanks to vaccines!

03/01/2021, Fatemeh and Titilayo joined the group as PhD students. 

2020

12/5/2020, Yuesheng defends his dissertation! Congratulation!

5/28/2020, we are glad that we are returning to the lab this summer. Hope for the best, and plan for the worst! Wear masks!!!! (see this PNAS paper).

2/12/2020, our TBS educational module will be soon on-line. Stay in tune. 

1/30/2020, Ruiting's two manuscripts on direct recycling of Li-ion battery has been published! Congratulation!

1/7/2020, we will be working with Dr. Jung and Dr. Noble on development of an improved flooded-bed scrubber system for underground coal mines. News link.

1/1/2020, Happy New Year! Hah!

2019

9/3/2019, we are awarded a collaborative project from National Science Foundation (NSF) Link.

7/1/2019, Dr. Pan received ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) Doctoral New Investigator grant/award. We will be pursuing more fundamental research in the coming years. Thank you!

6/1/2019, this summer, we have two undergraduate researchers (Michael McGee and Matthew) working in the lab. 

4/1/2019, we received p3 Phase II funding from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Thank you! [EPA News Release]

1/17/2019, Secretary of Energy announced an establishment of DOE Li-ion battery recycling R&D center led by Argonne National Laboratory. We are a part of the team. Link.

1/5/2019, we are welcoming Tinu Folayan to our team. She is our new graduate student. 

2018

1 December, Ruiting's paper was highlighted by the Sustainable Materials and Technologies journal (Rank: 99% under Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Link.

27 November, Yuesheng's paper was selected as the cover art in Langmuir journal. Congratulation. 

1 November, we received NSF I-Corps funding. 

1 September, Sommer Skeps  started to work on her department-funded undergraduate research project.  She will be worked with Ruiting. 

2 August, the team received EPA P3 Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology (YCOSST) Award from the AIChE institute for sustainability. (link). A 3-min project introduction video is available (link). 

2 August, News: Old mining techniques make a new way to recycle lithium batteries. Thanks to Allison and Marcia!

MTU; Physics Org; AAAS; DOE News;  Knowledge ; IEEE; ScienceDaily;  IndeedEVs; Recycling International; 

29 July, the team participated the Midwest I-Corps training and CAR MRS in Traverse City. Thanks to UM I-Corps team (Johnathan and Lora) and Cary at ZF. 

28 June, we again participate the Summer Youth Program at Michigan Tech. This year, we instruct students conduct bubble generation and surface tension experiments.

21 May, we received funding from MTRAC Innovation Hub for advanced materials.

7-8 April,  we (Lucille, Trevyn, Zack, Ruiting, Lei) attended the 2018 National Sustainable Design Expo and 2018 Science Fest in DC held by US EPA.  It was a lot of fun! Thanks to the EPA's sponsorship. 

Media Coverage: http://www.keweenawreport.com/news/local-news/finding-new-uses-for-old-batteries/

MTU: https://blogs.mtu.edu/chemical/2018/02/20/epa-funding-for-lei-pan/

EPA: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/10872/report/0

ABC: https://abc10up.com/2018/04/18/8347462/

5 April, Caroline has been selected as a URIP ​Portage Health Foundation intern. Congratulation!

25-28 February, Dr. Pan's group attends the 2018 SME annual conference in Minneapolis, MN. The PI will chair the "Energy and Critical Materials" session for the 2019 SME annual conference in Denver. Feel free to send an email to Dr. Pan (leipan@mtu.edu) if you are interested to present your research in our session.  

1 January, a student-center battery recycling team is established at Michigan Technological University. We will keep you updated about project progress. 

2017

10 September, Ruiting Zhan joined the group as a PhD student!

6 September, Dr. Pan was selected as one of 2017-18 Henry Krumb Lecturers by SME [Link]. Much appreciated!

28 August, Dr. Pan's group completed the I-Corps Site Workshop. Excellent Job, Zack!

13 July, Dr. Pan's group participated the Summer Youth Program at Michigan Tech. 

15 June, Firomsa Dheresa and Zack presented their research at MiCUP Poster Gallery Walk. 

15 May, we're glad to particulate MiCUP program sponsored by Center for Diversity and Inclusion. 

17 March, Trevyn, Alicia and Zack presented their projects at the 2017 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) . Trevyn was awarded as HONORABLE MENTION [Link]. Cong!

6 March, Dr. Pan gave a talk at Argonne National Laboratory's EEST Transporation Working Group. Many thanks to Linda! Look forward to our future collaboration.

22 February, Dr. Pan attended the 2017 SME annual conference in Denver CO, served in SME MPD student poster contest panel, and gave a talk on dewatering and filtration modelling. See you in Minneapolis  next year!

14 February, Dr. Pan took a tour at Humboldt Mill (Eagle Nickel-copper mine) in a non-snowy day. Many thanks to Lindsay and Travis for hosting my visit. 

9 January, Helen Zhu and Emily Jasinski started their projects for their undergraduate research projects. Enjoy! 

1 January,  Yuesheng Gao joined the group to start his PhD project, welcome! 

2016

1 November, Zachary Oldenburg joined the group to work on battery recycling project, welcome!

20 October, Dr. Pan gave a talk at the 2016 SME Upper Peninsula Section meeting. Glad to see local mining colleagues!

20 October, Alicia Ball has been selected as a DeVlieg Foundation Fellow through the Undergraduate Research Internship Program.

20 October, Trevyn Payne has been selected as a Pavlis Young Investigators Fellow through the Undergraduate Research Internship Program. 

15 August, LAboratory for Multiscale Separation Technologies (LAMST) at Michigan Technological University officially started.