该领域的研究集中于对与可再生原料（例如，纤维素生物质）生产燃料和化学品有关的催化剂，生物催化剂和工艺有基本的了解。研究领域包括：了解用于生物能源相关应用的聚糖（即碳水化合物）的生物合成，化学加工，超微结构/分子组织，结构-功能关系和酶促解构，生物催化剂（即酶，微生物）的工程和多尺度表征，合理设计和合成新型非均相催化剂，电催化剂和纳米催化剂，并研究其催化性能和应用，基于可再生原料的生物精炼厂的催化和生物催化工艺的设计和优化，用于生产燃料和化学品的微生物系统的合成生物学和工程，生物精炼厂过程建模和仿真，使用技
Research in this area has been concentrated on developing a fundamental understanding of catalysts, biocatalysts and processes relevant for production of fuels and chemicals from renewable feedstocks (e.g., cellulosic biomass). Research areas include: Understanding the biosynthesis, chemical processing, ultrastructural/molecular organization, structure-function relationships, and enzymatic deconstruction of glycans (i.e., carbohydrates) for bioenergy related applications, Engineering and multiscale characterization of biocatalysts (i.e., enzymes, microbes) , Rational design and synthesis of novel heterogeneous catalysts, electrocatalysts and nanocatalysts and investigation of their catalytic properties and applications, Design and optimization of catalytic and biocatalytic processes for renewable feedstock based biorefineries, Synthetic biology and engineering of microbial systems for production of fuels and chemicals, Biorefinery process modeling and simulation, Modeling of Biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals using technoeconomic analysis and Life Cycle Assessment