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Madeleine Bussemaker

Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Surrey

Madeleine completed her PhD at The University of Western Australia's Centre for Energy focusing on the use of ultrasound for the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for biorefinery applications. As part of her PhD, Madeleine spent some time at Beijing Forestry University and at Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, (QIBEBT) where she worked on biomass pretreatment and characterisation. As well as working with ultrasonic interactions with lignocellulose, Madeleine explored the response of sonochemistry to variations in the reactor configuration.

Madeleine moved to Surrey in 2013 where she was involved with biorefinery value chain optimisation, based on a techno-economic assessment of a novel treatment of lignocellulose. Since moving to Surrey Madeleine has been appointed as a lecturer and is currently involved in projects on biorefinery value chain modelling, biomass processing and classification, ultrasonic treatment of waste and parametric studies on sonochemical effects.

Madeleine is especially interested in the conversion of lignocellulose and waste to value added products using novel technologies. Madeleine's interest in this area spans from the fundamental chemical processes through to higher level modelling and optimisation of the technology and value chain. In addition Madeleine enjoys research in the area of ultrasound and sonochemistry for applications in process and chemical engineering.

Current Research Areas -

Biorefinery modelling: value chain assessment, techno-economic modelling and related ontologies.

Chemical reactions of ultrasound: parametric effects, gas-liquid reactions and the sonochemistry of lignin.

Ultrasound for biological applications: bacteria inactivation and sonodynamic therapy for cancer treatment.

Chemical engineering curriculum development using ontologies.

Experience

  • 2014–present
    Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Surrey

Education

  • 2013 
    The University of Western Australia, PhD in Chemical Engineering
  • 2008 
    The University of Western Australia, BSc (Hons) Science