Greetings! I am excited to have joined the CircEUlar project consortium at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. My name is Yee Van Fan, and my research centres around material recovery and energy, supported by comprehensive sustainability assessment and scenario modelling. I have a PhD in Design and Process Engineering, and a multidisciplinary background, transitioning from Industrial Chemistry to Bioprocess Engineering.
My research to-date includes life cycle analysis of the solid waste management sector from micro to macro scales. This ranges from assessing optimal treatment strategies for waste collection and management systems, and forecasting GHG emissions from waste flows by understanding relationships with demographic and socioeconomic factors.
One of my recent research highlights is a collaborative publication in Science with authors from Xiamen University in Malaysia titled “Curbing global solid waste emissions toward net-zero warming future”. It was featured as a Science cover and was discussed on the Science podcast. This paper examines GHGs from municipal solid waste worldwide from 2020 to 2050. The main finding is that the solid waste sector is not on track to meet climate targets unless a range of interventions are adopted under accelerated timescales in the near future.
By Yee Van Fan – OXF