Dr Joanne Tanner completed her bachelor's degree in chemistry and chemical engineering at Monash University in 2008. She went on to gain industry experience in control systems design and configuration during her role at Honeywell, and subsequently managed and implemented client-driven chemical engineering research projects at laboratory, pilot and scale with HRL Technology. She returned to Monash as a doctoral candidate in 2012 and completed her PhD in the area of high temperature, entrained flow gasification. She has designed, commissioned and demonstrated several fit-for-purpose, pilot scale reactors and has a close collaboration with the Institute of Energy and Climate Research, IEK-2, at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, where she did some postdoctoral research. Dr Tanner's current research interests include biorefinery processes, waste biomass utilisation for sustainable fuel and chemicals production, and closed loop recycling of waste plastics.

My current research sits in the general area of sustainability and biorefinery; replacing traditional fossil fuel-based fuel and chemical production processes with analogous plants using sustainable biomass as the primary feedstock. I am also interested in closed loop plastics recycling via thermochemical routes. I have industrial experience in the Process Control and industrial R&D sectors and a research background in thermochemistry and reaction engineering. I am familiar with batch, fluidised bed and entrained flow reactor design for traditional and catalytic reactions. I am interested in reactor design and development, with a focus on the underlying chemistry of the process. Most of my projects are very hands on, and I try to involve industry partners as much as possible to make sure that my research is addressing real world problems. I am typically looking for projects that utilise an existing waste stream in order to add value to an existing process, create a new revenue stream, and increase the sustainability of our fuels and chemicals industry.

CHE3162 - Process Control
CHE3164 - Reaction Engineering
CHE4170 - Chemical Engineering Design Project
CHE4180 - Chemical Engineering Research Project
CHE5881/6881 - Advanced Reaction Engineering
CHE5882/6882 - Biomass and Biorefineries