Associate Professor Warren Batchelor is the Deputy Director of BioPRIA, Co-Director of the Processing Advanced Lignocellulosics (PALS) Research Hub and works in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Monash University as a Senior Lecturer. He is an expert on paper as a nonwoven cellulose fibre material, including the relationships between sheet properties and internal structure, and is the Chairman of the Tappi Paper Physics Committee, the peak committee for the field.
Research Interests
Dr. Batchelor’s research group is heavily focused on the production and application of cellulose nanofibres. These are a new, fully recyclable and biodegradable nanofibre made by breaking down cellulose fibres from wood or agricultural residue. Reducing the fibre diameter by over three orders of magnitude reduces the size of the pores between the fibres, once formed into sheets, greatly improving the performance of the sheet as a barrier to water vapour and oxygen, or as an ultra-filtration membrane in liquid filtration. The pore size can be further reduced by making composites of cellulose nanofibres and nano-particles. Other applications of this versatile material include as an additive in paper manufacture, as a substrate for flexible printed electronics and as reinforcement in modern light-weight composites. His research group is currently developing,
New barrier materials from cellulose nanofibres.
New methods to rapidly make sheets from cellulose nanofibres for filter applications.
New sources of cellulose for nanofibres production, to reduce energy consumption.
Methods to quantify cellulose nanofibres quality development.