Xuelei Zhang

B ASIC SGS application ID 472599545

I NFORMATION Application status to be submitted
Gender female
Contact email address zhangxuelei1999@gmail.com
Affiliation International Student Of Western University
Voice phone number 2269774571
Legal status visa
Native English speaker No
Date of Birth March 09, 1999
Country of citizenship China
Fax number
Urgent contact info. 2269774571
Degree sought Master of Applied Science September Start
Possible external sup-
port
Research areas Combustion and Propulsion (Best match to my research)
Published papers 0

E DUCATION Bachelor of Engineering Science, the University of Western Ontario

B Department/Program: Chemical Engineering
B Enrollment date: September 01, 2018
B Graduation date: May 01, 2023
B GPA: 75/100
B The person responsible for issuing the transcript:
Name: Western University
Position: nominated officials of University of Western Ontario
Address: 1151 Richmond St, London, ON N6A 3K7
Email: llatif2@uwo.ca
Phone/Fax number: 519-661-2111

S TATEMENT OF I chose to study Biochemistry and Chemical Engineering out of curiosity. As a child,
I NTENT I always wondered, why does food spoil, and what does spoil become? It’s amaz-
ing that new food production and spoilage are always happening in plants. Is there
any connection between them? What is a substance made of? What’s the structure?
I have always been keen on the search for truth, which is a joy that cannot be satis-
fied by material things. The theoretical study can give me an answer to a reasonable
hypothesis, and experiments can help me verify the hypothesis, so my career plan is
to work as a teaching assistant at a university and have been engaged in scientific re-
search. Therefore, I am studying Chemical Engineering, Biochem & Environment at
the University of Western Ontario. During my undergraduate studies, I took Dr. Lars
Rehmann and other courses, and through these courses, I mastered cell growth kinetics,
reaction kinetics theorems, and other related theoretical knowledge. In addition, I have
also mastered Matlab and Microsoft Office like Microsoft Word, PPT, Visio, and Excel,
which can help me organize and analyze data, and play a role in academic writing

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projects. I have learned to use Aspen Plus, Aspen HYSYS proficiently, which can help
me simulate calculations and even help me optimize the operating conditions of exist-
ing devices or develop and design new or rebuilt devices. In addition, I also cultivated
my own experimental operation, experimental design, process design, PID drawing,
and process control capabilities, and learned to ensure experimental safety and a theo-
retical basis for the experiment. These abilities will help me pursue a research career. I
have two examples to prove the above capabilities. Firstly, I designed research factors
such as reactors or biological reactor parameters, determining the limit of reaction limit
through theories such as cell growth dynamics and reaction dynamics. Secondly, based
on the reaction principle, I considered the thermodynamic packets for simulation reac-
tions and analyzed the stream compounds in Aspen. Regarding academic research, I
have done three projects in total during my undergraduate period, two of which have
achieved good results, and one is still in progress, and I put them on my CV. Firstly, I’d
like to tell you about the project”Bio-oil and methane production by coupling anaero-
bic fermentation and HTL process” in detail, where I was responsible for process design
and goal determination. At the beginning of the project, the objective was confirmed to
produce methane from biomass, but its economic benefits were low and the pretreat-
ment process had high energy requests. However, most critical reports suggest that the
process can be coupled to a hydrothermal reaction. Therefore, I reviewed the literature
on existing hydrothermal technologies and consulted people in the relevant research
fields. Fortunately, I decided that the idea process was at least theoretically feasible, so
I changed my primary goal to producing more economical bio-oil. Nevertheless, new
problems arise again. It is difficult to select the thermodynamic package and simulation
software because of the complex chemical composition of reactants (corn stover) and
mostly organic macromolecules (lignocellulose, hemicellulose, etc.) So I’m currently
working on these issues. Through different thermodynamic property package applica-
ble conditions and reaction principle of selection, I’m tentatively looking at pseudo in
Aspen HYSYS as a potentially viable object. In addition, I want to introduce to you the
project ’Improving the experimental process and conditions of Rhodosporidium dio-
vatum for lipid production. It is based on lipid production in the under-characterized
oleaginous yeasts, Rhodosporidium babjevae, and Rhodosporidium diobovatum, from
biodiesel-derived waste glycerol. This experiment made me love Chemical Engineer-
ing even more. I went through all the relevant studies by the professor who supervised
the paper and decided to start with the carbon source and the carbon-nitrogen ratio.
However, due to the technical limitations of the publication date of this paper, there
is a technical gap in the measurement method of products (lipids). Thus, I decided to
use newer, more advanced measurements in the program. These are the main parts of
my project. I had a lot of fun doing these experiments although sometimes it can be
really tiring and frustrating especially if the project is not progressing. But I don’t care,
no matter how hard the process is, what kind of results may appear in the future, as
long as what I do now is meaningful, that is enough. My teachers and classmates com-
mented that I am full of research spirit, I think it might be my personality. When I was
investigating the literature related to biomethane, I saw a discussion about ”liquefied
methane is expected to become the fuel for space thrusters”. This makes me think that
biofuel’s prospects are not only limited to production and life but also can change and
promote our exploration of the universe. Therefore, I believe that the exploration of
sustainable energy in the aerospace field is a promising, meaningful, and challenging
project I want to develop, that I want to develop. Currently, here are my career plans.

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 Firstly, be admitted to the University of Toronto for postgraduate MASc, then I hope to
continue my Ph.D. study at the University of Toronto after graduation.

R EFEREE 1 Full name Lars Rehmann

Email address lrehmann@uwo.ca
Title Dr.
Affiliation Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering,
Western University
Phone number Tel: 519-661-2111 ext. 89008Department of Chemical and
Biochemical Engineering
Web URL https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=31HNu3QAAAAJ&hl=en

R EFEREE 2 Full name Chunbao (Charles) Xu

Email address cxu6@uwo.ca
Title Dr.
Affiliation Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Re-
sources (ICFAR) Department of Chemical and Bioc
Phone number Tel: 519-661-2111 ext. 86414
Web URL https://www.eng.uwo.ca/ibl/Biography/index.html

G RADES Bachelor of Engineering Science, the University of Western Ontario, May 2023
Semester/Term Course Credit Grade
Fall 2018 APPLIED MATHS FOR ENGINEERS I 1 65/100
Fall 2018 BUSINESS FOR ENGINEERS 1 50/100
Fall 2018 DISCOVERING CHEMICAL ENERGETICS 0.5 73/100
Fall 2018 ENGINEERING STATICS 0.5 64/100
Fall 2018 FOUNDATIONS OF ENGINEERING PRAC- 1 67/100
TICE
Fall 2018 LINEAR ALGEBRA WITH NUMERICAL 0.5 60/100
ANALYSIS F
Fall 2018 PHYSICS FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS 0.5 78/100
I
Fall 2018 PHYSICS FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS 0.5 67/100
II
Fall 2018 PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS FOR 0.5 70/100
ENGINEERS
Fall 2018 PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS IN ENGI- 0.5 60/100
NEERING
Fall 2019 APPLIED INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC CHEM- 0.5 62/100
ISTRY
Fall 2019 APPLIED STATISTICS AND DATA ANLY- 0.5 67/100
SIS FOR
Fall 2019 BUILDING BETTER (COMMUNICATION) 0.5 65/100
BRIDGES:
Fall 2019 BUSINESS FOR ENGINEERS 1 50/100
Fall 2019 INTRODUCTORY INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC 0.5 63/100
CHEMISTR
Fall 2019 LINEAR ALGEBRA WITH NUMERICAL 0.5 60/100
ANALYSIS F

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Fall 2020 APPLIED MATHEMATICS FOR ENGI- 0.5 82/100
NEERING II
Fall 2020 APPLIED MATHEMATICS FOR ENGI- 0.5 81/100
NEERING III
Fall 2020 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING THERMODY- 0.5 70/100
NAMICS
Fall 2020 CHEMICAL PROCESS CALCULATIONS 0.5 74/100
Fall 2020 COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR ENGI- 0.5 66/100
NEERS
Fall 2020 ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS 0.5 71/100
Fall 2020 FLUID FLOW 0.5 68/100
Fall 2020 FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOCHEMICAL 0.5 81/100
AND ENVIRONM
Summer 2021 Introduction to Canadian Legal System 0.5 62/100
Summer 2021 Introduction to Psychology as a Social S 0.5 82/100
Fall 2021 BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORA- 0.5 91/100
TORY COURS
Fall 2021 BIOCHEMICAL SEPARATION PROCESS 0.5 86/100
Fall 2021 BIOREACTION & BIOPROCESS ENGI- 0.5 85/100
NEERING
Fall 2021 ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT 0.5 70/100
Fall 2021 HEAT TRANSFER OPERATIONS 0.5 55/100
Fall 2021 INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL PRO- 0.5 55/100
CESS SIMULAT
Fall 2021 INTRODUCTION TO PLANT DESIGN & 0.5 60/100
SAFETY
Fall 2021 MASS TRANSFER OPERATIONS 0.5 83/100
Fall 2021 PROCESS DYNAMICS AND CONTROL 0.5 58/100
Fall 2021 REACTION ENGINEERING 0.5 80/100
Fall 2021 STAGED OPERATIONS 0.5 76/100
Fall 2021 SUSTAINABLE CHEMICAL ENGINEER- 0.5 83/100
ING & LIFE
Summer 2022 philosophy 2130 - Intro to existentialis 0.5 70/100
Fall 2022 BIOCHEMICAL PROCESS AND PLANT 1 In progress
DESIGN
Fall 2022 CARBON FOOTPRINT AND MANAGE- 0.5 In progress
MENT
Fall 2022 Energy and Fuels Production Systems 0.5 In progress
Fall 2022 ENGINEERING ETHICS, SUSTAINABLE 0.5 In progress
DEVELOPM
Fall 2022 Fuel, Energy & Environment 0.5 In progress
Fall 2022 Tissue Engineering 0.5 In progress

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 Xuelei, Zhang
London, ON, Canada|+1(226)9774571|zhangxuelei1999@gmail.com

EDUCATION BACKGROUND
University of Western Ontario London ON, Canada
• Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering 2018.9-2023.4
• Grade Ranking: 75%
• Course Highlights: Reaction Engineering, Applied Math for Engineer, Biochemical Engineering Lab
Courses, Biochemical Separation Process, Biochemical Process & Plant Design, Energy & Fuels
Produce Systems
ACADEMIC PROJECTS
Improving the experimental process and conditions of Rhodosporidium diovatum for lipid production
2022.2－2022.4
⚫ Project value: carried out reaction tests based on the experimental process recorded in Lipid production in
the under-characterized oleaginous yeasts (Rhodosporidium babjevae and Rhodosporidium diobovatum)
⚫ Project core: Shorten the whole experiment time and increase the product yield
⚫ Achievement: Shortened the experimental time, reducing the experimental process that lasted several
weeks to no less than 72 hours
⚫ Harvest: Learned complex technologies and knowledge, such as cell growth dynamics, reaction dynamics,
high performance liquid chromatography applied to achieve the goal
⚫ Skilled in operate small bioreactor and spectrometer and other instruments to measure products
Production of recombinant protein in bioreactors 2021.12
⚫ Project content: Two kinds of bioreactors were designed and compared to produce recombinant proteins
from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells fed on glucose
⚫ Project core: Application of Mechanical Stirring Aerated Bioreactor in Chemostat and airlift biological
reaction under constant chemical state
⚫ Project performance:91/100
⚫ Harvest: Carried on the practice and breakthrough in the field of effective design, by comparing the
mechanically agitated aerated bioreactor and the air lift bioreactor the function and efficiency of two kinds of
reactors
Bio-oil and methane production by coupling anaerobic fermentation and HTL process 2022.9
⚫ Project content: Manufacture bio-oil with secondary biomass as raw material by Hydrothermal Liquefaction.
Product is used to produce methane by anaerobic digestion
⚫ Project value: Using waste to produce the things we need through biotechnology
⚫ Project core: To improve the economic efficiency of biologic methane production, combined with
hydrothermal reactions
⚫ Current bottlenecks and solutions: difficult to select the thermodynamic package and simulation software
due to the complex chemical composition of reactants and mostly organic macromolecules. Temporarily
think Aspen HYSYS of pseudo for potential practical object through the screening of different
thermodynamic property of package applicable conditions and the reaction principle
⚫ Harvest: Mastered the plant level process design, learned a variety of engineering simulation software joint
application and put the theory learned before into complex practice
Accomplishments
⚫ Command and analysis positions in the three-to-seven-person experimental group and completed the
experiment excellently
⚫ Achieved clarity of the experimental results by introducing Matlab to improve the experimental scheme
of Rhodotorula lipid production
⚫ Achieved simplified experimental operation through literature investigation and changing the substrate
measurement method, the problem of data measurement error caused by technical gap is solved
⚫ Achieved the purpose of shortening the experiment cycle, customs clearance and improve the
reorganization test plan
⚫ Participated in and completed postgraduate courses on refining and bio refining
 QUALIFICATION AND SKILLS

⚫ Aspen Plus, Aspen Hysys, Basic Java programming

⚫ Microsoft Office: Microsoft Word, PPT, Visio, Excel,
⚫ Experiment operation, experiment design, process design, PID drawing, process control
⚫ Data collection, reorganization, and analysis
⚫ Good knowledge of chemical and biochemical reaction kinetics