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Watanabe Lab (System Development Division)
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The lab uses water and carbon dioxide to turn waste into resources.
AboutAbout the lab
Chemical engineering that is kind to people
The Watanabe Lab studies processes that use environmentally benign solvents such as water, carbon dioxide, and ionic liquids.
Through the effective use and recycling of waste, the lab carries out fundamental chemical engineering research aimed at realizing a circular society.
The work is divided into groups by theme, including separation of useful components from natural products, effective use of CO2, and use of biomass and urban mines.
The lab is housed in the Research Center of Supercritical Fluid Technology, affiliated with the Graduate School of Engineering.
Key terms
- Supercritical CO2
- Carbon dioxide at a raised temperature and pressure where the distinction between gas and liquid disappears. It can be used as a solvent
- Hydrothermal process
- A method that uses high-temperature, high-pressure water as the reaction medium to break down or transform substances
- Ionic liquid
- A salt made of cations and anions that remains liquid even at ordinary temperature and pressure
NewsLab news
A master's student received the Outstanding Student Award at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan
A master's student received the Student Award at the 56th Autumn Meeting of the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan
A master's student received the Best Student Award at the 24th Summer School of the Supercritical Fluid Division
A master's student received the Student Award at the Annual Meeting of the Japan Association of Separation Technology 2024
A master's student received the Student Award at the 55th Autumn Meeting of the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan, and an Assistant Professor received the Outstanding Paper Award of Kagaku Kogaku Ronbunshu
ResearchResearch themes
Using environmentally benign solvents such as water, carbon dioxide, and ionic liquids, the lab studies processes for the effective use and recycling of waste from a chemical engineering perspective. Divided into groups for natural products, CO2, biomass, urban mines, and carbon materials, it carries out fundamental research toward a circular society.
*Illustrative imageSeparating Useful Components from Natural Products
The lab is investigating a process that uses supercritical CO2 to remove caffeine from green coffee beans without damaging their flavor. It also researches concentrating components such as natural essential oils from parts that have not been used until now, such as yuzu peel, rice bran, and the twigs and leaves of kuromoji (Lindera umbellata).
*Illustrative imageEffective Use of CO2
Treating CO2 as a carbon source, the lab works on fixation reactions that synthesize carbonates using ionic liquids as the reaction medium. It also studies the use of CO2 as an extraction solvent, and measures fundamental properties such as density and viscosity to find ionic liquids suited to each process.
*Illustrative imageEffective Use of Biomass Resources
The lab researches techniques that extract cellulose from agricultural residues, food waste, discarded clothing, and similar sources through hydrothermal processes, and convert it into glucose and other products by varying the conditions. It is also investigating a process that detoxifies industrial wastewater without drying it and recovers heat.
*Illustrative imageRecycling Urban Mines and Waste Plastics
The lab is working to make continuous a recycling process that extracts metals from the cathodes of discarded lithium-ion batteries using high-temperature, high-pressure water and organic acids. For multilayer plastic packaging films, it aims for a method that regenerates them as materials and decomposes them into feedstock at the same time.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Watanabe Lab are faculty, researchers, secretaries, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorMasaru Watanabe
- Associate ProfessorYuta Nakayasu
- Project Associate ProfessorToshiyuki Nonaka
- Project Associate ProfessorQingxin Zheng
- Assistant ProfessorYuya Hiraga
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Zinc hydroxycarbonate jungle” Arskatin / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Separating Useful Components from Natural Products: “Raw coffee beans 2” Kızıldeniz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Effective Use of CO2: “Ionic Liquid ( )” National Institute of Standards and Technology / Public domain (cropped)
- Effective Use of Biomass Resources: “Zellstoff 200 fach Polfilter” Jan Homann / Public domain (cropped)
- Recycling Urban Mines and Waste Plastics: “Clean Shredded Plastic Foils” Barphilosof / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tomai Lab): “Critical carbon dioxide-3” Bernhard Kuemel、Regi51 / CC BY-SA 2.0 at (cropped)
- Related lab (Solvent Element Technology Lab): “Water drop 001” José Manuel Suárez from Spain / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Yoshioka Lab): “FLAKES” TOP PLASTIC / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Yin Lab): “Such different zinc oxide - nanowalls” Andrey P. Tarasov / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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