Justin Z. Lian, PhD

Environmental engineering | Prospective LCA | Sustainable healthcare and materials

I develop engineering-informed, prospective life cycle methods to guide sustainable technology design and deployment before critical choices become locked in.

My research connects process and facility models with life cycle assessment (LCA), economic analysis, and future scenarios. I study how design, scale, location, energy supply, and operating conditions shape sustainability, with applications in healthcare, pharmaceutical manufacturing, functional materials, and environmental technologies.

Research framework From engineering evidence to responsible deployment

01 Engineering evidence Experiments, measurements, and primary process and facility data

02 Prospective assessment Life cycle models, scenarios, economics, uncertainty, and machine learning

03 Deployment decisions Design, scale, location, energy supply, infrastructure, and operation

Applied across Pharmaceuticals Medical devices Controlled facilities Hospital care pathways Functional materials Sanitation systems Carbon capture and utilization Renewable-energy communities Waste management

Research Focus

Sustainable healthcare systems

Medical devices, cleanrooms, hospital equipment, reuse and disinfection, and care pathways assessed through connected models of products, facilities, and services.

Sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing

Antiviral synthesis, antibiotic-containing inhalable formulations, bioactive-compound extraction, and ongoing mRNA vaccine research, with a focus on process design, energy, solvents, and cost.

Sustainable materials and technologies

Carbon nanotubes from captured carbon, silver nanoparticles, functional surfactants, and water-treatment materials. Engineering performance and environmental evidence inform material and process choices.

Prospective industrial ecology

Engineering-informed inventories, integrated LCA and economic assessment, spatial and future scenarios, deployment screening, and prospective impact characterization.

Methodological Contributions

My methodological work connects engineering detail with decisions across scale, place, and time:

Process design and scale-up: combine process inventories, LCA, and economic assessment to compare synthesis and manufacturing options.
Facilities and deployment: connect operating requirements with future electricity, climate, location, and implementation scenarios.
Prospective impact assessment: contribute to machine learning methods for forecasting spatially explicit water-scarcity characterization factors.

Explore the methods and supporting publications.

Research Trajectory

My career developed through the convergence of engineering technology and systems assessment. The continuity lies in connecting technical performance with the conditions that govern responsible deployment.

Systems assessmentMSc research established a foundation in LCA through comparative assessment of decentralized waste-management systems.

Experimental engineeringPhD research developed hands-on expertise in microfluidic fabrication, functional materials, process characterization, and contaminated-water treatment.

Industry experienceTwo years in industry added an applied perspective to my academic research.

Prospective assessmentResearch at CML and Utrecht integrated engineering data with prospective LCA, techno-economic assessment, future scenarios, and regional deployment.

Healthcare systemsCurrent work at Erasmus MC extends this approach from products and facilities to hospital workflows, services, and care pathways.

Research Philosophy

Life cycle assessment has shaped not only how I conduct research, but also how I understand responsibility. It has taught me that every conclusion depends on the boundary drawn, the alternatives considered, and the burdens that may be shifted across places, time, organizations, and people.

This perspective has made me cautious about simple claims of sustainability, transparent about uncertainty, and attentive to unintended consequences. In research and collaboration, I value intellectual honesty, systems thinking, and decisions that remain responsible when viewed beyond their immediate context.

Current Work

I am a researcher at Erasmus Medical Center (Erasmus University Rotterdam), where I lead sustainability modelling for the ECO-PATH project. The work develops reusable industrial ecology models that connect hospital facilities, energy-intensive equipment, products, organizational workflows, resource use, and clinical service delivery.

I also collaborate with researchers at the University of Sheffield on energy consumption, environmental impacts, and techno-economic modeling of continuous mRNA vaccine production. This ongoing work extends my pharmaceutical research from small-molecule synthesis and inhalable formulations to biomanufacturing.

Sustainable healthcare is a central application of my work. Functional materials, cleanrooms, sanitation, carbon utilization, and renewable energy provide additional settings for developing and testing the methods.

Selected Evidence

Pharmaceutical process design Research on molnupiravir synthesis identified solvent use and process design as major determinants of environmental and economic performance.

Functional materials Carbon nanotube and thiophene-surfactant studies connect synthesis choices, scale, energy use, and material performance with life cycle impacts.

Cleanroom futures Scenario-based assessment tested how regional conditions and future electricity and climate pathways affect controlled-facility performance.

Sol-Char deployment Random-forest screening across 76 candidate countries and ex-ante LCA compared baseline, international-transport, and local-construction scenarios.

Anti-infective formulations A study of inhalable tobramycin and molnupiravir formulations links particle engineering with manufacturing impacts and costs.

Care pathway systems ECO-PATH links products, equipment, facilities, workflows, and services in modular environmental models for hospital decision support.

Collaboration Interests

I welcome collaborations that combine engineering or operational evidence with life cycle models. Current interests include pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing, sustainable materials, medical devices and facilities, care pathways, prospective impact assessment, and technology deployment.

Selected research collaborations.