Research Interests:
- Process Synthesis for Downstream Processing in Production of Butanol, Ethanol, and Acetone from Corn and Grain Sorghum
- Carbon Adsorbents for Gas Storage and Fluid Purification
- Modeling of Disinfection and Sterilization of Food and Foodstuff for Safety and Security
- Identification of Catalytic and Metabolic Pathways
Specific Research Interests: Food Processing and Fermentation Systems Engineering
Research Areas of Emphasis: Food Engineering Value-Added
- Process systems engineering, including process synthesis and control
- Biochemical engineering including biomass hydrolysis and gasification, and downstream processing
- Chemical reaction engineering
- Particle technology, including fluidization and solids mixing
- Environmental pollution control
Systems Engineering
Energy Resources Conversion
Solids Mixing
Fluidization
Transport Phenomena
Chemical Process Dynamics
Chemical Reactor Analysis and Design
Environmental Pollution Control
Desalination
Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Artificial Intelligence
The outcomes of current and future research of the Institute will immensely facilitate the design and optimization of industrial plants for biochemical production of chemicals from biomass, and the discovery of new drugs by the industry.
The current projects focus on the synthesis, design, and optimization of environmentally benign and sustainable biochemical processes, such as biochemical production of butanol, ethanol, and acetone from biomass-based feed stocks, and the thermal-efficiency analysis of these processes in terms of available energy (exergy). One of the projects is concerned with the stochastic modeling of the formation of carbon adsorbents from biomass. The Institute is also participating in a major international collaborative effort on the identification of metabolic pathways. This effort would contribute to the discovery of new drugs.
