International Conference on Chemical Engineering September 12-14, 2016 Phoenix, Arizona , USA

Biography:

Amarjit Bakshi has a PhD and also Undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. He has over 30 years’ experience in Engineering/Consulting Management at senior level in Process Engineering, Technology, Business Development, Licensing, Acquisitions, Alliances and Project Management and Engineering, Operations Management and Process Engineering. He has proven leadership and vision with broader perspectives and is able to manage multiple tasks and personnel on mega projects. For last 7 years, he has been consulting in upstream, midstream, transfer of oil/gas by pumping, petrochemicals with NOC’s, major oil and petrochemical corporations including management consulting organizations like BCG, Bain Consulting group and so many other organizations. He has been providing consulting in operations, training of facilities engineering, technology, catalysts, acquisitions, alliances, operations and corrosion in most of oil and gas industry areas.

Abstract:

With the invention of RHT-Alkylation, sulfuric acid alkylation process configuration and equipment provides multiple paradigm shifts and breakthroughs in the technology but keeping same reaction chemistry. The breakthroughs reduce the Capex and Opex in region of 40 to 50% compared to conventional technology; this is not just improvements but major paradigm shift. The process uses a unique educator-mixing device, which reduce the costs and maintenance requirements on stream factor with simple equipment. The unit uses classical coalescers for separating the acid and hydrocarbon from the contactor/reactor effluent, making it a dry process that simplifies the process by reducing equipment items, corrosion and cost. Additionally major breakthrough is in absorbing the auto refrigeration vapors in reactor effluent. This reduces the requirement for compressor saving 20% Capex and 50% of power requirements and operating costs. These are major benefits to the refining industry and should be embraced by the industry to make the competitiveness of the unit. RHT-Iso-octene/iso-octane process provides major economic advantages with simple and smart configuration which enhances the yield and reduces the equipment sizes and utilities.

Biography:

Aymn Abdulrahman has completed his PhD from University of Maine, USA. He has worked for 9 months in Arabian Petroleum Supply (APSCO) in Saudi Arabia and then about 2 years in sugar refinery as Shift Manager Trainee. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor and Chairman of Chemical Engineering Department at University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He has participated as a Member and a Speaker in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE annual meeting) in Nashville, Tennessee, USA in the year 2009.

Abstract:

Pre-pulping extraction is a means of deriving a hemicellulose-rich process stream from the front end of a Kraft pulp mill. When the extraction is carried out using green liquor, pulp quality and quantity can be retained while still releasing hemicelluloses and acetic acid for recovery as bioprocessing feedstock or chemical products. The acetic acid that is present in the wood extraction is inhibitory to microorganisms and can inhibit fermentation. It is also a commodity chemical that may provide retain sufficient value to justify recovery and purification.  In this study, a liquid-liquid extraction method is applied to extract acetic acid from a green liquor pre-pulping hardwood extract. The acetic acid removal process takes place as an initial step prior to the fermentation process. An organic solution, such as trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) in un-decane, is prepared and mixed with wood extract. Next the extract phase is centrifuged in order to separate the aqueous and organic phases. The aqueous phase is sent on to fermentation while the organic phase is sent on to distillation to separate acetic acid from the organic phase. Finally, the organic solvents are recycled back to the extraction. Results present the extraction and recovery efficiencies. Preliminary comparisons are made with other potential separation technologies.

Biography:

Mohamed Mahmoud Nasef has completed his PhD and Post-doctoral studies from Chemical Engineering department, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He is a Professor at Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology and Head of Advanced Materials Group at Centre for Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, UTM. He has published more than 100 research papers in reputed journals and has been working on the developments of functional materials for energy and environmental applications with emphasis on membrane separation.

Abstract:

The interest in developing new chelating adsorbents for removal of boron from different water streams is receiving an increase attention to overcome the shortcomings associated with the existing boron removal technologies such as slow performance and high cost of treatment required to meet the standards in water bodies and discharged wastewater. In this work, two types of adsorbents having microfibrous and nanofibrous structures were prepared by radiation induced grafting of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) onto polypropylene/polyethylene (PP/PE) nonwoven sheet and electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) sheet followed by functionalization with N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMDG). The content of poly-GMA grafted in both substrates was controlled by variation of grafting conditions. The density of NMDG was also tuned by optimization of reaction parameters. The variation taking place in the starting substrate by grafting of GMA and subsequent functionalization were monitored by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively. The thermal properties were determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the thermal stability was evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Both fibrous adsorbents displayed an increase in the average fiber diameter by incorporation of poly-GMA and introduction of NGMA ligands. The nanofibrous adsorbent displayed about 3 folds higher boron adsorption capacity (42.30 mg/g) than that of microfibrous adsorbent (12.8 mg/g) at the same reaction conditions. Moreover, the nanofibrous adsorbent showed higher efficiency and faster kinetics for boron removal from solutions than microfibers adsorbent. The results of this study suggest that the nanofibrous adsorbent is more effective in boron selective removal from solutions.

Biography:

Daniel Ikhu-Omoregbe holds a First Class Honours degree in Chemical Engineering of the University of Benin, Nigeria 1979; an M.Sc. in Biochemical Engineering (1982) and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (1985) both of the University of Birmingham, U.K. I have lectured in University of Benin, BeninCity, Nigeria (1985 -1997); Senior Lecturer, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (1997 – 2002); Associate Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (2003 – 2008). I am currently Professor and Head of Department of Chemical Engineering, Cape peninsula University of Technology. I am a Corporate member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, U.K and a Chartered Chemical Engineer.     Research interests:  Renewable Energy, Food processing, Environmental Engineering, Waste to Energy. Prof. Daniel Ikhu-Omoregbe has authored more than 60 academic papers.

Abstract:

Anaerobic treatment of wastewater is becoming increasingly popular since it provides process stability and control for wastewater treatment plants. In anaerobic treatment of wastewater there is no additional nutrient requirement and valuable by-products such as biogas are produced. Therefore, anaerobic treatment of wastewater using biocatalysts such as Acti-Zyme is an attractive treatment option. Acti-Zyme is a bacterial enzyme that biodegrades organic waste anaerobically. During the digestion process, Acti-Zyme multiplies and reproduces due to the availability of nutrients in the wastewater. Acti-Zyme can reproduce as much as 2 billion bacteria colonies per gram added to water in 48 hours. Anaerobic Acti-Zyme action on wastewater results in enhanced water treatment due to reduced BOD, nitrates, phosphates and TSS by more than 40% according to studies that were conducted on Mid-Mupfure dam water, on piggery wastewater in Zimbabwe, on wool scouring wastewater and sewage. Acti-Zyme neutralizes the wastewater pH and increase the wastewater effluent DO by more than 100%. Acti-Zyme can also be used to treat blocked sewer pipes. Acti-Zyme also helps in eliminating odour, which is a challenge in sewage treatment and can also be used for treating municipal, agricultural, commercial and food industries wastewater. Acti-Zyme loading in wastewater ranges between 3-50 g/m³ at stirring rates of 40-60 rpm have been employed during wastewater treatment. Biogas was generated from wastewater using Acti-Zyme as bio-catalyst, from wool scouring wastewater, in hog wastes and from sewage. The amount of bio-methane generated was also higher as compared to previous studies with Acti-Zyme whereby they obtained a biogas with a composition of 60% CH₄ for digesting hog waste using Acti-Zyme with 0.00625% of Acti-Zyme for 50 days at 35°C for the hog waste loading of 0.75-0.99 kg/kg VSS. Earlier studies have also reported a biogas composition with 68% CH₄ after digesting wool scouring wastewater at 35°C using 1% (v/w) of Acti-Zyme for 207 days for the wastewater loading of 0.5-1.5 L/day. A high bio-methane quality in this attributed to higher Acti-Zyme loading which assisted in catalyzed digestion of the sewage sludge. Acti-Zyme can be used as a bio-catalyst in wastewater treatment for value added resource recovery mainly biogas. The properties of Acti-Zyme can be exploited to achieve high quality biogas.

Biography:

Vaishali Rakesh Umrigar serves as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Sarvajanik College of Engineering and Technology, India. She is active in research oriented learning and associated with the application of green syntheses. She has done MTech in Microwave Assisted Organic Syntheses in 2007 from Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), India. Her research interests are focused on organic syntheses, green chemistry, and reaction kinetics to achieve next gain for the development of the chemical processes.

Abstract:

Esterification of carboxylic acids like succinic acid (SA), levulinic acid (LA) and valeric acid (VA) with alcohols like methanol(MeOH), ethanol (EtOH) and 2-propanol (PrOH) to produce respective esters were examined using parent zeolite Hβ and desilicated Hβ(desi-Hβ) catalysts with enhanced acidity and the relationships between esters’ production and catalytic performances were investigated. Acidity of the catalysts affects the catalytic activity which was evaluated by NH3-TPD measurement. Structure properties were verified by BET surface area measurement, XRD crystallinity determination, FTIR, DLS, SEM and TEM measurement. Due to reversibility and equilibrium nature of the reaction at room temperature, the challenge was to maximize the selectivity to Succinates, Levulinate and Valerates which are the high value added products for the commercial use and as petrochemical additives. The molar ratio of methanol to SA/LA/VA was varied from 12 to 6:1, and the results showed that a ratio of 8 is enough to obtain similar yields of methyl levulinate at 73-76°C and 24 h in a batch (94%) and Microwave reactor (92%) respectively. In view of this, the present study aims to assess the production of esters by esterification of carboxylic acid using electromagnetic field as an energy source. Effects of operating parameters such as reaction time, feed composition, and microwave input power and reaction temperature were systematically investigated for the solid catalyzed microwave irradiated (MWI) reactions.

Biography:

Dragomir Yankov is the Director of Institute of Chemical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He joined the Institute as Research Fellow in 1984, where he completed his PhD in 1998 and currently he is Professor in Chemical Engineering, since 2011. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Bulgarian Chemical Communications and Journal of Advanced Chemical Engineering.

Abstract:

Lactic acid is a useful chemical with both traditional (as acidulant, neutralizer, preservative) and newer (for environmentally friendly solvents or as precursor of biodegradable polymers) applications. The lactic acid can be manufactured by chemical synthesis or by fermentation of different carbohydrate materials by various microorganisms of Lactobacillus family. Ethanol production from cereal grains generates enormous amount of co-products (wet and dried distiller’s grains). Spent grains originated from breweries and distilleries are the most abundant agro-industrial waste material. Currently, spent grains are mainly used as animal feed. Attempts were made for using spent grains for extraction of metals and dyes. Greater attention was paid to the hydrolysis of the grains for producing fermentable sugars, used as substrates in various bioprocesses. A promising alternative for spent grains application is its use as carriers for enzymes and cells immobilization. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the applicability of distiller's spent grains in fermentative lactic acid production- as support for cells immobilization and as source of fermentable sugars for the production of lactic acid. Lactobacillus plantarum is one of the most wide spread species used in lactic acid production by lactic acid bacteria. It was used in both processes. The immobilization was carried out by simultaneous growth and adhesion, adding spent grains in the beginning, before growth medium seeding at 30^oC for 24 h, at gentle stirring. At the end, the concentration of free cells was determined, the support was separated from the broth, washed with sterile saline and kept at 4^oC in saline before further use. Influence of the particle size, pH, temperature and support treatment methods on the lactic acid fermentative production were examined. The immobilized preparation showed high activity (about 70-80% from free cells’ activity) and very good stability in at least two months repeated batch fermentations without pH control. There is no difference in optimal pH value and temperature for free and immobilized cells. Various methods of spent grains pretreatment- sonification, alkali, acid and enzyme hydrolysis separately or in combination have been investigated. The influence of time, reagent concentration, solid to liquid ratio, temperature and pressure on the reducing sugars accumulation have been studied. The best obtained results were about 90 g/l reducing sugars (45% mass conversion). The resulting hydrolysates were enriched in all medium components needed for fermentation and after sterilization were used for lactic acid production. The process was led without and with pH control. Depending on the mode of action and sugar’s concentration, the conversion was between 50 and 95%. The results were comparable with these when lactose was used as substrate. In the case of pH control, the product inhibition was less noticeable. The results obtained represents a good base for studying continuous lactic acid production from distiller’s spent grains hydrolysates.

Biography:

Talbott Howard has completed his BBA from University of Mississippi and he Directs a team of award winning engineers that are changing the way the world cleans water. He is the CEO of www.DOTECT.com, a premier clean water R&D firm and deployment service organization. His ECT team has published more than 19 papers in reputed journals. ECT is engaging the state of California, FEMA and the largest oil producers in Bakersfield California on their pioneer applications.

Abstract:

Background: With only less than 1% of all water on earth being of potable quality a recent report states that in approximately 25 years, fresh water may become very scarce. After 3 years of research the report went on to state that the entire world's population may go thirsty by 2040. Also as remarkable, is that by 2020 40% of the world’s population could be adversely affected by global water shortages. The drought conditions currently being experienced in California are of historical significance and have been categorized as D2, (moderate) through D4, (exceptional).

Manufacturing Water Footprint: Within an ever growing population is the ongoing demand for commercial goods in which requires water for manufacturing. This industrial practice particularly in time of drought only continues to aggravate the potentials for looming water shortages. The water footprint of a product is the amount of water in which is consumed and polluted in all processing stages of its production. A product water footprint is the indicator of how much pressure is being put on our freshwater resources.

Agriculture Example: As an example, the global average water footprint in growing grapes is approximately 161 gallons or 610 liters per kilogram raised. 1 kilo of grapes produces approximately 7 liters of wine with the water footprint to produce being approximately 230 gallons or 870 liters of water per liter of wine. This relates to that one glass of wine (125 ml) requires 29 gallons or 110 liters to produce.

Petroleum Example: Energy Production like farming also requires large amounts of water for not only petroleum extraction but also for bi-product production. As an example, for extract 1 barrel of petroleum, (42 gallons/158 liters) requires between 3 barrels to 7 barrels of water, (7 barrels=294 gallons/1,111 liters).

Solutions: While recycling of water by industry is becoming more commonly practiced, the time has come for all to do their part in protecting of our valued water resource. While industrial water recycling technologies have been slow to evolve, Environmental Conscious Technologies, Inc., (ECT) has developed technologies in which cleans water back to a recyclable state for most industrial applications.

Biography:

Miron V Landau has completed his PhD from Moscow state University. He is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chief Scientist of Blechner Center for Industrial Catalysis and Process Development in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. He has published more than 150 papers in reputed journals and holds more than 60 patents on preparation of heterogeneous catalysts and corresponding catalytic processes. His main fields of interest are nanostructured multifunctional catalytic materials for processes related to production of transportation fuels, chemicals and environmental protection

Abstract:

Carbon dioxide hydrogenation (CDH) is a viable catalytic process that converts the greenhouse gas and hydrogen potentially produced from water into eco-friendly renewable chemicals and fuels. Production of hydrocarbons from CO₂ requires a polyfunctional iron-based catalyst enabling a tandem reaction where reverse water gas shift (RWGS) producing CO is followed by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS). The most efficient combination of these catalytic functions is achieved when the working catalytic material is produced by reductive carburization of a Fe-oxide matrix: Crystalline multimetal compounds-precursors where iron ions are uniformly distributed in the crystals bulk. This yields after activation and self-oprganization at process conditions a two(multi)-phase system where residual oxide phase(s) is responsible for catalysis of RWGS and Fe-carbide phase(s) – for FTS. Systematic study of a series of Fe-oxide matrices revealed that most efficient catalytic materials may be obtained from Fe-Al-O spinel and Fe-Ba-Hexaaluminate precursors yielding nanocomposites with higly balanced RWGS/FTS functioins. These matrices should be promoted with additives like K, Zr, Mn, Ti which action is critical for achieving high selectivity to C₅+ hydrocarbons. Recently in the Blechner Center at BGU was developed a CDH process conducted on a novel Fe-Al spinel catalyst in three packed-bed reactors in series with interim removal of water and higher hydrocarbons. The CO₂ conversion reached 89% and the C₅+ productivity was >0.5 g/g cat*h. This novel catalyst and process were tested for >1500 h demonstrating high catalysts stability. The C₅+ liquid produced in this process was used as a feedstock for preparation of high quality blending stock for transportation fuels.