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.

Biography:

Anette Larsson has completed her PhD from Chalmers University of Technology in the year 1995. She has worked for seven years as an Associate Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca. Since 2003, she is leading a Pharmaceutical Technology group. Since 2012, she is the Director of SuMo BIOMATERIALS, an industry academy research consortium with six industrial partners and one institute. She has published more than 60 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an evaluator regularly for PhD grades and academic promotion committees.

Abstract:

A common way to control the release of drugs is to mix the drug with hydrophilic polymers and compact the mixture to tablets. The water ingresses in the hydrophilic matrix tablets leads to a slow gradual dissolution of the polymer and the dry polymer in the core of the tablet protects the active substance from being dissolved and released. A preferred biopolymer for such formulations is hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, HPMC, which is available in many pharmaceutical approved grades. The HPMC´s molecular weight (SEC/RI/MALLS), degree of substitution (NMR) and substitution pattern (enzymatic degradation) along the cellulose backbone were characterized and by combining these data with release experiments, magnetic resonance imaging of HPMC tablets and computer simulations, we were able to show that the interactions between HPMC and water depend strongly on HPMC´s substitution pattern and this gave that: 1) the drug and polymer release rates were different with 20 and 100 h to completely eroded tablets for homogeneous and heterogeneous HPMC batches, respectively; 2) the formulations with the heterogeneous HPMC batch swelled almost a factor of two more compared to formulation of the more homogenous HPMC batch; and 3) the distribution of water in the swollen matrix tablets was more flat for water concentration of 60 w/w% water and above for the heterogeneous batch than for the homogenous batch. Based on this one can conclude that the substitution pattern for biopolymers like HPMC, as well as the molecular weight and degree of substitution, have large influences on the functionality of the polymers.

Biography:

Jehad Abu-Dahrieh is a Lecturer of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. She has done her BSc in Chemical Engineering and Technology and obtained her MSc in Chemical Engineering from Jordan University of Science. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast. She also worked as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Queen’s University Belfast (2010-2014) in the group of CenTACat. Her research interests focuses on the area of heterogeneous catalysis, reaction engineering and energy.

Abstract:

The water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) is a very important reaction in industrial processes in which CO and water in the vapor phase react to produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Copper based catalysts are considered to be the standard for methanol synthesis. Also currently, CuO/ZnO/Al₂O₃ (CZA) is used as the standard low temperature shift catalyst, but catalysts based on copper supported on SiO₂, MgO, and Cr₂O₃ also have been applied. The currently used industrial CZA catalysts for WGSR are usually operated at 493–553 K. The reaction at lower temperature leads to the low reaction activity, while higher temperature results in the sintering of the catalysts. Recently, it has been demonstrated that supported gold catalysts are promising low temperature WGSR. Au/CeZrO₄ catalysts are prepared by deposition-precipitation methods which have higher activity for the water-gas shift reaction and by using a model reaction gas mixture with Au supported on CeO₂, TiO₂ or ZrO₂. The main objective of this paper is to investigate and compare the activity of Au/CeZrO₄ and CZA catalyst for low temperature WGSR.

Biography:

Bader Albusairi has completed his MSc and PhD from Lehigh University in Chemical Engineering. He is the Director of Guidance and Counseling Office at the College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University. He had previously served as the Director of the Office of Academic Assessment. He has published many papers in reputed journals especially in the field of Heat and Mass Transfer Modeling.

Abstract:

Polypropylene (PP) is a semi crystalline polymer, has rapid cooling behavior and clogs parts of machinery when used in blow molding applications. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is an amorphous polymer. When ABS is used in combination with PP at different concentrations it can alter the crystallizing behavior of PP and improve its impact properties. In this research work different macro kinetic models like Avrami, Tobin and Malkin have been applied to study the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of the blend formed using PP and ABS. The data analysis was carried out using a direct fitting method and by using the solver optimization technique available in excel 2013. Tobin analysis was found to be effective in describing the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of neat PP, ABS and blends of PP and ABS. The crystallization rate constants, activation energies and individual model constants are reported in this work. The results in general have indicated that the crystallization rate, crystal nucleation and growth during crystallization could be monitored through temperature and cooling rate control which lays the foundation to industrial manufacture of PP/ABS blends.

Biography:

Tony Green is a Clean-Tech and Sustainability Professional, a voice of sustainability and the adoption of alternative energy technologies. Using his more than 15 years of experience in High-Tech and Clean-Tech as Engineer and later in Sales and Marketing allow him to speak “engineer” as well as “people” while explaining complicated topics in easy to understand terminology. He has completed his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware as well as a MBA with a focus on Technology Management for the University of Phoenix.

Abstract:

Chemical engineers have used their technical expertise to contribute to modern society in many ways. The contributions range from engineering the process to mass produce steel to developing fuel cell technology which made the moon landings possible to growing penicillin in a large enough scale to save millions of lives. However, the places where chemical engineers can contribute the most are outside of the areas governed by phase equilibrium and mass/energy balances. These final contributions are required that's sure the life changing impacts of discoveries made by chemical engineers are fully realized.

Biography:

Ana Karla Costa de Oliveira has completed her PhD from UFRN, Brazil. She is a Teacher of Petroleum and Gas from IFRN. She has several publications in the areas of Oil, Produced Water and Oil Derivatives. She was the Coordinator of the Oil and Gas course in IFRN, Brazil, in the year 2010.

Abstract:

Produced water are complex mixtures which contain a large number of contaminants including finely dispersed oil, metals, and gases such as H₂S and CO₂, that are originated from oil and natural gas. In this paper we used solvent extraction to recover sulfides. We used three commercial amines belonging to the alkyl amine group as extractants, which were dissolved in aviation kerosene (JET FUEL). In this research real samples of produced water from the oil industry with initial concentration of 0.660 mg/L H₂S were used. The parameters studied were: Amine/JET FUEL ratio (0.25 v/v) and organic/aqueous phase ratio (1/3 v/v). After the tests, it was concluded that the highest extraction efficiency occurred with the amine Duomeen which removed 76% of sulfides, followed by Arquad 2C-75, showing 59% removal efficiency and Duommen T which removed 40%.

Biography:

Ali Taheri has completed his Master’s in Innovative Design from INSA Graduate School of Science and Technology of Strasbourg, France. He has done his PhD from University of Strasbourg in the year 2015. He is an Industrial Engineer with an academic and professional experience. He is the Founder and the Director of Exaura Artefact Inc. at Austin, Texas. He is an active researcher for New Product Development and Technology Management.

Abstract:

Nowadays, enhancing the performance of R&D teams is one of the main issue of R&D managers. Since a new product development project looks for proposing science and technology in a creative way, R&D managers are involved in setting up a creative process to enhance inventive problem-solving. But what is the necessity of implementing such a process through the fuzzy front end of innovation projects? What does mean inventive problem-solving, and how does it help engineers and managers? Faced with this questions, I give a brief presentation on the context, problematics, and lessons learned from our research in this field. This report contains a summary information of inventive approaches for managing design teams with introducing the main focus of our strategy and development results achieved.

Biography:

Mercy Manyuchi is a Chemical Engineer by profession. She is the current Head of the Department for the Chemical and Process Systems Engineering at the Harare Institute of Technology, Zimbabwe. She has more than 15 peer reviewed papers in conference proceedings.

Abstract:

The disposal of used tires generated each year into the environment is unacceptable, in Zimbabwe alone, which was the basis of this study; approximately 2.4 million tires are disposed each year. A better solution from an environmental and economic stand point is to thermally reprocess the tires into valuable products like carbon black which is required. This study focused on the feasibility study on the pyrolysis of waste tires to give carbon black, pyrolytic oil, steel and syngas as waste products. The waste tires were first shredded followed by the removal of metals. Shredded tires were pyrolysed at 450-500°C for 2 hours. Carbon black with a yield of 40% was achieved as well as some oils and volatile gases. The carbon black obtained can be activated and used for various purposes like filling in tiers and other rubber products.

Biography:

Ravindra Pogaku has diverse and intense, yet rewarding experiences in teaching, research, industry, executive and administrative fields spanning over 35 years. He has an expertise in the area of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology. At present, his research group is focused on green economy, green processes and products. He was a Visiting Professor at Pennsylvania State University and Visiting Scientist at Cornell University. He has received Gold and Silver medals for his research contributions in the Green Energy and Green Engineering Fields. He was a UNESCO consultant on sustainable energy projects. He is a consultant for many renewable and green based industries. He has published more than 200 papers in referred journals and proceedings. He has edited and authored books and articles related to green technologies. He has reviewed thousands of journal manuscripts for reputed international journals. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board Member, guest editor and reviewer for multiple referred journals. He focuses on developing green engineering and technology with different renewable feedstocks for sustainable development of the society.

Abstract:

Fossil energy resources are declining at a rapid rate creating alarming unstable equilibrium between nature and humanity. We must develop and deploy renewable energy systems. An attractive alternative is to convert lignocellulose biomass into transportation fuels. The abundance of energy and its products are a key factor for the status of any nation in the modern world. The amenities (e.g., wealth, education, health care, transportation, etc.) enjoyed by developed nations depend on abundant energy, about 85% of which is derived from fossil resources (i.e., oil, coal, and natural gas). There is a strong correlation between wealth production and energy consumption. The faster we consume energy, the more wealth we produce. In the last few centuries, developed nations have become rich largely by consuming fossil energy. Our lives continue to get better as we consume more energy. The human development index (HDI), a composite metric of health, education, and living standards. At low rates of energy consumption, HDI rises very rapidly, and then levels off above about 4 kW per capita. Our lives do not continue to improve significantly as we consume more energy beyond 4 kW/ person. By approximately 2025, global population will be about 8 billion. If everyone were to consume primary energy at a rate of 4 kW/ person, the global energy consumption rate would be 32 terawatt (TW). Currently, we consume about 16 TW, so if we were to raise the average global living standard to the equivalent of 4 kW/ person, we would need to double primary energy production by 2025. Hence, biofuel technology is the boon to provide sufficient energy for the sustainable world. To address our energy needs, one strategy is to increase bioenergy by using large-scale renewable lignocellulose energy systems as they are essential as fossil energy cannot provide the energy required to enable and underpin long-term prosperity. To ensure sustainable prosperity, we must develop and deploy renewable lignocellulose energy systems at the multi-terawatt scale. In the workshop generation biofuels from various lignocelluloses are highlighted. The biological thermodynamics, biochemical reaction rates, design of bioprocess technology are emphasized for exploiting bio resources for large scale biofuels production.

Biography:

Tunde Victor Ojumu is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), South Africa. He completed his PhD from the prestigious University of Cape Town in 2007 and Post-doctoral studies from the same university in the areas of Biohydrometallurgy and Environmental Science. He is a NRF (National Research Foundation) rated researcher and presently the Head of Chemical Engineering programmes at CPUT. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of some reputable journals.

Abstract:

This paper discusses South African coal fly ash characteristics and the suitability of the ash for zeolites synthesis. The chemistry and physics involved in the synthesis and various methods that have been used to synthesize pure phase zeolitic compounds were discussed, drawing examples from published works of researchers from Europe, China, India and those in South Africa. An outline of necessary conditions to consider when considering the synthesis on a large scale is discussed especially with reference to some of the successes and contradictions that have been recorded in the literature. The view is to reveal the limitation(s) of some methods with respect to scale-up opportunity. The results of our recent study on sonochemical treatment of fly ash to achieve pure phase zeolite A was highlighted and it was concluded that although sonochemical techniques may appear to be a good candidate of choice, its scalability is currently not clear. Further results from previous work was used to argue for the exploitation of the hydrodynamic cavitation offered by jet loop reacting system with a view to achieve the objective of design of a scalable process for the synthesis of targeted zeolite.

Biography:

Thompson served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Engineering from 2001 to 2005, and is Director of the Hydrogen Energy Technology Laboratory and Michigan-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. Professor Thompson is recipient of awards including a 2006 Michiganian of the Year Award for his research, entrepreneurship, and recruitment and mentoring of minority students, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, Engineering Society of Detroit Gold Award, Union Carbide Innovation Recognition Award and Dow Chemical Good Teaching Award. He is also co-founder, with his wife, of T/J Technologies, a developer of nanomaterials for advanced batteries; he served as founding CEO and Board Chair. In 2006, the company was acquired by A123Systems, a leading producer of lithium ion batteries. He recently founded Inmatech to commercialize low cost, high energy density supercapacitors. Professor Thompson was Consulting Editor for the AIChE Journal, and presently serves on the DoE Hydrogen Technology Advisory Committee, National Academy's Chemical Sciences Roundtable, External Advisory Committee for the Center of Advanced Materials for Purification of Water with Systems, and AIChE Chemical Engineering Technology Operating Council.

Abstract:

Cascading and tandem catalysis concepts, involving the use of multiple catalytic species to facilitate multi-step reactions in a single pot, have proven to be effective for the design of homogeneous catalytic processes with higher rates and selectivities and are emerging as a useful strategy for the design of high performance heterogeneous catalytic systems. This paper will describe our efforts to design heterogeneous catalysts for CO₂ hydrogenation using cascading/tandem catalysis concepts. Nano-structured early transition metal carbides and nitrides have proven to be very useful, serving as catalysts for key steps and supports for nanoscale metal particles that catalyze other steps. The results provide useful insights into the design of more effective catalytic materials and the potential use of early transition metal carbides and nitrides.

Biography:

Acheampong Maxwell is pursuing an undergraduate programme in Petrochemical Engineering at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. He is currently in his 4^th year of studies.

Abstract:

Petrochemicals refer to the chemical products obtained as a result of the synthesis of petroleum derivatives. The five (5) principal groups of starting compounds for the synthesis of petrochemicals are: Paraffins, Olefins, Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Acetylene, and Carbon monoxide and Synthesis gas. These principal groups of starting compounds are obtained from petroleum through thermal and catalytic processes such as pyrolysis, thermal cracking, catalytic cracking, reforming and catalytic hydrogenation. These starting compounds are subjected to various processes such as oxidation, alkylation, halogenation, esterification, etc., yielding products which differ widely in structure, properties and areas of application. Examples of such products include: Alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, esters, phenols, etc. Depending on their application, these products can be grouped into two (2): Intermediate products and specialized application products. The economy of raw materials in petrochemical production is of great importance since the raw materials form a major part of production cost. Hence there is a need to develop new trends and technologies for the synthesis of petrochemicals in an economical way without compromising quality.

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:

Thermochemical conversion of low energy pre-treated municipal solid waste in recent times has become an attractive growing technology. The quality of municipal solid wastes (MSW) needs an improved analysis to enhance her choice for energy exploitation and environmental assessment of fly and bottom ashes associated with the thermochemical conversion. The MSW were collected from Solid Waste Disposal facilities (SWDF) in Cape Town to investigate heavy metals distributions in the municipal solid waste obtained from SWDF. The municipal solid wastes were pre-treated to improve the quality of MSW. The 7700 Series quadruple ICP-MS solution method was used to determined concentrations and distributions of some heavy metals from SWDF in Cape Town. This study assesses and quantifies distributions of heavy metal in solid municipal solid waste in city of Cape Town. The results show significant levels of Fe, Al, Pb, Zn and Hg. The accumulation of high concentrations of heavy metals in bottom ash residue from thermochemical conversion could be a good remedy for heavy metals control. The transfer of these metals to bottom ash residue during and after thermochemical conversion was determined analytically.

Biography:

Amarjit Bakshi has a Ph.D and also undergraduate degree both in Chemical Engineering from University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.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. Provided proven leadership and vision with broader perspectives and able to manage multiple tasks and personnel on mega projects. For last 7 years I have 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. I have 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:

RHT-ETBE and RHT-TAEE are the smart configuration technologies to enhance the conversion to over 97 to 90 percent respectively by having multiple side-draws from the columns and one can much better quality also than competitive technologies. The major advantage in these processes is that it allows wet ethanol to be use in the process and still meeting TBA and TAA specifications in the product. The process makes these tertiary alcohols, but is separated from the Ethers and is decomposed to iso-olefin and is recycled with the feed. The additional equipment for higher alcohols been made is paid off in few months compared to the cost of dry ethanol. Essentially process is rejecting the water from wet ethanol and makes high quality ethers at low Capex and Opex to the competitive processes. RHT- Biodiesel process is optimized to produce biodiesel from palm oil, Rape seed oil, vegetable and animal product that are all fatty acids with even number of carbon atom typically 12 to 22 atoms. The lack of sulphur in the biodiesel means it meets all international specification once the boiling range is right and these are comparable to hydrocarbon diesel. The triglycerides are reacted with methanol/ ethanol or higher alcohol which all produces biodiesel in the acceptable boiling range. Methanol is most commonly used for the biodiesel production as being the cheapest alcohol, hence provides better economics. Biodiesel is produced by reacting triglycerides with methanol in the presence of highly alkaline heterogeneous catalyst at moderate pressure and temperature into fatty acid methyl esters. After the transesterification reaction the product, methyl esters of those oils /fats as product and glycerine is produced as a by-product. Glycerine is separated from the methyl esters of vegetable oils that are the biodiesel by phase separation by gravity settling due to density differences. The methyl esters and glycerine are purified to meet the product specifications. The unit has capability of having (patented) flexibility to enhance the on stream factor by additional parallel transesterification reactor. If the feed has high content of free fatty acid than esterification is performed and the technology is able to provide that reaction also to meet high overall conversions and selectivity at low Capex and Opex without producing any liquid waste.

Biography:

Ali Taheri completed his PhD in Industrial Engineering at the University of Strasbourg in 2015. He holds Master’s degrees in Systems Engineering and Integrated Design Process – from Grenoble Institute of Technology – and an advanced studies’ Master’s in Innovative Design including Inventive Problem-Solving from the INSA of Strasbourg. His research focuses on the inventive efficiency of R&D teams and on technology road-mapping. His published work deals with the metrics of inventive performance, helping R&D managers to monitor and enhance innovation projects. After nearly a decade of experience in academic and executive programs aimed at improving the chain of production from idea generation to manufacturing, since November 2015, he settled in the United States and founded Exaura Company in order to assist design engineers and SMEs in reducing the risks of new product development.

Abstract:

The theory of inventive problem-solving – Russian translation of the acronym TRIZ – is known as one of the approaches that more likely steer R&D teams toward achieving creative results. In this occasion, I will provide a snapshot of this theory, and then the research results of INSA-Strasbourg that led to the development of a methodology, namely "Inventive Design Method based on TRIZ" (IDM-TRIZ). This also includes the introduction of STEPS software that has been provided with a methodological support to operate IDM-TRIZ.

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:

Carboxylic acids are commonly generated in biorefinery operations such as fermentation or aqueous extraction of hemicellulose feedstocks. In most cases, organic acids are generated as dilute components in aqueous streams. If they can be recovered from solution inexpensively, they may find value as pure chemical products or as starting materials for a wide variety of organic products, including biofuels. Liquid-liquid extraction is a separation method applied to recover mixed carboxylic acids from a fermented wood extract. These acids included: Acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric, caproic and heptanoic acids. An organic solution, such as trialkylphosphine oxide (Cyanex 923, a mixture of four trialkylphosphine oxides), was mixed with fermented wood extract to extract these acids. Although the extraction was highly effective, however it was shown that distillation was not able to recover these acids from the extraction solvent. In this study, after liquid-liquid extraction of the acids from the aqueous phase, the mixed acids are recovered from the organic phase by a back extraction with sodium hydroxide. The mixture is agitated and centrifuged to separate the organic and aqueous phases. Results present the extraction and recovery efficiencies of this method of recovering organic acids.

Biography:

Ravindra Pogaku has diverse and intense, yet rewarding experiences in teaching, research, industry, executive and administrative fields spanning over 35 years. He has an expertise in the area of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology. At present, his research group is focused on green economy, green processes and products. He was a Visiting Professor at Pennsylvania State University and Visiting Scientist at Cornell University. He has received Gold and Silver medals for his research contributions in the Green Energy and Green Engineering Fields. He was a UNESCO consultant on sustainable energy projects. He is a consultant for many renewable and green based industries. He has published more than 200 papers in referred journals and proceedings. He has edited and authored books and articles related to green technologies. He has reviewed thousands of journal manuscripts for reputed international journals. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board Member, guest editor and reviewer for multiple referred journals. He focuses on developing green engineering and technology with different renewable feedstocks for sustainable development of the society

Abstract:

Fossil energy resources are declining at a rapid rate creating alarming unstable equilibrium between nature and humanity. We must develop and deploy renewable energy systems. An attractive alternative is to convert lignocellulose biomass into transportation fuels. The abundance of energy and its products are a key factor for the status of any nation in the modern world. The amenities (e.g., wealth, education, health care, transportation, etc.) enjoyed by developed nations depend on abundant energy, about 85% of which is derived from fossil resources (i.e., oil, coal, and natural gas). There is a strong correlation between wealth production and energy consumption. The faster we consume energy, the more wealth we produce. In the last few centuries, developed nations have become rich largely by consuming fossil energy. Our lives continue to get better as we consume more energy. The human development index (HDI), a composite metric of health, education, and living standards. At low rates of energy consumption, HDI rises very rapidly, and then levels off above about 4 kW per capita. Our lives do not continue to improve significantly as we consume more energy beyond 4 kW/ person. By approximately 2025, global population will be about 8 billion. If everyone were to consume primary energy at a rate of 4 kW/ person, the global energy consumption rate would be 32 terawatt (TW). Currently, we consume about 16 TW, so if we were to raise the average global living standard to the equivalent of 4 kW/person, we would need to double primary energy production by 2025. Hence, biofuel technology is the boon to provide sufficient energy for the sustainable world. To address our energy needs, one strategy is to increase bioenergy by using large-scale renewable lignocellulose energy systems as they are essential as fossil energy cannot provide the energy required to enable and underpin long-term prosperity. To ensure sustainable prosperity, we must develop and deploy renewable lignocellulose energy systems at the multi-terawatt scale. In the workshop generation biofuels from various lignocelluloses are highlighted. The biological thermodynamics, biochemical reaction rates, design of bioprocess technology are emphasized for exploiting bio resources for large scale biofuels production.

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:

A general overview discussing the common corrosion problems & principles and mechanism of Corrosion in refinery/Petrochemical plants and Pipelines and Mitigation