PhD, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2005), Greece

Current Research

• Modeling and simulation of process systems
• Coal and Biomass to Poly-generation (Liquids, Chemicals, Power)
• CO2 reduction technologies
• Sulfur reduction in transportation fuels
• Refinery processes
• Hierarchical pore structure zeolites

Professional Activities

Member: AIChE
Member: ACS
Member of Clean Energy Engineering Center
Member: Technical Chamber of Greece
Member: Hellenic Chemical Engineering Society
Outreach Activity: Da Vinci Project – Biomass Conversion to Energy (Summer 2013)

Current Research Group

Graduate Students
David Gamliel
Monica Dahl

Undergraduate Students
Zachary Rom
Bianca Sousa
Tyler McGarry
Chris Martino

Research Statement

Sulfur reduction in transportation fuels: One of my research interests focuses on the development of new processes and materials for the reduction for the sulfur reduction in transportation fuels, gasoline and diesel. The urgent and significant need to reduce sulfur content in fossil fuels, to almost zero levels, is driven both by mandatory environmental fuel regulations and the stringent tolerance required for their use in fuel cell applications. During the last decade, a lot of scientific effort has been devoted to developing new technologies, which either stand-alone or in combination with the traditional Hydrodesulfurization process HDS, will effectively remove sulfur compounds in transportation fuels. Among the above processes the removal of sulfur compounds using selective adsorption at ambient or mild conditions represents one of the most promising and attractive methods for local stand-alone desulfurization, because it represents a compact, easy-to-handle, economical, and potentially regenerable process. Desulfurization by adsorption is based on the ability of a solid sorbent to selectively adsorb organo-sulfur compounds. Materials containing one or a combination of transition metals are usually used for the selective adsorption of sulfur compounds. The development of zeolite based adsorbents with high sorption capacity, selectivity and regenerability is the focus of my research.

Advanced Coal-Biomass-to-Liquid (CBTL) systems simulation and efficiency analysis:
Strong dependency on crude oil and natural gas and the associated price and supply chain-risk, increase the need for efficient utilization of other existing energy sources, like coal. Nowadays, coal represents about 70% of the world’s proven fossil fuel sources and it has the lowest cost among the different fossil fuels. However, energy production based on coal is characterized by significantly high pollutant emissions, especially carbon dioxide (about 800gr for each kWh of electric energy produced). The growing energy demands of developing countries together with the need of a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are the challenging tasks of future energy policies. Thus, the perspective of coal as energy source is based on the success of the emerging “clean coal technologies” (CCT), where good efficiency and thermodynamic performances of the power plant are joined with a control of pollutant emissions (mainly CO2 emissions). The objective of my research is to analyze the perspectives of different emerging technology options for the production of clean liquid fuels and electricity based on coal. The aforementioned technology options include:

1. Co-feeding of biomass
2. Aggressive CO2 capture technologies
3. Replacement of gas turbine power generation system with fuel cell (SOFC)

Novel zeolites and Hierarchical Pore Structure Zeolites for advanced applications
Zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicates that possess uniform micropores (sub-nanometer size) and cavities, with dimensions that are close to those of numerous molecular species of high commercial interest. Accordingly, zeolites are known to exhibit molecular sieve and shape-selective properties, based on the diffusional access of guest species into their sub-nanometer size pores and associated shapes. Moreover, zeolites may incorporate a large number of heteroatoms in four-coordinated sites in the crystalline lattice and may also be used as supports for dispersed metals and metal oxides, conferring these materials with catalytic properties for a large variety of reactions. As a consequence, zeolites are solids with significant industrial applications as catalysts, adsorbents, and ion exchangers. Notwithstanding the positive effect of the presence of micropores with respect to shape selectivity, these micropores might impose diffusion limitation diminishing their accessibility to heavier molecules. The key objective of our research is to modify the pore structure architecture within the zeolites in a way that will allow the selective adsorption and/or the reaction of the desired molecules.

As an example, we are currently working on the cracking and reforming of Poly-Aromatic-Hydrocarbons (PAH) derived from biomass gasification. PAH are undesired, carcinogenic, multi-ring hydrocarbons which is essential to be removed or converted. Zeolites could help. However, due their size, PAHs cannot easily diffuse into the zeolite microporous. Our hypothesis is that the introduction of hierarchical pore structure within the zeolite crystals will help on the diffusion of the bulky hydrocarbons in and out of the zeolites, enhancing their conversion.  Besides, the incorporation of metals in the pores of the hierarchical zeolites can provide to the zeolites bi-functional activity enhancing also the reforming of hydrocarbons in valuable gases. We are hoping that this idea will help towards the transformation of WASTE TO ENERGY!

Previous Positions