Kevin Smith
Professor
kevin.smith@ubc.ca
Home department: https://chbe.ubc.ca/kevin-smith/
Chemical and Biological Engineering, 223-2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3
Smith, Kevin
Rogak, Steven
Steven Rogak
Professor
rogak@mech.ubc.ca
https://mech.ubc.ca/steven-rogak/
Website: https://www.aerosol.mech.ubc.ca/
Civil and Mechanical Engineering Structures Lab 2275 East Mal, Vancouver BCl V6T 1Z4
Oloman, Colin
Colin Oloman
Professor Emeritus
info@oloman.ca
Home department: Chemical and Biological Engineering
Website: http://www.oloman.ca
Research Interests
- Electrochemical Engineering
- Electrosynthesis
- Electrochemical Power Generation
Research Description
Dr. Colin Oloman’s research is concerned with the exploration, design and development of novel electrochemical reactors for electrosynthesis and power generation. The work typically involves experiments from the bench (mA) to small prototype (100 A) level, along with reactor modeling based on material, energy and voltage (charge) balances.
Dr. Oloman’s work is presently focused on the potential for coupling electrosynthesis with electrochemical power generation in carbon neutral “regenerative” fuel cell cycles. The aim here is to develop improved and/or simplified electrochemical reactors for application in new energy systems that reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Mérida, Walter
Walter Mérida
Professor
walter.merida@ubc.ca
Home Department: Mechanical Engineering
Website: Mérida Labs
Research Interests
- Hydrogen Technologies
- Energy Systems
- Cities and Communities
Research Projects
- A Smart Hydrogen Energy District (SHED): Merida Labs have built a city-scale, innovation platform for energy system design. Located next to a sub-station at the corner of Wesbrook Mall and Thunderbird Boulevard on our Vancouver campus, the project will transform a city block into a smart-energy district. They have integrated common urban assets (e.g., electric vehicles, hydrogen refuelling stations, solar plants and buildings) to develop new technologies and economic models for individuals, cities and utilities.
- Hydrogen Systems: Merida Labs are working on fuel cells, electrolyzers, and hydrogen generation technologies. They are developing the next generation of energy technologies and system architectures for a low-carbon economy. They focus on hydrogen because it can link renewable resources to scalable services.
- Advanced Air Mobility: Beyond aviation and personal transportation, the future of air mobility includes aerial infrastructure monitoring, package delivery, search and rescue missions, natural disaster relief, and telecommunications. Using the campus as a living laboratory, Merida Labs created an innovation platform for land-controlled drones. Beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) delivery missions (medicines, packages, etc.) will be enabled by a 5G network.In early April 2021, they flew Canada’s first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over a 5G network. They are now working on zero-emission solutions for long-range operation.
Lim, C. Jim
C. Jim Lim
Professor Emeritus
jim.lim@ubc.ca
Home department: Chemical and Biological Engineering
Website: Biomass and Bioenergy Research Group
Fluidization Research Center (FRC), UBC
Research Interests
- Biomass and Fossil Fuels
- Spouted Bed
- Gas-Particle System Hydrodynamics
- Heat Transfer
- Hydrogen Production
Research Projects
My research has been focused on the fundamentals of spouting and fluidization phenomena, and the application of these technologies to environmentally friendly processes and clean energy production. My current research interests include biomass gasification with CO2 capture in a circulating fluidized bed, hydrogen production in a fluidized bed membrane reactor from steam reforming of higher hydrocarbons, performance of limestone for CO2 capture from a high-temperature/pressure reactor over many calcinations/carbonation cycles, chemical looping combustion for CO2 separation, development of thin Pd-based composite membrane suitable for hydrogen separation at high temperature/pressure, and process modeling and simulation.
Lau, Anthony
Anthony Lau
Associate Professor
anthony.lau@ubc.ca
Home department: Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests
- Waste-to-Resource Recovery
- Biomass and Bioenergy
- Availability and Quality of Biomass
- Anaerobic Digestion
- Composting
Research Projects
- Biomass feedstock engineering: Research activities include the preprocessing and pretreatment of under-utilized lignocellulosic waste biomass that includes forest residues, crop residues, and urban wood waste to produce high quality solid biofuel (fuel pellets) for heat and power generation, as well as the storage, handling, and transport of the biomass in both densified and non-densified forms. These constitute the main components of the supply chain logistics, which bridges the gap between biomass harvesting and bioenergy production in different types of biomass conversion facilities. The overall strategy associated with the research is to provide the bioenergy industry with a reliable and cost-effective supply of high-quality solid biofuel. Current projects aim at improving the physicochemical and fuel properties of waste biomass to meet the international standards for fuel pellet quality, and developing best practices to minimize the degradation of biomass during storage and handling.
- Bioconversion processes and systems: Research activities are primarily focused on aerobic composting and anaerobic digestion of non-woody biomass/organic wastes. Composting constitutes an important component in today’s integrated solid waste management approach. Woody residuals that are separated from the finished compost product can also be pretreated to produce high quality fuel pellets. Anaerobic digestion of organic wastes for biogas production and upgrading the biogas to biomethane (renewable natural gas) have environmental benefits in terms of reduced greenhouse gas and odour emissions. Current projects aim at improving the performance of the anaerobic digestion process through co-digestion of organic waste mixtures, using biocatalyst, and minimizing the inhibitory metabolites during the digestion process. Research is extended to the recovery of the macro-nutrients from the anaerobic digestate.
Gyenge, Elöd
Elöd Gyenge
Professor
egyenge@chbe.ubc.ca
Home department: Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests
- Electrochemical Engineering and Electrocatalysis
- Fuel Cells
- Batteries
- Electrosynthesis
- Porous Electrodes
- Interfacial Phenomena
- Engineering Education
Current Research Projects
- The commercial development of many electrochemical systems, including a variety of fuel cells, batteries and electrosynthesis processes, is hampered by kinetically sluggish electrode reactions. The mission of our research program is to discover and develop highly active, durable and cost-effective electrocatalysts and to integrate the catalyst with the electrode and cell design in order to develop high-performance electrochemical devices and processes. To accomplish our mission we deploy a multi-pronged approach combining novel electrocatalyst synthesis methods with fundamental electrochemical and surface science studies followed by electrode and cell engineering investigations and innovations. Systems of interest include: diverse fuel cells (H2, borohydride, methanol, formic acid), metal-air and novel redox flow batteries (e.g., using CO2), hydrogen peroxide electrosynthesis, graphene electrochemical synthesis and applications, CO2-based power sources. The group is involved in extensive industrial and international research activities with collaborators from Japan, France, Germany and USA.
- Current research is focused on the following areas: a) Development of bifunctional / multifunctional electrodes for complex electrocatalytic reactions (e.g., CO2 reduction / formate oxidation, O2 reduction / evolution, etc.), b) Gas-diffusion electrode engineering, c) Electrocatalytic upgrading of biomass (specifically lignin derivatives), d) Halogen-based redox couples for flow batteries.
Englezos, Peter
Peter Englezos
Professor
peter.englezos@ubc.ca
Home department: Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests
- Clathrate (Gas) Hydrates: Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Impact on Climate Change and Technological Applications
- Optimization and Machine Learning in Process Engineering
Current Research Project
- Clathrate (gas) hydrates: fundamentals and applications: Clathrate or gas hydrates are non-stoichiometric crystalline inclusion compounds formed by water and over one hundred other molecules at suitable temperature and pressure conditions. We have over 30 years of experience in this field and made important contributions to understanding of their phase behaviour and the kinetics of formation and dissociation. We have utilized this fundamental knowledge to contribute to technological innovations such as the hydrate-based gas separations with applications to carbon dioxide capture. Other areas include the elucidation of the way in which antifreeze proteins inhibit hydrate crystal growth. We have also advanced our knowledge of the positive feedback processes to climate change due the uncontrolled dissociation of the earth’s methane hydrates.
- Optimization and machine learning in process engineering: In the past 30 years we have developed nonlinear optimization methods for parameter estimation in various fields of chemical engineering. This work is mainly based on the use of phenomenological models and the matching of these models with experimental data to extract parameter values and their statistical properties. The recent advances in computer processing speed and information storage density are increasingly exploited to extract patterns of behaviour from large experimental datasets using machine learning. We are also interested in evolving machine learning as a modelling approach for physical and chemical systems of interest in chemical engineering.
Ellis, Naoko
Naoko Ellis
Professor
naoko.ellis@ubc.ca
Home department profile: Link
Chemical and Biological Engineering, 2.27-2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3
Dunford, Bill
Bill Dunford
Professor
wgd@ece.ubc.ca
Home department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Website: https://people.ece.ubc.ca/~wgd/
Research Interests
- Power Electronics
- Power Supplies
- Motor Controls
- Energy Management.