Start
Oct 08, 2009 - 16:00
End
Oct 08, 2009 - 16:00
Venue
Creativity Hall Room 118 Chemical Engineering
Event Type
Speaker
Dr. Ujjal K Ghosh The University of Melbourne
Title
Application of Chemical Engineering Research in Environmental Remediation: a) Separation of Carbon Dioxide from Flue Gas by Chemical Absorption; b) Separation of Organics from Aqueous Solution by Membrane Pervaporation
Recent emphasis on the release of greenhouse gases and the resulting potential for global warming has raised concerns over the emission of gases such as CO2. As the political and environmental demand increases efficient methods for the capture and sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere will become increasingly important. The most likely options for separation and capture of CO2 from the flue gases of large combustion plants include chemical absorption physical and chemical adsorption and gas separation membranes. The absorption of carbon dioxide with alkanolamine or potassium carbonate solvents has gained widespread acceptance for the removal of CO2 from natural gas and H2. However alkanolamine solutions are prone to oxidative degradation at high temperature. The main advantages of potassium carbonate solution for CO2 removal are the high chemical solubility of CO2 in the carbonate/ bicarbonate system low solvent costs and the low energy requirement for solvent regeneration. The major challenge concerning absorption of CO2 into aqueous solutions of potassium carbonate is a relatively slow rate of reaction in the liquid phase causing low mass transfer rates. It is often advantageous to add a promoter to increase the absorption rate. Absorption of CO2 in a wetted-wall column by aqueous potassium carbonate solution using boric acid as promoter was measured under conditions in which the reaction of CO2 was of pseudo-first order. The overall pseudo-first-order reaction rate constants were determined from the kinetic measurements. The addition of small amounts of boric acid to potassium carbonate resulted in a significant enhancement of CO2 absorption rates. Organic pollutants in wastewater pose a great threat to the environment as they are carcinogenic in nature. Nitrophenols and chlorophenols are such toxic pollutants responsible for significant health and environmental hazards due to their mutagenic and carcinogenic activities. N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and furfural are present in the wastewaters from chemical petroleum refining and petrochemical industries. Selective removal and recovery of phenolic compounds NMP and furfural is therefore a challenge to those industries. Membrane pervaporation had employed to separate the chlorophenols nitrophenols NMP and furfural from their aqueous solutions using synthesized polyurethaneurea membranes.Biosketch: Ujjal K Ghosh C u r r e n t P o s i t i o n a n d L o c a t i o n • Research Fellow CO2CRC Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering The University of Melbourne Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia (March 2007 –Present) K e y P r i o r P o s i t i o n s • Research Scholar Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur India (2004-2006) D e g r e e s & Aw a r d s • Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) 2007 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur India • Master of Technology (M.Tech.) Chemical Engineering 2003 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur India • Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) Chemical Engineering 2001 University of Calcutta India • Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Chemistry (Hons.) 1998 University of Calcutta Kolkata India • Institute research fellowship (IIT Kharagpur) January 2004 – March 2007 • MHRD Fellowship (Govt. of India) after qualifying GATE 2001-2003 • National Scholarship (Govt. of India) 1998-2001 Af f i l i a t i o n s • Life Associate Member Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (LAMIIChE) • Member International Society of Food Engineering (ISFE) E x p e r t i s e • Membrane separation (Pervaporation; Ultrafiltration; Nanofiltration; Reverse Osmosis; Electrodialysis) • Mathematical Modeling and simulation • Polymer membranes; Membrane Reactor; • Chemical kinetics; Catalysis • Greenhouse Gas Separation C a r e e r & Ke y Ac h i e v eme n t s • Successfully separate and recover organic pollutants from waste streams by pervaporation K e y P a p e r s & P u b l i c a t i o n s • Ujjal K. Ghosh Narayan C. Pradhan and Basudam Adhikari Separation of water and o-chlorophenol by pervaporation using HTPB-based polyurethaneurea membranes and application of modified Maxwell–Stefan equation J. Membr. Sci. 2006 272 93-102. • Ujjal K. Ghosh Narayan C. Pradhan and Basudam Adhikari Pervaporative Recovery of N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone from Dilute Aqueous Solution by Using Polyurethaneurea Membranes J. Membr. Sci. 2006 285 249-257. • Barun Sinha Ujjal K. Ghosh Narayan C. Pradhan and Basudam Adhikari Separation of Phenol from Aqueous Solution by Membrane Pervaporation Using Modified Polyurethaneurea Membranes J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2006 101 1857-1865. • Ujjal K. Ghosh Narayan C. Pradhan and Basudam Adhikari Separation of Furfural from Aqueous Solution by Pervaporation using HTPB-based Hydrophobic Polyurethaneurea Membranes Desalination 2007 208(1-3) 146-158. • Ujjal K. Ghosh Narayan C. Pradhan and Basudam Adhikari Synthesis and characterization of porous polyurethaneurea membranes for pervaporative separation of 4-nitrophenol from aqueous solution Bull. Mater. Sci. 2006 29 225-231