(7jh) Energy Management and Sustainability in Chemical Engineering and Beyond

- Energy generation, utilization, conversion, storage, transmission, conservation, management and sustainability
- Mitigation of environmental pollutants, and sustainable energy systems, CO2 capture & renewable energy
- Catalysis for sustainable energy and Fischer- Tropsch Synthesis (FTS)

Successful Proposals:

Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) of Alberta, Canada, and the Advanced Conversion Technologies Task Force in Laramie, Wyoming.

Postdoctoral Project: “Novel Solvent Exchange Distillation System- a Comparison Study with Batch & Flash Separations”
Under supervision of Professor Phil C. Wankat, Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University

PhD Dissertation: “Dynamic Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Processing with Energy Storage Applications”
Under supervision of Professor Larry L. Baxter, Chemical Engineering Department, - Brigham Young University

Research Experience:

My academic career path has been a blend of many fields of science and engineering. During Bachelor, I was working on simulation/process design and optimization of different industrial and petrochemical unites which I have published my results in four peer-reviewed journals. As a master student, I was working on catalysis, kinetic modeling and experimental reactor design. I am greatly interested in catalysis for sustainable energy and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. As a result of my research, I have published and presented more than thirty technical articles in the fields of catalysis for renewable energy, kinetic modeling, chemical reaction engineering and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. As a PhD candidate, I developed new technology, Cryogenic Carbon Capture (CCC) that aims to decrease energy consumption and the costs of separating CO2 from other gases in flows including power plant exhausts, natural gas flows and most industrial streams and optimum heat exchanger design of natural gas liquefaction model. The fruit of my research projects have been published in famous journals and presented in prestigious conferences. Last but not the least, as a Postdoc; I have been doing detailed simulations of new configurations for batch/flash and dynamic distillation and developing low energy methods in pharmaceutical/food or chemical manufacturing environment. I have more than six papers ready to submit on my postdoc studies.

Teaching Interests:

I am interested in teaching all the courses I have served as a teaching assistant and lecturer. Specifically, I am qualified to teach undergraduate-level courses such as Heat Transfer, Chemical Reaction Engineering, Chemical Engineering Principles, Engineering Mathematics, Fluid Mechanics, Physical Chemistry, Industrial Equipment and Principles of Gas Purification and graduate-level courses such as Energy Engineering, Statistical Analysis, Heterogeneous Catalysts and Transport Phenomena. In addition, I teach CHE 20500: Chemical Engineering Calculations (to B.S. students), CHE 37700: Momentum Transfer, CHE 54000: Transport Phenomena and CHE 597: Capstone Design (to undergraduate and graduate students) as an Assistant Professor and serve as a director for Professional Graduate Student Organization (PGSO) in Purdue University. In general, I am very versatile with respect to other courses I would be interested in teaching at your respected university.

Future Direction:

As faculty, I plan to collaborate with researchers in both academia and industry to improve and develop new processes and mechanisms in FTS, Water Gas Shift (WGS) and Reverse Water Gas Shift (RWGS). Reaction mechanisms and catalytic effects on the enhancement of product efficiency for each process and hydrocarbon synthesis reactions will be presented. By considering the existing data, the best reactor configuration, which is fit with the reaction mechanism, will be proposed. I would like to combine WGS and WGS-FTS at low and high temperatures along with different catalysts and operating conditions. This will include mathematical reactor modeling and experimental test. I plan to expand my current CCC work on solar fuels to also address broader solar energy concerns and the impacts on environment and markets and utilize and develop my dynamic heat exchanger technology –patent pending- in different industries including oil, gas, pharmaceutical, food, beverage and so on to maximize energy savings and efficiency.

I have developed methods to greatly increase the efficiency of solvent exchange by distillation in industry. Many energy manufacturers have entered a new era where the efficiency of production has become important. I plan to improve this novel configuration and collaborate with not only oil and gas industries but also pharmaceutical, food and beverage industries.
Based on the nature of the research projects I have carried out and propose to pursue, I anticipate funding from agencies, such as the NSF, DOE, and Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPAE) in the divisions and programs listed below. In addition, there is a great potential for collaboration with National Laboratories (e.g., NREL, NETL, Sandia). I also expect establishing collaborations and funding from industrial companies, such as Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Valero Energy, Shell Corporation, BP, Phillips 66, Eli Lily, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), PepsiCo, the Kraft Heinz Company and E. & J. Gallo Winery, and others. Having an industrial collaborator was a very enriching experience, both research-wise and personally, during my Master, Ph.D. and Postdoc.

Selected Publications:

- Farhad Fazlollahi, Phil C. Wankat “Novel solvent exchange distillation system- a comparison study with batch separations” Chemical Engineering Science (In press).
- Farhad Fazlollahi, Samrand Saeidi, Mohammad Saeed Safdari, Majid Sarkari, Jiri Klemes and Larry L Baxter “Effect of operating conditions on cryogenic CO2 removal” Energy Technology 2017; 5: 1588-1598.
- Farhad Fazlollahi, Alex Bown, Edris Ebrahimzadeh and Larry L Baxter “Transient natural gas liquefaction and its application to energy storage with cryogenic carbon capture (CCC-ES)” Energy 2016; 103: 369–384.
- Farhad Fazlollahi, Alex Bown, Samrand Saeidi, Edris Ebrahimzadeh and Larry L Baxter “Transient natural gas liquefaction process comparison- dynamic heat exchanger under changes in flow” Applied Thermal Engineering 2016; 109:775-788.
- Farhad Fazlollahi, Alex Bown, Edris Ebrahimzadeh and Larry L Baxter “Design and analysis of the natural gas liquefaction optimization process- Energy Storage of Cryogenic Carbon Capture (CCC-ES)” Energy 2015;90: 244–257.
- Farhad Fazlollahi, Majid Sarkari; Hamed Gharebaghi; Hossein Atashi; Mohammad. M Zarei; Ali Akbar Mirzaei and W.C Hecker “Development of kinetic expression for a sol-gel Fe-Mn/Al2O3 Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis catalyst” Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 2013; 21 : 507-519.
- Farhad Fazlollahi, Majid Sarkari; Akbar Zare; Ali. A. Mirzaei and Hossein Atashi “Development of a kinetic model for Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis over Co/Ni/Al2O3 catalyst” Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 2012; 18: 1223–1232.

Peer- Reviewed Magazine:

- Farhad Fazlollahi and Larry L Baxter “Modeling and analysis of natural gas liquefaction process- Energy Storage of Cryogenic Carbon Capture (CCC-ES)” EM magazine, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, Aug 2015.

Peer- Reviewed Chapter in Book:

- Farhad Fazlollahi, Mohammad Mehdi Zarei, Maryam Seied Habashi, and Larry L Baxter “Method for removal of mercury from oil field brine with calcium carbonate co-precipitation” TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition, Characterization of Minerals, Metals, and Materials, San Diego, Californian, USA, 2014 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118888056.ch16/summary).
- Farhad Fazlollahi , Majid Sarkari and Hossein Atashi “LaCoO3: The efficient catalyst to purify pollutant gases” TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition, Characterization of Minerals, Metals and Materials, Characterization for Environmental Applications, San Antonio, TX, USA, 2013 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118659045.ch21/summary).

Reviews:

- Samrand Saeidi, Sara Najari, Farhad Fazollahi, Maryam Khoshtinat Nikoo, Fatemeh Sefidkon, , Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, Larry L Baxter “Mechanisms and kinetics of CO2 hydrogenation to value-added products: a detailed review on current status and future trends” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2017; 80: 1292-1311.
- Samrand Saeidi, Farhad Fazollahi, Sara Najari, Davood Iranshahi, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, Larry L Baxter “Hydrogen production: perspectives, separation with special emphasis on kinetics of WGS reaction: A state-of-the-art review” Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 2017; 49: 1-25.