Faculty members pursuing energy-related research, who are affiliated with the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (http://chemeng.mst.edu/) follow.   Click on the person's name to view a brief description of their research interests or click on the web site for more information. Click on an e-mail address to correspond. You may also find additional information by clicking at the left on the 'Research/Publications' category.

David Henthorn,   http://chemeng.mst.edu/,   henthord@mst.edu

Kimberly Henthorn,   http://chemeng.mst.edu/,   henthork@mst.edu

Doug Ludlow,   http://chemeng.mst.edu/,   dludlow@mst.edu

Parthasakha Neogi,  http://chemeng.mst.edu/,   neogi@mst.edu

 

Dr. David Henthorn's  research interests are in the area of new polymeric materials. Recent work has focused on the production of novel polymer nanocomposites and on the tailoring of material properties of polymers.  Other work done in his laboratory has focused on biodegradable or bioresorbable polymeric materials, materials formed from sustainable feedstocks, and on the use of inexpensive and widely-available polymers in the fabrication of microelectronic devices.

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Dr. Kimberly Henthorn's   major research focus is particle technology, which includes the physical characterization of particles, particle synthesis, particle classification, and particle transport across a range of length scales.  Her work is both experimental and computational, and covers a wide range of applications, including alternative energy.  She currently serves as a co-PI on an Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL’s) project entitled “Deployable and Integrable Hydrogen Generation and Utilization “ in the Research Program of “Advanced Military Installations that Integrate Renewable Energy and Advanced Energy Storage Technologies”, and on the GAANN Program (U.S. Department of Education) “Doctoral Research and Training in Alternative Energy Technologies”.

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Dr. Doug Ludlow  is a chemical engineer with almost two decades of research and expertise in the characterization of porous powders, including catalysts, fluidized coal, fly ash, adsorbents, and activated carbon.  He has worked on environmental technology projects including fly ash removal with fabric filters, mercury gettering using fly ash, simultaneous removal of NOx and particulates using catalytic fabric filters with SCR technology, and removal of fuel oxygenates from ground water using activated carbon.  He has worked on a project dealing with biomass conversion of creating activated carbon from soy bean hulls.  He has ongoing research in the development of carbon nanotubes with palladium nanoparticles that can be used to adsorb hydrogen with a potential application as a low weight hydrogen storage material.

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Dr. Parthasakha Neogi's  research interest is in oil recovery. Present methods of recovering crude petroleum oil from under ground reservoirs leave behind about 60% of the original oil.  Newer methods of enhanced oil recovery are “chemical” in nature and primarily aim at reducing the interfacial tensions at the brine-crude oil interface and at times in improving the adverse mobility ratio.  Many of these processes use surfactants, and one kind deals with surfactants which produces ultralow interfacial tensions. Such surfactants in presence of oil and water form microemulsions. The surfactant forms microemulsion in presence of oil, where the latter is available in immobilized form in the reservoir. The microemusions later coalesce with oil to produce mobile oil banks during the drive.  These oil backs in turn coalesce and mobilize other trapped oil. Research done here have investigated thermodynamics and kinetics of solubilization in such systems.  A review “Oil recovery and microemulsions,” by P. Neogi, in Microemulsions: Structure and Dynamics, S.E. Friberg and P. Bothorel, eds., CRC Press, Florida, 2000, p. 197, has appeared.  Research here has continued beyond this review.

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