Engineering Now | October 2009

Strong showing of Western chemical engineers at WCCE8

If you were looking to connect with a Western chemical engineer at the end of August you likely received an ‘out of office’ reply as a number of our faculty members and graduate students were at the 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (WCCE8) in Montreal.

The Congress’s overall theme was “Challenges for a Changing World.” The technical program emphasized the key role played by chemical engineers from all around the world in developing the processes and products needed by humanity in a more sustainable way. Western Engineering researchers are leading the way in this area and a number of our faculty members were invited to speak at the Congress.

Keynotes

Professor Hugo de Lasa on “Photocatalytic Reaction Engineering”
Sustainability in Chemical Engineering
The objective of this symposium is to present sustainable development-oriented researches and innovations within chemical engineering. The symposium will aim to provide a stimulus for knowledge exchange and discussion that focuses on the issues addressed to industrial application of sustainable development principles in order to reach solutions for a better future. (more)

Professor Ajay Ray on “Solar driven dye sensitized photocatalysis for water treatment and clean hydrogen production”
Bioenergy
The symposium on bioenergy is an international forum for engineers, scientist, researchers, policy advisors, industry and other stakeholders from around the world for exchanging up to date research results, research breakthroughs, discussing common research interests, and exploring potential scientific cooperation. The mission of this symposium is to bring together the entire bioenergy technology system with the goal of accelerating the flow of technologies from the research phase to the viable market phase. (more)

Professor Sohrab Rohani on “Crystallization research in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries”.
Particle Technology and its Applications
Particle Technology has wide applications in many industries, including in the chemical, metallurgical, and pharmaceutical industries. This topical symposium will provide a venue for researchers and industrial practitioners to discuss the various interested issues related to particle technology. The symposium will cover most major topical areas of particle technology, but will have several special focuses, such as the application of particle technology in the pharmaceutical industry. (more)

Additional Presentations
Professor Amarjeet Bassi, Professor Franco Berruti, Professor Argyrios Margaritis, Professor Anand Prakash, Professor Mita Ray, Professor Jesse Zhu, and Professor Jin Zhang.

Western Engineering graduate students also presented a number of talks during the course of the Congress. A full list of topics can be found on the Congress website. The Faculty is also very proud of the Plant Design team from CBE 4497, who secured a spot in the final three of the Congress’s International Design Competition. Team members Karen Lenkiewicz, Suanne Mahabir and Luke McIntyre will present their project entitled, “Production of Polylactic Acid – A Biodegradable Plastic from Renewable Sources.”

Western’s Department Chair of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, professor A.K.Ray, was proud of the contributions Western Engineering made to this year’s Congress. “The profile of Western Engineering has been significantly raised to our international colleagues” says Ray. “I was very pleased with our strong participation at this global event.”

Also from this web page:

Contact

.: Allison Stevenson
Spencer Engineering Building, Room 2074
Phone: (519) 850-2917 Fax: (519) 661-3808
contactwe@eng.uwo.ca