ALUMNI

Ahmed Najjar is a Master’s student in the chemical engineering department at Polytechnique Montreal. He joined PEARL’s group in the fall of 2020. Ahmed obtained his B.SC in industrial chemistry from the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (INSAT) in Tunisia. He also got his previous M.SC in chemical process engineering from Aix-Marseille University, France, in 2016.

Upon graduation, he worked in the Clean Combustion Research Center at KAUST, Saudi Arabia, as a Research Assistant for one year. His responsibilities in this position were building and implementing experimental facilities for combustion studies and assisting students and researchers with many specific research activities and experimental designs. His research focused on developing a better understanding of the oxidation and pyrolysis reactions of hydrocarbon fuels using a jet-stirred reactor and simulating the reaction numerically using different chemical kinetic models. After that, he had the opportunity to work as a Research and Development Engineer, for almost three years, with two companies in Saudi Arabia. His work focused on developing a manufacturing process for aluminum-based coagulants and testing their effectiveness in the pretreatment of seawater using a reverse osmosis system.

Fadoua Laasri has obtained her diploma of technician specialized in chemical industry from the mining institute of Marrakech, Morocco in 2008. She worked in the mining sector before joining Polytechnique Montreal where she graduated from her bachelor in chemical Engineering in 2018. In summer 2018, she joined PEARL as Ph.D. student at chemical engineering department.  Aware of the environmental issues caused by the chemical industry, her doctoral project is focused on the decomposition of phosphogypsum (industrial waste) to extract the raw material.

Lana obtained her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal. During her studies, she did two internships in different domains. In 2020, she started her master’s studies in chemical engineering in the Process Engineering Advanced Research Lab at Polytechnique Montréal to develop her research skills and graduated in 2024.

Dr. Mohammad Khodabandehloo is a Chemical Engineer with a PhD from Polytechnique Montreal, where he focused on innovative processes for sustainable syngas and hydrogen production, notably the Microwave Heating-Assisted Chemical Looping Dry Reforming of Methane. His research involved experimental and simulation work, reactor design, and comprehensive techno-economic and life cycle assessments.
Dr. Khodabandehloo has an extensive academic background, with a BSc from Sharif University of Technology and an MSc from the University of Tehran. Throughout his studies, he received numerous awards, including the FRQNT award in 2023, for his outstanding academic and research performance.
Beyond academia, he is the co-founder and CEO of Hydrovel, a cleantech startup focused on renewable energy solutions. His work exemplifies a commitment to combining cutting-edge science with real-world applications to combat global environmental challenges.

Mona accomplished her bachelor degree in chemical engineering at the university of Alexandria, Egypt. During her study she had four internships in different domains. She has 10 years of experience in the industrial in the domain of water treatment and lab technologies.

She joined PEARL group since January 2019 to begin her master studies in chemical engineering at Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal to develop her research skills.

Ahmed Bouzid was born in Béjaïa, Algeria, in 1990. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering and electronic instrumentation engineering from the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene, Algiers, Algeria, in 2011 and 2013 respectively and the Ph.D. degree in computer sciences and technology from the University of Miskolc, Miskolc, Hungary, in 2010. He is an Adjunct Professor with the University of Miskolc, Miskolc, Hungary, where he is a member of the Institute of Automation and Info-Communication since 2020. He joined PEARL and MOTCE research laboratories as PostDoc at Polytechnique Montreal, Canada since 2022 working on ultrasonic thermography, densitometry and viscosimetry. His areas of research interest are instrumentation, hardware implementations, measurement, navigation and electroacoustic.

Shahab Golshan earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Tehran in 2018. The title of his Ph.D. thesis was: ” A hybrid deterministic-stochastic modeling of spouted beds”. He worked for one year at the process design and simulation center as a postdoctoral researcher before moving to Canada. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Polytechnique Montreal, working on two projects under the supervision of Professors Jamal Chaouki and Bruno Blais. His research titles are 1, “Lethe-dem: An open-source, fully parallel discrete element method code with load-balancing (https://github.com/lethe-cfd/lethe)”, and 2, “A multi-scale feasibility analysis, design and optimization tool for rotating packed beds for carbon capture and acid gas removal processes.

Iman received both his B.SC. and M.Sc. in chemical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. He acquired a general knowledge on hydrotreating of petroleum components in B.Sc. and continued his research in M.SC. by working on hydrodesulfurization of gasoil in trickle bed reactors. After graduation, he had the opportunity to gain helpful work experience in one of the biggest natural gas refinery complexes in the world: South Pars Gas Complex.

In SPGC he was working as a process engineer in different process units including NGL fractionation unit, ethane decarbonation and drying unit, propane and butane treatment and caustic regeneration units and sulfur recovery and granulation units. Also, he was involved in several projects in wastewater treatment units.

He has joined PEARL since September 2017, and is working on local hydrodynamics of gas-solid fluidized bed reactors at high pressure and high temperature.

Mohammad was a Ph. D. candidate in the Chemical Engineering Department at École Polytechnique de Montréal and graduated in 2024. He worked on Microwave heating projects; especially pyrolysis of waste hydrocarbons. Before that, he received his B.C degree in Material Science and Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 2014. After that, due to his interest in material morphology and chemical reactions from the very beginning of his studies, he found his way to studying extractive metallurgy, which has a close connection to kinetic and thermodynamics. He obtained his master’s degree in metallurgy and material engineering from the University of Tehran in 2017. Besides that, he worked in Mines & Metals Technological Engineering Company (MMTE) as a process research engineer.

Amin obtained his bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2012. During his bachelor, he developed an excellent foundation in the field of process simulation, modeling and optimization focusing on process equipment design. Then he received his MSc degree in Energy Engineering at Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy in 2017 acquiring an in-deep knowledge of renewable energy resources development and sustainability in the energy sector. He accomplished his master thesis at Linde plc in Munich, Germany by developing a heat transfer module for their in-house equation-based process simulator in order to obtain the steady state and dynamic thermo-hydraulic model of a plate-fin heat exchanger used in air separation units and LNG plants.

At Linde plc, he had the opportunity to plant an excellent foundation in modeling and simulation of multi-phase flows focusing on thermodynamics, fluid dynamics and computational heat transfer at the world’s largest industrial gas company. In addition, he is experienced in data analysis and agile software development for computer-aided design & scientific calculation purposes using C++, Python and MATLAB. He has been joined PEARL as a Ph. D. student since August 2018.

Iman received both his B.SC. and M.Sc. in chemical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. He acquired a general knowledge on hydrotreating of petroleum components in B.Sc. and continued his research in M.SC. by working on hydrodesulfurization of gasoil in trickle bed reactors. After graduation, he had the opportunity to gain a helpful work experience in one of the biggest natural gas refinery complexes in the world: South Pars Gas Complex.

In SPGC he was working as a process engineer in different process units including NGL fractionation unit, ethane decarbonation and drying unit, propane and butane treatment and caustic regeneration units and sulfur recovery and granulation units. Also, he was involved in several projects in wastewater treatment units.

He has joined PEARL since September 2017, and is working on local hydrodynamics of gas-solid fluidized bed reactors at high pressure and high temperature.

He graduated and got his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Chaouki in 2022. He started his study in Chemical Engineering in 2004 and received his B.Sc. in 2008. He was first ranked among all Chemical engineering bachelor students of that year. After that, he entered to Master’s Program in the chemical engineering Department of Sharif University of Technology in 2008 as 5^th rank among all chemical engineering students countrywide. He defended his M.Sc. dissertation on the title of “Simulation of Atmospheric Ammonia Dispersion Using CFD” in 2010. He worked at Arya Science-Based Corporation as a Research Engineer for 6 years. During these years, he worked on various scientific topics such as multiphase flow characteristics, nanofluid flow, and computational fluids dynamics. Consequently, multiple articles in scientific Journals were published by him.

Gautier was a final-year student at École polytechnique Paris-Saclay, a leading Engineering School near Paris (France), preparing a Master Degree in Chemical Engineering. He prepared a double Degree with a Master in Polytechnique Montreal (Canada). He had joined PEARL since September 2017, and he is working on reactions initiated by microwave in fluidized beds.

Roshanak Rabiee graduated with Ph.D. from the Chemical Engineering Department of Université de Sherbrooke and joined Prof. Chaouki’s research group as a Postdoc researcher in October 2019. She is working on different projects related to CFD modeling, two-phase flow modeling, porous media, and heat and mass transfer analysis in a process involving the energy and chemical sectors. In all years of her career, she is always eager to learn more and more, even in the fields that she has not had enough experience. She has organizational skills, team spirit, creativity, and determination that are necessary for every professional work environment.

I am a Ph.D candidate – Chemical Engineering Department (École Polytechnique de Montréal), and I work under the supervision of Prof. Jamal Chaouki in a collaboration with the Egyptian Armament Authority started in May 2019. The research topic is the synthesis and characterization of nanocomposite material for electromagnetic waves attenuation. I am holding my bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the Military Technical College (MTC), Cairo, in (2009). I worked as a research assistant after graduation and then a research associate after finishing my master’s degree in (2016). The work focuses on the development of a ternary hybrid nanocomposite shielding material against the electromagnetic waves in the X-band (8-12 GHz) and its shielding efficiency after exposure to high temperature degrees.

Hassan got his technical university diploma in thermal and energy engineering at University Mohammed 5 of Rabat in 2014 and then received his bachelor in process, energy and environmental engineering from Ecole Nationale des Sciences Appliquées Agadir in Morocco in 2017. He acquired knowledge in unit operations, hydraulic, turbulence, HVAC, renewable energy, combustion and other related fields of process and energy engineering. Besides, he did 2 internships in technical services companies that enabled him to acquire skills in public lighting, production of hydrogen and design of photovoltaic pumping systems and 3 internships in industrial companies of beverage and mining. Then, he joined a consulting company in 2018 as energy and environmental engineer to provide services in air pollution, environmental impact assessment and energy efficiency. In 2019, he started his PhD in  Pearl group at Polytechnique Montréal in Canada.

Ahmed Emam is a PhD candidate – Chemical Engineering Department (École Polytechnique de Montréal), and work under the supervision of Profs. Charles Dubois, Jamal Chaouki and John Wen from Waterloo university, holding a Bachelor (2009) and a Master’s degree (2016) in Chemical Engineering from the Military Technical College (MTC) in Egypt. His research interests include the fields of Energetic materials and applications, composite materials and catalytic systems. His experts extend into the manufacturing technology of solid propellant, missiles systems, powder technology, thermal analysis and thermochemical and kinetics codes such as ICT Thermodynamic Code, EXPLO5 Thermodynamic Code and AKTS Thermokinetics Software. His PhD research focuses on developing new nanothermite materials for energetic applications such as microthrusters, igniters and nanostructured thermites and explosives (NSTEX) as green initiators. He started his PhD in Prof. Chaouki’s group in 2019.

Mohamed Khalil is a Ph.D candidate – Chemical Engineering Department (École Polytechnique de Montréal), and work under the supervision of Prof. Jamal Chaouki., holding a Bachelor (2010) and a Master’s degree (2013) in Mechanical Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering (Cairo University). His research interests include the fields of renewable energy and waste valorization. His experts extend into the modeling and simulation of viscous, laminar and turbulent flows in compressible and incompressible regimes, chemical reactions engineering, internal combustion engines, and production technology and new energy. His Ph.D research focuses on developing a thermochemical process for recycling of electronic waste using electromagnet irradiation. His developed process does not only produce the common pyrolysis products, oil, gas, and carbon black; but also recycles the precious metals, which are most profitable. He won the third prize of <a href=”https://www.aeromontreal.ca/home.html”>Aéro Montréal</a> Competition (Aerospace of tomorrow: Towards a 100% recyclable aircraft). He holds the Basic License of Aeronautical Engineers (Airframe/ PowerPlant). He has been selected as Mentor in NASA International Space Apps Challenge (Robotics Category) that was held at Nile University for the first time in Egypt in 2015. He is a member of the Evaluation Committee (Filtration Phase) of the Made in Egypt’s (MIE) Competition. Besides, He is involved in different organizations at Polytechnique  Montréal as a delegate of the Chemical Engineering Department in the Graduate Students Association (AÉCSP).

Dr. Ahmad Reza Amini has been working on an industrial project related to minerals processing as a postdoctoral fellow in prof. Chaouki’s group at Polytechnique Montreal since August 2019. He is the leader of a high temperature project related to minerals processing, in addition to being involved in writing book chapters, and taking responsibility of characterization in prof. Chaouki’s group.
He received his Ph.D. in Materials Process Engineering from Kyushu University (Japan) in March 2019, after being awarded as MEXT scholar by Japan government in 2015. He studied the employing both hydrogen and microwave irradiation for a novel pre-treatment of high sulfur iron ore. During this period, he obtained great experiences in communication with foreigners and learnt Japanese language to make a friendly relationship with Japanese students.
Dr. Amini obtained his M.Sc. from Iran University of Science and Technology as top student after publishing papers about desulfurization of stainless steel, and patenting a process for microwave-assisted synthesis of tungsten carbid-Alumina (WC-Al2O3) composite.
In his B.Sc, he studied materials engineering by focusing on Ceramic Engineering at Bu-Ali-Sina University in Iran. During this period, he was the head of Scientific institution leaders of the university and obtained valuable experiences in executive roles.
A couple of years working on microwave processing of materials during his M.Sc. and Ph.D., and industrial experiences in catalyst production at SARV company in IRAN, provided for him valuable experiences to do academic research and to solve problems with novel ideas. He is interested in unconventional heating methods such as microwave and induction heating, minerals processing, and waste treatment. In addition, he knows well how to thermodynamically simulate a process by FactSage software which is useful for reducing the cost of a project by avoiding too many experiments.

Zhaohui Chen has been working in the Department of Chemical Engineering, at Polytechnique Montreal since 2018. He developed a microwave-heating structure catalyst and reactor for chemical recycling of plastic wastes and the novel microwave-driven chemical looping ammonia production technology in Prof. Chaouki’s group. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His professional experience includes two years as an engineer in the Energy Research Institute of ENN Group, China, two years as a postdoc at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and three months as a researcher in the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. He was devoted to the thermal and catalytic conversion of carbon resources, and their association with an innovative design of reactor structure and with design and molding of catalysts.

Afshin Fallahi gained his B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering, Petrochemical Industries, from Shiraz University in Iran. He obtained his M.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering, Design, Simulation and Process Control, in Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran- Iran, in (GPA: 18.92 of 20; Top student). After immigration to Canada, he joined professor Jamal Chaouki research group at Chemical Engineering Department of Polytechnique Montreal in March 2016 as a research assistant with the collaboration of Total Group. He started his M.Sc. degree in Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal under the supervision of Professor Jamal Chaouki in 2017. He graduated in 2019. His master’s project is entitled “Experimental study of volumetric gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient in slurry bubble columns”.

​Chenguang Zhang was born in Henan, China. He is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineeriang, at Polytechnique Montreal, supervised by Professor Jamal Chaouki. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Science from Louisiana State University, advised by Prof. Nandakumar. Along with this are two Master’s degrees from the same university (computer science and oceanography, respectively). His interest lives at the intersection of math, mechanics, and programming, as exemplified by his immersed boundary code sdfibm. Working in a large interdisciplinary team, his current research focuses on the numerical modeling of the heap leaching process.

Brajesh K. Singh received his Ph.D. in 2019 from chemical engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi). During his Ph.D., he worked on dynamic flow characteristics in multiphase flow systems such as bubble columns, packed beds, and fluidized bed reactors. After his Ph.D., Dr. Singh was hired as a postdoctoral in the computer science department, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany, and worked on lattice Boltzmann simulations of multiphase flow systems. Dr. Singh joined our group in March 2020. He is currently developing process flow diagrams, design of reactor/equipment, and techno-economic evaluations for high-temperature processes relating to phosphorus production and recovery of rare earth elements from electronic waste. He is also working on the design and optimization of induction assisted fluidized bed reactor and top-submerged lance reactor employing CFD simulations and experiments. He has acquired invaluable expertise in CFD (multiphase Eulerian/DEM and electromagnetic field simulations), measurement techniques (electrical capacitance/resistance tomography, voidage probe, particle image velocimetry, and high-speed imaging), process development, thermodynamic simulations, and big data analytics.

Dr. Raja Muhammad Afzal is working as Postdoc fellow in PERAL group. He is involved in several industrial projects for the assessment of commercialization potential of the novel technologies. He has 7 years of research experience and 6 years of industrial experience (oil and gas midstream and EPCC projects management company). He had received his PhD Degree in Chemical Engineering from Institute of Process Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China in 2017. Later, he had joined School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China as Postdoc Fellow until year 2020. His research interests include process design and simulation, process scale up and optimization, techno-economic analysis / CAPEX and OPEX estimation, LCA, AI, Energy, Economy and Environment. He had taught Petroleum Production Engineering course to the final semester of the Chemical Engineering batch at National University of Science and Technology Islamabad, Pakistan in 2013. He is a Certified RETScreen Software Expert and Accredited Trainer from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Canadian Institute of Energy Trainings (CIET).

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Gabriel Baptiste, 1st cycle graduated from Polytechnique Montreal (Bachelor in Chemical Engineering) and 2nd cycle from HEC Montreal (Specialized Superior Education Diploma, DESS in management). He started is career as a process engineer in a hydrometallurgical plant, in central Africa (Comilog, Gabon), within an industrial international volunteer program (V.I.E.) dedicated to providing international work experience for young graduates. At the Electrolytic Metal Manganese plant of Moanda (EMM), he quickly gained experience in industrial R&D, project, and operational management. After coming back to Montreal, he started in the PEARL group, where he specialized his studies in technico-economic analyses for different projects, in mine and mineral processing developed within the PEARL group with an industrial partner.

Dr. Eltefat Ahmadi holds academic training and work experience in Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering. He has developed innovative smelting and extraction methods for producing extra-pure metal powders via chlorination and molten salt technologies. Dr. Ahmadi has been awarded the Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship and joined the Process Engineering Advanced Research Lab (PEARL) in May 2021. He works in the field of process metallurgy and recycling of rare earth elements (REEs) from e-waste at the Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal. Dr. Ahmadi is a graduate of Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) and the Sharif University of Technology. In 2018, Dr. Ahmadi received his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) where he was awarded USM PhD Fellowship and worked on sustainable pyrometallurgical technology for the synthesis of titanium tetrachloride from Ti ore. He also received the JASSO scholarship at Hokkaido University. After his Ph.D., he was awarded the prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship to develop an innovative process for the production of titanium powder at Hokkaido University (HU), Japan. He has worked as an academic researcher on microwave pretreatment of high phosphorus iron ore in the Department of Materials Engineering at Kyushu University (Japan). He also received the Noriyasu Sato Award for young researchers in 2020 from the Japan Institute of Metals and the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan.

Alireza Shams is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Process Engineering Advanced Research Lab (PEARL) at Polytechnique Montreal, working under the supervision of Prof. Jamal Chaouki. He received his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (2004) and M.Sc. in Transport Phenomena &amp; Separation Processes (2007) from the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. Then he became a researcher in the Zeolite Research Group at the Science and Technology Park of Tehran University. Before immigrating to Canada, Alireza worked as a consultant and process engineer for two companies, MME Gmbh &amp; Daneshpajouhan, where he conducted several industrial projects in oil, natural gas, and metal fields. Alireza obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (2015) from McGill University, working under the supervision of Prof. Alejandro D. Rey, and received several awards and fellowships. During his Ph.D. which was supported by the US Office of Basic Energy Sciences, he collaborated with Prof. Mohan Srinivasarao’s Laboratory of Liquid Crystals and Soft Matters at Georgia Institute of Technology. After Ph.D., Alireza completed his Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (research consultant) position at Yale School of Public Health and UiT the Arctic University of Norway in 2017, working with Prof. Ted Cohen and Prof. Abel zur Wiesch. Before joining PEARL, he was a Senior R&amp;D Scientist and Process Specialist at Sigma Storage Energy Inc. in Montreal. Alireza’s expertise lies in chemical process design and simulation, mathematical modeling, machine learning, and theoretical material science.

Shuli Shu was born in Hubei, China in 1989. He is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering, at Polytechnique Montreal, under the direction of Professor Jamal Chaouki and Professor Francois Bertrand. His current researches focus on numerical modelling and experiments of hydrodynamics of bubble column reactor at high pressure and high temperature for TOTAL and DEM simulation of granular flow in pharmaceutical processes.
He received his Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Chemical Engineering under the direction of Professor Ning Yang and Professor Jinghai Li. He was devoted to developing the multiscale modelling of gas-liquid multiphase reactor system in his doctoral degree period from 2010 to 2016. In the meantime, he participated in numerous projects on CFD simulation with BASF, BP, and Unilever. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Huazhong University of Sciences and Technology in 2010.

Dr. Rahmat Sotudeh-Gharebagh is currently a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Tehran (P.O. Box 11155–4563, Iran; email:sotudeh@ut.ac.ir).  He teaches process modeling and simulation, transport phenomena and fluidization, plant design and economics and soft skills.  His research interests include computer-aided process design and simulation, fluidization, and engineering education.  He holds a B.Eng. degree in chemical engineering from Iran’s Sharif University of Technology, plus a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Fluidization Engineering from Canada’s Polytechnique.

He has been an invited Professor at Qatar University and Polytechnique de Montréal.  Professor Sotudeh has more than 300 publications in major international journals and conferences, plus 4 books and 4 book chapters. He is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Chemical Product and Process Modeling published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Germany, a Member of the Iranian Elite Foundation and an official expert (OE) on the oil industry with the Iranian Official Expert Organization (IOEO).

She graduated from her Bachelor in Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montreal in May 2014. During her first summer at Polytechnique, she did an internship with Pr. Basil Favis on the mechanical and thermal characterization of new blends of biodegradable polymers. Furthermore, her final Bachelor project was on the valorisation of oil extracted from waste pyrolysis. She carried out this project in collaboration with Soumaya Benzennou, under the supervision of Pr. Jamal Chaouki. She also have industrial experience since I have completed two internships at Air Liquide Canada.

She started her Ph.D. in September 2014 at Polytechnique. She was part of the Research Unit for Industrial Flow Processes, a group directed by Pr. François Bertrand. Her research topic was on the influence of granular segregation on heat transfer in rotary kilns. This issue was investigated by combining two approaches: numerical simulations and experiments.

MAI ATTIA is a Ph.D. student, has joined freshly to Prof Chaouki’s group. She obtained her MSc degree in organic chemistry from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. Also, Attia received her BSc degree in major chemistry from the same university.

MAI Attia is a highly innovative chemist, with +7 years’ expertise in novel material synthesis, and product characterization using different techniques. She has a great experience in Organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, organometallic chemistry, Reaction kinetics, catalytic reactions, Spectroscopy (NMR and UV), Analytical techniques (HPLC, GC, MS, DSC, TGA and IR), High-throughput methods, Statistical analysis, scientific writing, Presentation, Communication and teaching skills.

Currently, Mai is working on a project for valuable chemicals production from the catalytic pyrolysis of biomass. Indeed, such a study is a promising approach for producing a high quality liquid bio-oil. This, in turn, would enhance the value of the bio-oil produced for pure chemicals extraction.

Ling received her B.Eng. degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology from China University of Mining and Technology in 2004. She obtained an Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007. She then joined Institute of Process Engineering as an assistant Professor in China . She started her Ph.D with Professor Jamal Chaouki in May 2014 at Polytechnique Montréal in Canada. Her research interests include the synthesis of electrochemical functional materials for lithium-ion batteries and fluidization technology and its applications.

Rémi was a final-year student at ENSIC – Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimique, a leading Chemical Engineering University in Nancy (France), preparing a Master Degree in Chemical Engineering. He was preparing a double Degree with a Master in Polytechnique Montreal (Canada). He joined Prof. Chaouki’s group and Prof. Bertrand’s group in January 2016. His master project is about modeling mass transfer in bubble columns.

Yefeng ZHOU was born in Hunan, China in 1987. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, under the direction of Professor Jamal Chaouki. His researches mainly focused on experimental measurements, characterization and process intensification of bubble column photobioreactors involving CO₂ capture and biomass conversion. Moreover, the multi-scale experimental and simulation works on liquid-containing fluidized bed reactors had also been involved in the same time. He received his Ph.D. degree from Zhejiang University in Chemical Engineering under the direction of Professors Jianfeng CHEN, Yongrong YANG and Jingdai WANG. He was devoted to developing the multiscale characterization, theories and modelling of liquid-containing gas-solid fluidized bed reactors and their application to chemical engineering, environmental engineering, and energy industries in his doctoral degree period from 2009 to 2014. In the meantime, he participated in numerous industrial projects on research and developments of fluidized bed measurement techniques and novel multi-phase flow process technologies with Sinopec and ExxonMobil. After that, he was working at College of Chemical Engineering in Xiangtan University and obtained Associate Professorship position since 2016. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology from Hunan University in 2009.

Dr. Mohammad Reza Gholipour received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Laval University in 2018. During his Ph.D., he was working on synthesizing different nanocomposite materials (organic and inorganic) as photocatalysts for hydrogen production from water via solar energy. Moreover, he obtained invaluable skills in material science and nanotechnology as well as their characterization techniques including XRD, XPS, FTIR, TEM, SEM, TGA, UV-Visible, AFM and BET. Just after his graduation, he was hired as a research associate at Laval University to work on nanofiber fabrications from different polymer solutions using rotary jet spinning method.

Currently, he is working as a postdoctoral fellow at PEARL in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montreal. His main research activities are about designing and developing a novel process for heavy metal removal from phosphate fertilizers. He is also working on the process simulation and techno-economic analysis for this process.

Gautier was a final-year student at École polytechnique Paris-Saclay, a leading Engineering School near Paris (France), preparing a Master Degree in Chemical Engineering. He prepared a double Degree with a Master in Polytechnique Montreal (Canada). He had joined PEARL since September 2017, and he is working on reactions initiated by microwave in fluidized beds.

Ali Khazraei holds PhD in Environmental Engineering and Master of Business Administration (MBA), both from Concordia University (Montreal, Canada), Master and Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, both from Sharif University of Technology (Tehran, Iran). Ali has extensive research and engineering experience in the field of process engineering with an in-depth understanding of heat and mass transfer in the built environment, HVAC, bioremediation, water-wastewater treatment, mineral extraction and air quality control. His specialty includes measurement and analysis of organic compounds, design of air purification systems, development and application of air cleaning models, porous-material optimization, and water-air-soil quality assessments. He is also PMP and LEED AP BD+C Certified competent in Project Management and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design of green buildings

Rahi Avazpour has obtained a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tehran University. He has wide range industrial hands-on and research experiences about engine test stations, operating and control, emission control, CNG multi fuel systems and standards documentation for over a decade. Also he has been trained in several important areas including energetic modification, data acquisition, diagnostic methods, QC, ISO series, life cycle assessment LCA, environmental standards, bio-refinery, electrochemical, solar panels, PM and calibration for laboratory equipments, health and safety. In 2014, he has obtained master of engineering (M.Ing) in chemical engineering from POLYTECHNIQUE Montreal in the field of energy and sustainable development. Then he took two important internships with Prof. Jamal Chaouki’s research group:
<ul>
<li>Microwave pyrolysis of recycled waste;</li>
<li>Jet turbine exhausts emission control of species using online FTIR considering effect of cross interferences uncertainties;</li>
</ul>
Since 2014, he is following an industrial Ph.D. program about physical beneficiation of rare earth minerals by Pickering emulsification under supervision of Prof.Louis Fradette and Prof.Chaouki. He was member of the REE’s project research group including students from Polytechnique, McGill and Laval Universities, which is also supported by NSERC and NIOBEC mining company. He worked on Pickering emulsification and demulsification focused on rare earth minerals separation from gangues in a physical beneficiation mining process and ideally, without using chemical surfactants to avoid their environmental nightmare impacts. REE’s recovery using Pickering emulsion is a very novel technique with significant environmental friendly aspects which has to be optimized and scaled up for mining industry in his research, comparing to the current conventional froth flotation.

I acquired my B.S. degree in Chemical engineering, Petrochemical Engineering, from Tehran Polytechnic in 2006. During my bachelor, I gained a general knowledge about molecular sieves specially zeolites, which then has been developed in deeper level during the M.S. I, then, received my M.S. degree in Advanced Chemical Engineering in Tehran Polytechnic in 2008. My M.Sc. project dealt with Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) techniques and using it for catalyst preparation. After carrying out my master, I had opportunity to be involved in several projects in different companies to gain experiences in:
<ul>
<li>Wastewater treatment</li>
<li>Synthesis and testing of reverse osmosis and nano-filtration membranes</li>
<li>MATLAB programming</li>
<li>ASPEN suite modules including ASPEN Plus, ASPEN HYSYS, and HTFS</li>
<li>Technical standards such as API and GPA</li>
</ul>
I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in Chemical Engineering Department, Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, working on the deagglomeration and stabilization of nanoparticles.

He entered Sharif University of Technology in applied chemistry in 1995. After getting his bachelor’s degree in applied chemistry he entered in chemical engineering department of Sharif University of Technology for the second time as one of the top ten students in chemical engineering-biotechnology domain. He defended his M.Sc. dissertation with a full mark of 20 out of 20. The title of his M.Sc. degree research which was published in chemical physics journal was “A Monte Carlo simulation of nutrient diffusion and reaction in immobilized cell systems”. He worked in Montazerghaem power plant for 7 years. In this period apart from his routine duties as the head of the water treatment laboratories, he worked in different power plant construction and design projects in Iran and Syria as commissioning and training supervisor. After immigration to Canada in 2012 he worked in CI Analytics Inc. as chemical applications chemist. He started his PhD in Prof. Chaouki’s group in 2014.

William was a junior chemical engineer who accomplished his bachelor degree at the University of Sherbrooke during which he did five internships in different domain. He obtained a master degree in chemical engineering at Polytechnique of Montreal to develop his research skills. He had joined PEARL since January 2018.

Dr. Cui is currently a principal engineer at Covanta, USA. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Master degree in thermal energy engineering from Huazhong University of Science & Technology, China, and B.Eng. degree in energy engineering from Central South University, China. He previously worked as a senior staff engineer at Honeywell, a research associate at University of British Columbia, and a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. His research mainly focuses on waste-to-energy, renewable energy, gasification, fluidized beds, energy efficiency, hydrogen production, multiphase flow measurement, and other process engineering areas.  He is an author of 50+ publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He is also an invited reviewer for more than 20 journals and conferences.

Joan Dupuy gained her B.Sc. degrees in Biology from Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, France (2009). Strongly interessed by the environmental impacts of human activities, she had the opportunity to study Ecotoxicology at University College Cork in Ireland. She pursued her education towards M.Sc. (2011) in Plant Biology and Biotechnology, from Université de Bordeaux, France in order to learn more knowledge. She started her Ph.D. program at Laboratoire Sols et Environnement of Université de Lorraine. During her Ph.D. studies (2011-2014), she worked in the field of contaminated soils and her Ph.D. thesis was specifically on the interactions between polycyclic organic hydrocarbons and vascular plants : uptake and toxic responses. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow under the TOTAL industrial chair on catalytic reactions of multiphase reactors (coupling with microwave heating technology) and Syctom project on production of bioplastic with carbon captured from burning fumes of domestic waste (specifically on the development of algae bioreactors and nutrient solution formulation).

Dr. Mohammad Latifi has been working as a postdoc and then a research associate and project manager at professor Jamal Chaouki’s group. In addition to the research, he has been teaching the graduate course of “design of gas-solid reactors/fluidized bed reactors”, and he has been advising graduate students.

His primary research interests lay in process engineering, particularly, in reaction engineering, powders technology and material engineering. He has been the lead researcher in a wide range of industrial projects such as upgrading the conventional and renewable energy resources (thermal and catalytic cracking, steam/dry reforming, co-combustion, gasification and pyrolysis), carbon capture, mineral processing and coating of the nano powders. Such projects were related to major industries such as oil, gas and petrochemicals, power plants, biorefinery/bioenergy, waste/residue valorization, syngas, mining and metallurgy, and rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

Having worked in Industry and academia, he gained tremendous theoretical and practical experience in bench-scale and pilot-scale process development, design of fluidized bed reactors, hydrodynamic studies, kinetics, catalysis, materials characterization and analytical methods on gas, liquid and solids.

Dr. Mohammad Latifi is the designer of two novel fluidized bed micro reactors: Jiggle Bed Reactor (JBR) and Induction Heating Fluidized Bed Reactor (IHFBR).

Dr. Sajjad Habibzadeh received his PhD degree from the Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University in 2013. In the same year, he started his post-doctoral fellowship under NSERC/TOTAL industrial chair in hydrodynamic modelling of multiphase processes at extreme conditions and NSERC multisectorial industrial chair in coating and surface engineering (CSE). Over several years working in different research and development institutes, Dr. Habibzadeh has built a decent deal of knowledge and experiences in designing the nano-surface (simple and/or complex) and interface tailored to desired applications. This has been carried out by various treatment (electrochemical modification) and coating (wet/dry) techniques. In addition, he has also developed multiple layer coatings on a surface of interest associated with the respective photochemical/electrochemical/optical activity. Furthermore, synthesis of nanostructured materials, i.e., a wide range of metal oxide nanoparticles such as, TiO2, SiO2, SnO2, IrO2, HfO2, Sm2O3, etc, for various applications, e.g., electro/catalysts, nanofluids and coatings, by different techniques were allocated to his experiences as well.

Professor at UBC

Fluidization, Reactor Design, Electrostatics, PEM Fuel Cells, Pollution Control, Biomass Processing, Green Engineering

Education

University of British Columbia, 1994, Ph.D.

Tsinghua University, China, 1988, M.A.Sc.

Tsinghua University, China, 1985, B.A.Sc.

Here is XIAOTAO BI Profile http://www.chbe.ubc.ca/profile/xiaotao-bi/

Navid Mostoufi is currently a Full Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Tehran (P. O. Box 11155–4563, Iran; Fax: +98-21-6646-1024; email: mostoufi@ut.ac.ir). He has taught advanced mathematics and fluid mechanics courses for over 16 years. His research interests include process modeling, simulation and optimization, and fluidization. He holds a B.Eng. and M.Sc. degree in chemical engineering from Iran’s University of Tehran, plus a Ph.D. in Fluidization from Canada’s Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal. He has been a Visiting Professor at METU, Turkey. Professor Mostoufi has more than 270 publications in major international journals and conferences, plus 5 books and 4 book chapters. He is the co-author of the textbook “Numerical Methods for Chemical Engineers with MATLAB Applications”, published by Prentice Hall PTR in 1999. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Chemical Product and Process Modeling (http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/cppm) published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Germany and winner of University of Tehran’s International Award, 2015. He is also the University of Tehan’s distinguished researcher, 2013.

Esma Ines ACHOURI est chercheure postdoctorale à l’école Polytechnique de Montréal en collaboration avec l’université de Sherbrooke, sous la direction des professeurs Jamal Chaouki et Nicolas Abatzoglou. Après avoir obtenu son baccalauréat en génie des procédés pharmaceutiques en Algérie, Ines s’est dirigée vers la France pour effectuer un master recherche en Ingénierie biomédicale et pharmaceutique à l’université Claude Bernard Lyon 1. Par la suite, elle a poursuivi des études doctorales à l’université de Sherbrooke et a obtenu un doctorat en génie chimique en mai 2015. Avec l’expertise acquise durant son projet de doctorat en catalyse et caractérisation des matériaux, Ines s’est vue attribuer une bourse d’excellence de recherche postdoctorale de la part du Fond de Recherche Nature et Technologie du Québec (FRQNT), pour poursuivre ses recherches sur la thématique de la production d’énergie renouvelable.

Amin Esmaeili received both his B.Sc. (2007) and M.Sc. (2009) degrees in Chemical Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. During his M.Sc. program, he focused on his area of interest that includes multiphase systems, fluidized beds, catalytic reactors and liquid-liquid extraction columns. Regarding his strong desire to learn more knowledge, he decided to pursue his education towards Ph.D.

Therefore, he started his Ph.D. program at the Chemical Engineering Department of Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. During his Ph.D. studies (2010-2015), he worked in the field of multiphase reactors and his Ph.D. thesis was specifically on the investigation of the hydrodynamics of bubble column reactor operating with non-Newtonian liquids. Currently, he is a postdoctoral fellow under the TOTAL industrial chair on the investigation and modeling of multiphase reactors operating at high-pressure and high-temperature conditions.

I am a process engineer with 6 years of experience in consulting engineering and process development (Seneca, Vaperma). I will complete a Ph.D degree in chemical engineering in December 2015 on the remediation of contaminated soils. At Seneca, I participated to various process developments mainly in the metallurgical field. I prepared various technical documents such as R&D reclamations and grant applications. At Polytechnique, I will have published 3 papers and be granted 1 patent.

Gregory Patience is a professor of Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montreal. Prior to joining academia in 2004, he was at DuPont in the USA, Spain and Switzerland for 14 years. He has published two books – Experimental Methods and Instrumentation for Chemical Engineers and Communicate Science Papers, Presentations and Poster Effectively – and filed 13 patent applications, 80 scientific articles and 100 conference presentation. His research interests include catalysis, fluidization, and process development.

Prior to joining Polytechnique Montreal in 2004, Gregory Patience lead research programs at E.I. du Pont de Nemours starting in 1990. He was responsible for commercializing fluidized bed catalyst and process development at the Experimental Station in Wilmington, DE. In 1996 he joined the commercial team to start up the 100 $m Circulating Fluidized Bed process to convert n-butane to maleic anhydride over vanadium pyrophosphate in Asturias, Spain. In 2000, he moved to the commercial side of the Lycra® business in Technical Marketing and Development. He leads the Fibre’s Textile Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland in 2003.

Jaber Shabanian was born in Babol (Iran) 1984. He gained his B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering, Petrochemical Engineering, from Isfahan University of Technology in 2006. He then received his M.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering, Process Modeling, Simulation and Control, in Sharif University of Technology in 2009. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from Polytechnique Montreal in Chemical Engineering, Fluidization Engineering in 2015. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Chemical Engineering Department, Polytechnique Montreal working on hydrodynamics of gas-solid fluidized beds at elevated pressures and temperatures.

Jocelyn Doucet holds a Chemical Engineering Degree and Ph. D. from Ecole Polytechnique (Montreal, 2004 and 2008) where he is also adjunct professor since 2011.

While completing his Ph. D., he founded Kengtek Engineering, a company specialized in process engineering with a strong emphasize on developing and executing the research and development needed to properly scale-up processes to the industrial and commercial level. This is where he developed more than 20 industrial processes and patents for worldwide clients. His entrepreneurial and engineering skills have made him grow the company every year in various sectors by partnering with larger engineering firms and research centres and by successfully solving complex problems in very innovative ways. As a result of his leadership and dedication to work, he was recognized as one of the greatest young entrepreneur in Canada as 2013 finalist of the BDC Young Entrepreneur Award. He also received the Rogers New Technology award for Pyrowave in 2013 and won the local and regional prizes for the most promising young entrepreneur in Science and Technology and Sustainable Energy.

His professional record includes working directly on key technology development with senior executives of large organizations such as Kraft, Danone, Lallemand, Kruger, Shell, Diageo, Total, Leahy Orchards, and several other companies, such as start-ups, in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and energy sectors. He has developed extensive relationships with Universities and Research Centers in Canada, in the USA and Europe. He is an active professional engineer in Quebec (Eng.) and Wisconsin USA (PE) and inactive in Saskatchewan and Alberta (P.Eng).

His young career had led him to developing major breakthroughs, specifically in the field of yeast fermentation, complex continuous and semi-continuous extraction (using refrigerant, flammable solvents and liquefied petroleum gas), food and dairy process design in aseptic conditions, high pressure and high temperature processes and, more recently in waste conversion. He has been involved in several waste to fuel process design involving waste tire, motor oil, biomass and several others. He has 12 published articles in peer-reviewed journals, is the inventor of 8 patents and author of over 25 scientific conferences.

Majid Rasouli is a postdoctoral fellow and currently works in a prestigious joint project that involves with industrial (Johnson Matthey and CanmetMATERIALS) and academic (Polytechnique Montreal, Universite de Montreal and Western University) partners. This project is funded by Automotive Partnership Canada and aims at mass production of economic-high quality lithium ion batteries for automotive applications. Majid is supervising several PhD students. He is also responsible of a hydrodynamic study lab, which benefits from unique, advanced and sophisticated characterization techniques such as RPT, MRPT, Fiber optic, etc.

Majid received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal. He has over 10 years of experience as a specialist in chemical engineering and research scientist in several projects including process development, simulation, deployment and implementation of new technology, mixing, fluidization, multi-phase reactor design, particle tracking, carbon coating, encapsulation of nanoparticles and polymerization. Majid is an expert in developing new processes and providing solutions for multidisciplinary problems

Milad Aghabararnejad obtained his bachelor and master in chemical engineering from University of Tehran (Tehran, Iran), in 2007 and 2009. He graduated as doctorate in chemical engineering from Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal in 2014 under supervisory of Prof. Chaouki and Patience. In his PhD project he advanced the chemical looping technology for gasification of biomass by using Co₃O₄ as a source of oxygen.

After completing his PhD, Milad accepted a position as development engineer at Terragon Environmental Technology (Montreal, Canada) where he leads a team of engineers in the development of a small scale gasifier (1 t/d) for treatment of solid/liquid waste. Dr. Aghabararnejad has 9 referred publications (journal and conference) and he is a member of Order des ingénieur du Quebec.

Omid Ebrahimpour was born in Masjed-Soleiman (Iran), where oil explored in the Middle East for first time. Omid obtained his bachelor and master in chemical engineering from Sharif University (Tehran, Iran), in 2004 and 2007, respectively. He graduated as doctorate in chemical engineering from Polytechnique Montreal in 2013 under supervisory of Prof. Chaouki and Prof. Dubois. In his PhD project, he innovated a new process to fabricate porous SiC ceramics at low sintering temperature with improved mechanical and physical properties using in-situ polymerization and sol-gel techniques.

After completing his PhD, Omid worked as an Industrial postdoctoral at Enerkem working on a pilot research facility to convert municipal solid waste Martials to biofuel. Currently, Dr. Ebrahimpour is working as a research scientist at DuPont in process development group.

Dr. Rachid Mabrouk holds Master in engineering science from Mohammadia Engineering School, Rabat in Morocco, and Ph.D. degree from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada. His Ph.D. research thesis was about gas-solid hydrodynamic of internal circulating fluidized bed reactor. For his research project, he used the non-intrusive technique, a tool developed and built in the research lab. Along his career, he accumulated several years of international experience, in both chemical and gas industries. In 2012, he joined The Linde Group as technical expert, for synthesis gas generation and downstream applications, responsible for scouting and screening new technologies and new businesses. In 2016 he was assigned as HyCO manager for hydrogen and synthesis gas plants within Europe and Middle East regions. Rachid Mabrouk started his endeavour in chemical industry in 2007 as research scientist at DuPont research centre in Kingston, Ontario. Shortly after, he joined Haldor Topsoe, a catalyst and engineering firm based in Copenhagen, Denmark, as research process engineer and later as development engineer. Mr. Mabrouk is actively contributing to innovation and development in energy and environmental sectors with innovative ideas and patented processes.

Sepehr Hamzehlouia joint Prof. Chaouki’s research group as a Ph.D. candidate in 2012 at chemical engineering department of Ecole Polytechnique Montreal. Sepehr is currently engaged in a prestigious industrial project, partnered with Total/NSERC chair. He is working on optimization of microwave heating processes and development of novel microwave receptors focused on promoting microwave assisted catalytic reactions. Sepehr is also responsible for microwave heating research lab, equipped with multiple advanced single mode and multimode microwave systems.

Sepehr received his M.Sc. degree in environmental engineering from University of Windsor. He has over 6 years of experience in chemical engineering field including microwave heating optimization, catalyst production, microwave receptor development, biomass gasification tar elimination, multi-component mixture characterization and sustainable development studies. Sepehr has supervised several B.Sc. and M.Sc. students via internship programs and has been responsible for teaching assistant of various courses including, thermodynamics, numerical methods and Matlab software applications through the course of his studies.

Dr. Farag is a researcher-1 in PEARL group, Co-leading the TOTAL Industrial Research Chairs at Ecole Polytechnique Montreal. He holds a Ph.D. Degree in Chemical Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique Montreal, in 2013; M.Sc. Degree in Physics Engineering; and B.Sc. Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Farag has over 15 years of hands-on experience in design, development, and scale-up of several industrial processes. He is a dedicated researcher with an outstanding track record in improving the technologies of Energy and Fuel Processing, Oil Refinery, Catalytic Reactions of Multiphase Processes, Biomass and Waste Processing, BioProducts Upgrading, Microwave Heating, Pulp and Paper, and others fields. He has published more than 35 scientific communications during the last six years on these topics.
For the last seven years, Dr. Farag has been collaborating with several industrial organizations as well as academic institutions: TOTAL American Services Inc. – USA and France to investigate the hydrodynamics and catalytic reactions of multiphase processes at extreme conditions; Lignoworks NSERC Strategic Network – Canada to create a cost-effective technology to convert lignin into high-value products; FPInnovations – Canada to employ the lignin pyrolysis oil as a substitute in phenol-formaldehyde resins and adhesives; KENGTEK Engineering Services (Montreal) and Pyrowave Inc. – Canada to develop the world’s first distributed microwave pyrolysis system; and Queen’s University, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Ottawa – Canada to synthesize commercially viable bio-products. Recently, Dr. Farag has initiated RMTech for Environmental Solutions Inc. (www.RMTech.ca) – Canada to develop and deliver world-class technologies for complex feedstock processing.

Ph.D. program with Carbon Management Canada (CMC-NCE). Said has developed the first and the unique fluidized bed thermogravimetric analyzer in the world. The innovative equipment, which was published in the prestigious AIChE Journal, was firstly applied to catalytic gasification of coal and ash free coal. During his PhD, Said has developed a strong background in teaching assistance for different graduate and undergraduate courses. He also proposed and supervised 4 internships for undergraduate students. At Polytechnique Montreal, Said was involved in the Committee of Selection of the Research and Innovation Award, the Board of Directors of AÉCSP and the Students Committee in Department of Chemical Engineering. Said has been also a member of the Board of Directors of the Forum of the Canada-Moroccan Competencies (FCCM), since October 2015. Said has recently started a post-doctoral fellowship in thermal decomposition of phosphogypsum.

Said was graduated from École Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs in Industrial Process Engineering in 2008. In Morocco, Said has worked as Product Engineer with OCP Corporate and Quality Control Engineer with the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE).

Household waste is affecting everybody’s life. Therefore, more and more people are taking actions in order to reduce their debris while municipalities attempt to enhance their treatment processes. However, these efforts are not sufficient enough: very small portion of the recycling bin is actually recycled, compost does not take in charge all the waste, and the big remaining amount ends up in landfills and incinerators.

In our research group, we opt for an in situ treatment of the waste: neighborhoods, restaurants, and even individuals are to be involved in the treatment of their own litter. We chose to build a microwave based apparatus to pyrolyse the waste. However, the yielded liquids are not yet competitive with the fossil fuels because of their high oxygen content, immiscibility with hydrocarbons, high viscosity, high acid tenor, aging, etc. Hence, the objective of my project is to optimize the whole process in order to produce oils that would not need very sophisticated post treatment. The proposed method is to first work on the pre-pyrolysis by adding in the pyrolysis compartment (1) calcium oxide for further cracking of the long chain and acid capturing/ neutralization (2) HDPE to react as a hydrogen donor for hydro-deoxygenation. We will also treat the hot vapors online with the pyrolysis by adding a red mud based catalyst –developed in our lab –at the exit of the pyrolysis compartment, using microwaves to heat up the catalytic hydrogenation and the gases from the pyrolysis (hydrogen and hydrogen donors). And finally a post-pyrolysis procedure is planned to be executed where vapors are to be condensed at distinct time/ temperature/ pressure to separate water and water soluble components from added value chemicals.

I’ve been introduced to fluidization research as an undergrad research assistant since 1995. Under the wing of Rahmat Sotudeh, then PhD student in Prof Chaouki’s group, I learned and worked on many aspects of high temperature fluidized bed: hydrodynamics, simple modeling and experimental methods. This led to a year-long internship in Dupont Experimental Station as part of the team that supported a maleic anhydride production CFB reactor, where I was introduced to many aspects of industrial research.

My PhD mostly focussed on the measurement and characterization of the gas jets (penetration lengths) in fluidized beds using fibre optic probe, but I also made it a priority to learn about the group’s measurement techniques suitable for gas-solid systems (e.g. RPT, radiotracers). This work led to correlations for the prediction of the characteristic jet lengths (Lmin, Lmax and Lb) for upward and downward gas jets in gas-solid fluidized bed.

I worked at UBC (project with Ballard Power Systems) on water management of PEM fuel cells, developing and using a sensitive water balance apparatus to determine the net diffusion of water on laboratory sized mimicking cells the local distribution of larger cells.

I worked with FPInnovations as part of a team promoting a stepwise approach for the introduction of gasifiers in the pulp and paper industry towards a biorefinery. The work involved making calculations to show member companies the impact of fossil fuel displacement by syngas in lime kilns; preparing literature reviews of syngas cleanup and conditioning, and synthesis pathways to value added chemicals.

As post doc, I worked closely with A. Rakid and J. Shabanian on the co-combustion of ReEF™ and coal in a BFB to displace CO2 emissions while mitigating criteria air contaminant emissions. The work led to a sorbent composition mapping to predict conditions susceptible to defluidization.

I currently work as project manager on the piloting of a melt synthesis approach to prepare LiFePO4/C for Li-based batteries. The project involves around 30 individuals (students, PDFs, RAs, professors, and scientists) from 5 organizations (Polytechnique de Montréal, Université de Montréal, Western University, CanmetMATERIALS, and Johnson Matthey) and is supported as part of the Automotive Partnership Canada program. The main objective is reducing the cost of LiFePO4/C to make it a viable option as a cathode material for vehicular applications.

Rouzbeh is a dedicated and visionary professional, with expertise in developing and deployment of new technologies, concepts, and processes within the chemical and energy sector. Rouzbeh is recognized as a leader in identifying opportunities for efficiency, improvement, and driving development with cutting-edge technologies to achieve solutions. Rouzbeh is a skilled communicator known as being innovative, a strategic thinker, resourceful leader and team member who works with integrity and professionalism to consistently meet and exceed organizational objectives. Rouzbeh has a history of working in multiple fields including CO2 capture, gas treating such as SO2 scrubbing, wastewater treatment, gasification, biorefinery, mining, oil & gas, waste to energy, multiphase reactors, biofuel and bioenergy, bulk material handling, and combustion technologies.

Maryam graduated in chemical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran in Jun. 2014. She joined PEARL in Jan. 2015. Her masters’ project is about quantifying rare earth elements by neutron activation analysis. She is working on improving analysis procedure for detecting rare earth elements for different separation processes.

Professor Macchi completed both his BEng and MASc at Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, after which he attended the University of British Columbia for his PhD.  During his graduate studies he worked on a variety of fundamental and applied multiphase reaction engineering projects, such as the drying of slurries in a spouted bed, the hydrodynamic scaling of a high-pressure foaming three-phase fluidized bed hydroprocessor (LC-FinerSM), and a kinetic study of vanadium phosphorus oxide catalyst employed in the partial oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride.

Present research interests continue to be in multiphase reaction engineering with emphasis on fluidized beds: transport phenomena in high pressure multiphase reactors, including micro-channels; the synthesis of gas hydrates in a slurry bubble column; and capture of CO2 from the flue gas of a combustor/gasifier via a dual fluidized bed system using limestone.  Collaborations have been established with CanmetEnergy-Ottawa, McGill University, Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Lonza Inc.

https://engineering.uottawa.ca/people

Samira Aghaee Sarbarze received her bachelor’s degree of Chemical Engineering from the prestigious University of Tehran, Iran in 2011.

She joined Chemical Engineering Department of Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal in September 2013, and started her graduate program under supervision of professor Jamal Chaouki.

Samira’s research is part of the large research network of Automotive Canada Partnership (ACP) sponsored by Johnson Matthey that is going to develop a process for production of cathode material of rechargeable Li-ion batteries. The ACP network includes significant research centers such as Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, University of Montreal (UdeM), Western University and Canmet-Material.

Samira’s research project is to do with development of a novel gas-phase carbon coating process to increase electrical conductivity of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) powders. As one of her noteworthy accomplishments, she managed to develop a new technique for fluidizing nano-size powders.

I have a global scientific background. Indeed, I am graduated in general engineering from the Ecole des Mines de Nantes in France. I also obtained in 2014 a double diploma at the Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal in Canada where I completed a research-based master’s in chemical engineering. I am completing my education by an advanced master in environmental engineering at Mines ParisTech during one year with an apprenticeship training.

As I have a lively interest in environment and renewable energies, I would appreciate the opportunity to broaden my knowledge by working in the field of environmental engineering or renewable energies. In my future, I really would like to work to focus on current environmental issues and to shape a sustainable word.

Now I am working at ENGIE FUTURES ENERGIES in France developing wind turbine projects. It involves prospecting new lands, landowners contacts, municipal officials contacts and studies monitoring for impact assessment.

Navid received his B.Sc (2010) and M.Sc (2013) degree in materials engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology and University of Tehran, Iran. Worked for 3 years in the field of NDT of welded joints, piping and materials selection he moved to Montreal, Canada and started his second master in Chemical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Jamal Chaouki in 2014. He is currently studying the Hydrodynamics of Gas-Solid Fluidization at Elevated  Temperatures with collaboration of Total Group. In his project he is dealing with different tasks from troubleshooting of a pilot scale fluidized-bed to hydrodynamic measurements of fluidization at extreme conditions considering the effect of inter-particle forces.

Apart from his work and research he is/was also involved in a number of volunteer activities such as being a member of administration board of AECSP at Polytechnice of Montreal. In his free time he does photography and likes to go hiking, camping, kayaking and swimming.

Syed Salman Bukhari is US and Canadian certified EIT with research experience in scaling up heterogenous reaction process and crystal synthesis. He has managed procurement and commissioning process of novel pilot scale reactor system. He has expertise in technical communication and is an author of a book chapter and several scientific papers.

Salman starting his academic training at The University of Florida. He was able to secure Florida’s Bright Future Scholarship and graduated cum laude. During his undergraduate he was also active in National Quiz Bowl Tournament and represented Valencia College in their national title in 2004. Salman continued his post graduate studies at The University of Florida and graduated top 5% of his class resulting in his induction in Tau Beta Pi, the oldest engineering honor’s society in the United States. After finishing his masters, he worked in industry for three years before deciding to pursue his  PhD. Salman’s PhD work involved novel reactor design involving microwave and ultrasound energy. His research interests are novel reactor design, catalysis synthesis and process simulation.

Ahmed Chehbouni acquired his master degree in Chemical Engineering from Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Génie Chimique (Toulouse, France) in 1985 and his Ph. D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal in 1994. He earned a certificate in the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) from the Carleton University (Ottawa, CANADA) in 2014. He has been a Professor in Chemical Engineering at the Cadi Ayyad University since 1985. He has taught chemical engineering, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and environment protection courses. Professor Chehbouni has published more than twenty articles in various scientific journals in the area of environment, energy and water. Also, he has published several articles in the newspapers on civil society and development issues, many of which have been related to the evaluation aspects. In addition, he is the founder and the president of the Tensift Regional Center of Development (CDRT), a non-for-profit NGO, acknowledged as a public utility organization.  He has more than twenty years experience as a trainer and project manager. He is member of serval international organisations, including the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), the European Network of Cities for Social Economy (REVES), and the Moroccan Evaluation Association.

Dr. Cui is currently a principal engineer at Covanta, USA. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Master degree in thermal energy engineering from Huazhong University of Science & Technology, China, and B.Eng. degree in energy engineering from Central South University, China. He previously worked as a senior staff engineer at Honeywell, a research associate at University of British Columbia, and a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. His research mainly focuses on waste-to-energy, renewable energy, gasification, fluidized beds, energy efficiency, hydrogen production, multiphase flow measurement, and other process engineering areas.  He is an author of 50+ publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He is also an invited reviewer for more than 20 journals and conferences.

Amin Esmaeili received both his B.Sc. (2007) and M.Sc. (2009) degrees in Chemical Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. During his M.Sc. program, he focused on his area of interest that includes multiphase systems, fluidized beds, catalytic reactors and liquid-liquid extraction columns. Regarding his strong desire to learn more knowledge, he decided to pursue his education towards Ph.D.

Therefore, he started his Ph.D. program at the Chemical Engineering Department of Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. During his Ph.D. studies (2010-2015), he worked in the field of multiphase reactors and his Ph.D. thesis was specifically on the investigation of the hydrodynamics of bubble column reactor operating with non-Newtonian liquids. Currently, he is a postdoctoral fellow under the TOTAL industrial chair on the investigation and modeling of multiphase reactors operating at high-pressure and high-temperature conditions.

Esma Ines ACHOURI est chercheure postdoctorale à l’école Polytechnique de Montréal en collaboration avec l’université de Sherbrooke, sous la direction des professeurs Jamal Chaouki et Nicolas Abatzoglou. Après avoir obtenu son baccalauréat en génie des procédés pharmaceutiques en Algérie, Ines s’est dirigée vers la France pour effectuer un master recherche en Ingénierie biomédicale et pharmaceutique à l’université Claude Bernard Lyon 1. Par la suite, elle a poursuivi des études doctorales à l’université de Sherbrooke et a obtenu un doctorat en génie chimique en mai 2015. Avec l’expertise acquise durant son projet de doctorat en catalyse et caractérisation des matériaux, Ines s’est vue attribuer une bourse d’excellence de recherche postdoctorale de la part du Fond de Recherche Nature et Technologie du Québec (FRQNT), pour poursuivre ses recherches sur la thématique de la production d’énergie renouvelable.

Syed Salman Bukhari is US and Canadian certified EIT with research experience in scaling up heterogenous reaction process and crystal synthesis. He has managed procurement and commissioning process of novel pilot scale reactor system. He has expertise in technical communication and is an author of a book chapter and several scientific papers.

Salman starting his academic training at The University of Florida. He was able to secure Florida’s Bright Future Scholarship and graduated cum laude. During his undergraduate he was also active in National Quiz Bowl Tournament and represented Valencia College in their national title in 2004. Salman continued his post graduate studies at The University of Florida and graduated top 5% of his class resulting in his induction in Tau Beta Pi, the oldest engineering honor’s society in the United States. After finishing his masters, he worked in industry for three years before deciding to pursue his  PhD. Salman’s PhD work involved novel reactor design involving microwave and ultrasound energy. His research interests are novel reactor design, catalysis synthesis and process simulation.