Developing new catalysts, methods, and processes that
deliver efficient and economical ways to carry out chemical transformations
encompasses this field. Using knowledge from catalytic chemistry, reaction
mechanisms, reaction kinetics, and transport processes, researchers in the
department are trying to improve on reactions that span from polymer degradation
to biomass conversion in reactors. Significant progress has been made in
understanding of polymer polymerization and degradation under various
conditions using experimental and kinetic modelling. Other interesting avenues
of pursuit are in the development of catalysts for organics degradation and
enzymatic catalysis in supercritical carbon dioxide. Similarly, designing and
engineering improved steps for nanoparticle synthesis are allowing us to
develop new reactors/contactors to control nanoparticle mean size and
polydispersity. Efforts are also ongoing to unravel systems level properties of
complex cell signalling and transcription networks applying ideas from reaction
network theory, with the goal of identifying novel drug targets and outcomes of
intervention. Another key theme has been to understand the mineral-microbe
interactions that can be utilized for bioprocessing of various industrial
materials. Using detailed mathematical models for coupling multiphase transport
phenomena and biochemical reaction kinetics in bioreactors, problems in
bioleaching of minerals and ores, biological adsorption of toxic metals and
biomethanation of biomass are being addressed.
No comments:
Post a Comment