Environmental Engineering and Sciences
The Department of Chemical
Engineering carries out a wide range of projects that deal with environmental
issues. Dr. David T. Allen is director
of UT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Resources. The Separations Research Program is also
involved in environmental research and is part of CEER.
The chemical engineering
research falls under the following major environmental categories:
Green engineering: This
includes design for the environment and environmental benign processing. Compressed carbon dioxide is one of the most
desirable environmentally benign solvents for chemical, materials and
pharmaceutical processing. A fundamental
understanding of colloid and interface science in CO2-based systems
is emerging, and is being applied to drying of photoresist
development solutions and cleaning of low k dielectric materials.
Atmospheric chemistry: Complex
networks of organic and inorganic chemical reactions are critical to the
cycling of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and other materials in the atmosphere. This research is
leading
to a better understanding of atmospheric reaction networks. The research
programs include laboratory
studies conducted in smog chambers, large scale field measurement programs, and regional
scale photochemical modeling.
Membrane separations: Research
investigations include development and testing of enzymatic composite membranes
for water treatment, heterophase polymeric materials
for water remediation, microporous polymeric
membranes that can withstand high temperatures and harsh chemical environments,
and membranes that have a narrow pore size distribution for biological
separations such as virus removal from blood.
Bioremediation:
Biodegradation represents a highly desirable technology for the removal
of hazardous compounds from the environment so we are investigating the
degradation of chlorinated aromatic compounds by methanotrophs. Generic, physiological and bioreactor studies
for the optimization of biodegradation processes involving methanotrophic
bacteria are on-going.
Removal of SO2, H2S, HRVOC’s, and particulates: We are developing a
fundamental understanding of the kinetic and mass transfer phenomena in aqueous
technologies for air pollution control, where limestone slurry scrubbing is the
dominant technology for sulfur dioxide removal.
For acid gas treatment, researchers are quantifying the thermodynamic
and kinetic phenomena in technologies for removing hydrogen sulfide with alkanolamine solutions.
There is also a need to achieve improved control of HRVOC emissions from
flare combustion systems. The
development of detailed mathematical models for flare systems is an important
step in order to understand the coupling of important process variables such as
flow rate, combustion temperature, and effects of steam addition.
Faculty