This is a past event.

and Fabrication of Novel Mixed Matrix Membranes

Chemical Engineering Grain Processing Seminar Series

Dr. Masoud Soroush
Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Drexel University

Abstract: U.S. demand for paint and coatings is forecast to grow to 1.4 billion gallons in 2019, valued at $31.5 billion. A fast growing sector in the paint and coatings industries is the acrylics sector. While acrylic coatings are commodity products, even a small improvement in their quality or a modest reduction in production costs leads to substantial economic gains because of their huge annual production rate. In the organic coatings industry, acrylic resins are conventionally produced through free-radical solution polymerization. We have made advances in efficiently using quantum-level calculations to study monomer self-initiation, β-scission, and chain transfer reactions in spontaneous thermal polymerization of acrylates, as well as macroscopic-scale mechanistic modeling and optimization of high-temperature polymerization reactors. In the first part of the talk, sample results from these studies will be presented. They will include new theoretical and experimental insights that can be used to produce higher-quality acrylic resins at lower costs.

Gas separation is of great importance in many industries such the chemical, petrochemical, and petroleum. Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) are hybrid membranes that contain nanomaterials in polymer matrices. Incorporating nanomaterials into polymers allows for improving membrane permeability, selectivity, or both. However, the agglomeration of nanomaterials in the polymer matrix, the formation of interfacial defects in the membranes, and the incompatibility between the polymer and nanomaterials are challenges. Through alleviating these challenges, we have been able to fabricate novel CO₂-separation MMMs, performances of which are above the 2008 Robeson upper bound. In the second part of the talk, sample results on the fabrication and separation performance of these MMMs will be presented.

Bio: Masoud Soroush received his B.S. (Chemical Engineering, 1985) from Abadan Institute of Technology, Iran, and M.S.E. (Chemical Engineering, 1988), M.S.E. (Electrical Engineering: Systems, 1991) and Ph.D. (Chemical Engineering, 1992) all from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, U.S.A. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he joined Drexel University where he is now a Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He was a Visiting Scientist at DuPont Marshall Lab, Philadelphia, 2002–03 and a Visiting Professor at Princeton University in 2008. His current research interests are in: polymer reaction engineering; electronic-level modeling of reactions; polymer membranes; multi-scale modeling; process systems engineering; probabilistic modeling and inference; and renewable power generation and storage systems. He has authored/co-authored more than 270 publications including over 170 refereed papers. He was the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Area 10b Program Coordinator in 2009, and the AIChE Director on the American Automatic Control Council Board of Directors 2010–2013. His awards include the U.S. National Science Foundation Faculty Early CAREER Award in 1997 and the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award of American Automatic Control Council in 1999. He is a fellow of AIChE and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Partial funding provided by the Grain Processing Lectureship Series in the Department of Chemical Engineering