Staff

ABSTRACT:  Increasing challenges associated with environmental remediation projects has driven the development of new, efficient and effective separation materials, technologies and processes suitable for large scale deployment. This presentation will provide an overview to some of the work being conducted at the University of Melbourne in this area for soil and air pollution control.

(Please be advised that signing a NDA will be required for attending this seminar)

ABSTRACT:  The Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation by anaerobic bacteria from the genus Clostridium was one of the first large-scale industrial bioprocesses, operating globally for the production of acetone during the first half of the 20^th Century. Feedstock and product recovery costs prevented the ABE process from remaining profitable and acetone production was overtaken by the developing petroleum industry.

ABSTRACT:  In this presentation we give an overview of recent applications in Process Systems Engineering of new discrete and continuous optimization techniques. We first provide a brief overview of logic-based optimization methods, emphasizing the theoretical relation of the continuous relaxations between mixed-integer programming and generalized disjunctive programming for nonconvex optimization problems.

ABSTRACT:  Plastic foams, as engineering materials, are widely used in variety of industrial sectors and represent an extraordinary class of materials. Foaming in polymers involves delicate scientific mechanisms and unique morphology transformations. This work explores the influence of rheological properties on polymer foam development in non-pressurized systems.

The Science Behind Ebola

ABSTRACT:  Arguably, electric and hybrid electric vehicles are the new frontiers for lithium batteries. As a new market it is distinctly different from mass produced microelectronics, not only in the energy per battery unit but also in the power performance requirements. Especially the required charging rates during deceleration and emergency charging, as well as, the discharge rates during startup from standstill are exciting challenges.