Ali Elkamel

Ali Elkamel is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and is cross-appointed to the Systems Design Engineering department at the University of Waterloo. He is a member of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Canadian Operational Research Society, and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS).

The goal of his research program is to develop theory and applications for process systems engineering. The applications are focused on planning and scheduling of process operations, energy production, pollution monitoring and control, waste minimization, molecular design, and product formulation.

Professor Elkamel teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on optimization techniques, mathematical methods for chemical engineers, applied statistics, numerical methods, systems engineering, and engineering economy.

Along with his students, Professor Elkamel has successfully developed region-wide cost effective carbon dioxide strategies that will help to find solutions for carbon dioxide capture, additional treatment, transportation and storage. In 2013, they were able to apply their optimization of networks monitoring air quality solution to an existing network of refinery stacks, which improved the ability to protect environmental resources and human health. Professor Elkamel’s lab, in conjunction with Virox Technologies Inc. and Professors Duever and Reilly, has also designed a green product disinfectant that received the Design for the Environment Champion Status Award.

Professor Elkamel holds more than 200 refereed journal publications, international proceedings, and conference presentations. His publications have been featured in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, Advances in Environmental Research, and the Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology among many others. He has also written 4 books, including “Environmentally Conscious Fossil Energy Production.”

• Process Systems Engineering
• planning and scheduling of process operations
• supply chain management
• product and process design
• pollution prevention and waste minimization
• waste utilization and management
• planning for energy production
• robust optimization
• soft computing
• Energy and Environmental Engineering Systems
• Air Pollution Modeling
• Simulation and Control
• Refinery modeling
• planning and optimization
• Sustainable Development of the Petrochemical Industry
• Dynamic Modeling and Optimization
• Combinatorial Optimization
• Uncertainty in Optimization
• Process Modeling and Simulation
• Computer-Aided Product Formulation and Design

• 1993, Doctorate, Chemical Engineering, Purdue University
• 1989, Master's, Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado-Boulder
• 1987, Bachelor's, Mathematics, Colorado School of Mines
• 1987, Bachelor's, Chemical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

• CHE 730 - Special Topics in Chemical Kinetics,Catalysis and Advanced Reactor Engineering
  • Taught in 2014
• CHE 775 - Research Topics in Environmental Engineering and Pollution Control
  • Taught in 2014, 2015
• CHE 755 - Res Topics in Electrochemical Engineering, Interfacial Eng & Material Science
  • Taught in 2015
• CHE 482 - Chemical Engineering Design Workshop
  • Taught in 2014, 2015, 2016
• CHE 725 - Research Topics in Analysis of Chemical Processes
  • Taught in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
• CHE 220 - Process Data Analysis
  • Taught in 2016
• CHE 322 - Numerical Methods for Process Analysis and Design
  • Taught in 2015, 2016
• CHE 720 - Special Topics in Analysis of Chemical Processes
  • Taught in 2014, 2016
• CHE 571 - Industrial Ecology
  • Taught in 2016
• NE 215 - Probability and Statistics
  • Taught in 2016

• Rizwan, Muhammad and Saif, Yousef and Almansoori, Ali and Elkamel, Ali, Optimal processing route for the utilization and conversion of municipal solid waste into energy and valuable products, Journal of Cleaner Production, 174, 2018, 857 - 867
• Izadpanah, Mahsa and GHeshlaghi, REZA and Mahdavi, Mahmood Akhavan and Elkamel, Ali, Effect of light spectrum on isolation of microalgae from urban wastewater and growth characteristics of subsequent cultivation of the isolated species, Algal Research, 29, 2018, 154 - 158
• Hourfar, Farzad and Salahshoor, Karim and Zanbouri, Hosein and Elkamel, Ali and Pourafshary, Peyman and Moshiri, Behzad, A Systematic Approach for Modeling of Waterflooding Process in the Presence of Geological Uncertainties in Oil Reservoirs, Computers & Chemical Engineering, 2018
• Kundu, Prodip K and Elkamel, Ali and Vargas, Francisco M and Farooq, Muhammad U, Genetic algorithm for multi-parameter estimation in sorption and phase equilibria problems, Chemical Engineering Communications, 2018, 1 - 12
• Al-Sobhi, Saad A and Elkamel, Ali and Erenay, Fatih S and Shaik, Munawar A, Simulation-Optimization Framework for Synthesis and Design of Natural Gas Downstream Utilization Networks, Energies, 11(2), 2018
• Alie, C., Elkamel, A., Douglas, P.L. and Croiset, E., Reduced-order modelling of flexible CCS and assessment using short-term resource scheduling approach, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 48, 2016, 253 - 274
• M. Alkarheri, A. Elkamel, P.L. Douglas, "Data-driven power generation design and operation under demand uncertainty", 4th North American International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM), (Accepted in 2019)
• Tuhin Poddar, Ali, Elkamel, Ali Almansoori, Peter L. Douglas, A Snapshot Model for the Design and Operation of a Polygeneration Energy System with Renewable Energy, PSE Asia 2019: 8th International Symposium on Design, Operation and Control of Chemical Processes, 01 2018, Bangkok, Thailand. (Accepted in 2018)