RESEARCH EMPHASIS AND INTERESTS:

• Gas Separation using Adsorption Processes

• Adsorption & Vapor/Liquid-Adsorbed Phase Equilibria.

• Nanostructured Materials for Separation and Energy Storage Applications.

• Adsorption isotherm models & Thermodynamic and Kinetic Properties of Multiphase Systems.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

AT THE UAE UNIVERSITY (August 2003 – September 2007):

Biosorption of Nitrate Contaminants from Dairy Farm Waste Waters: Experimental and theoretical evaluation of the ability of natural adsorbent materials (e.g., date pits and palm leaves) to remove nitrate contaminants from dairy wastewater.

Measurement of Vapor Phase Adsorption Isotherms: Designing, building and using a volumetric adsorption apparatus to measure the single-component vapor phase adsorption isotherms on various adsorbents and predict the corresponding thermo-physical adsorption properties.

Designing nano-structured functional materials for the selective separation of olefins from paraffins: synthesizing resorcinol-formaldehyde carbon gels and attempting to incorporate various pi-bonding legends to be used for the selective removal of olefins from paraffins.

Development and Evaluation of Advanced Techniques for Refinery Wastewater Treatment: Developing various biochemical and physical separation methods for removing dissolved hydrocarbons from refinery wastewaters and designing the optimum processes for this purpose.

POST-DOCTORAL:

(a) With the USC Nanomaterials Research Group (October 2002 – August 2003): Experimental characterization of clay particles, polymer-clay composites and carbon nanotubes deposited on gold surfaces using Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM), Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STM) and Electron Microscopes (EM).

(b) With the USC Materials and Adsorption Research Group (April 2001 – October 2002): Identifying most significant factors and factor-interactions among the synthesis conditions and procedures of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) organic and carbon aerogels and xerogels. Quantitative effects of these factors on the nanostructural characteristics (pore size distributions, surface areas and pore volumes) and performances of the RF gels in separation and electrochemical energy storage and transfer applications are analyzed with statistical analysis approaches using only limited number of experiments

GRADUATE:

(a) Doctoral (January 1997 – April 2001): Multicomponent adsorption phenomena at dynamic and equilibrium conditions, with application of selective adsorption systems for ultra-fine purification using cyclic pressure, temperature or concentration swing adsorption processes. Thermophysical adsorption derived properties are predicted using classical and statistical thermodynamic approaches as functions of adsorption conditions, the lateral interactions among the adsorbed molecules, the interactions between the adsorbed molecules and the surface of the adsorbent and the energetic nature (heterogeneity) of the adsorbent. New models were developed for accurate predictions of the pore size distributions and thermodynamic derived properties of vapor-adsorbed phase equilibria using the equilibrium adsorption isotherm data. Rigorous simulation software packages and instantaneous, user-friendly, calculators for predicting the adsorption process behaviors and performances were designed and copyrighted.

(b) Master of Science (September 1993 – August 1995): Modeling multicomponent vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) systems involved in the removal of the sour gases (H₂S and CO₂) from the natural gas using alkanolamines. Pseudo-equilibrium model was used to correlate and extrapolate the absorption equilibrium data. Stepwise regression techniques were used to determine the statistically significant correlations of the pseudo-equilibrium constants versus the operating conditions.

PREDOCTORAL (January 1995 – January 1997): Modeling multicomponent liquid-liquid equilibria (LLE) systems using group contribution methods. Studies included applications on correlating and predicting phase equilibrium data for the extraction of the BTX (benzene, toluene and xylene) compounds from petroleum naphtha reformate and alcohols from aqueous solutions using different solvents and solvent mixtures with the UNIFAC, UNIQUAC and NRTL models at wide varieties of operating conditions (temperatures and concentrations).

EXTRACURRICULAR (1993 – 1996): Prediction of the VLE thermophysical properties from cubic equations of state and evaluation of meta-stable VLE conditions.

UNDERGRADUATE (1992 – 1993): Design of natural gas sweetening (VLE absorption) plant for the removal of acid gases (H₂S and CO₂) from natural gas using alkanolamines.