Novel Catalytic and Separation Processes Based on Ionic Liquids

Dr. Dickson Ozokwelu has 40+ years of diversified chemical engineering and management experience, spread evenly between entrepreneurship, government, industry and academia, including 16 years at US Department of Energy. Currently, he is Lead Technology Manager for the Chemicals’ portfolio at the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. In this position, Dr. Ozokwelu plays significant roles in reshaping the US government’s energy policy, as well as developing and deploying energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies in key manufacturing industries in the United States, including Chemicals, Petroleum Refining and Pulp and Paper Industries. Dr. Ozokwelu was an invited author and online editor for Toluene Manufacturing Technology and Economics in the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. In the last 12 years at US DOE, Dr. Ozokwelu championed the focusing of R&D on ionic liquids by funding and managing several R&D projects in ionic liquids as part of the Chemicals portfolio. Subsequently, he pioneered the inclusion of Ionic Liquids into Topical Conference series at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, AIChE Annual Meetings Program. Dr. Ozokwelu’s expertise is in process design, process economics and process synthesis, separation technologies, energy efficiency and renewable energy. In a total of more than 10 years prior to US DOE, Dr. Ozokwelu held several technical and managerial positions in the US chemical industry. He was Engineering Associate (2nd highest rank in technical ladder) at BP North America, formerly BP-Amoco and Senior Research Chemical Engineer at Eastman Chemicals Company. He is widely recognized (US and abroad) as an expert in separations technology and won the OIT-DOE First Technology Vision 2020 Award for the Chemical Industry in Separations. Prior to US industrial experience, Dr. Ozokwelu has more than 10 years of university teaching and accomplishments. Dr. Ozokwelu is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He received PhD and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1981 and 1978 respectively; a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of Ife, Nigeria in 1975 and an MBA in Planning and Management from The University of Memphis in 1984. To date, Dr. Ozokwelu has been a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Tennessee, USA, since 1984.

Prof. Suojiang Zhang is Professor & Director General of Institute of Process Engineering (IPE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Member of CAS, Director of Beijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process, and Director of Professional Committee of Chinese Chemical Society Ionic Liquids and Green Engineering. His main research interests are ionic liquids and green process engineering, including molecular simulations, properties, preparation, and applications of ionic liquids for catalysis. Several green processes based on ionic liquids have been developed, such as a large-scale preparation process of ionic liquids, an innovative cleaner process of methyl methacrylate, a new process for the synthesis of ethylene glycol via hydrolysis or alcoholysis of ethylene carbonate, a new process for carbon dioxide capture, polyethylene terephthalate degradation, a novel method for production of biogasoline from biomass, and a new electrolyte. To date, Prof. Suojiang Zhang has published more than 550 papers in journals, and 450 papers of those were published in Science Citation Index (SCI) journals. He has edited 4 books and 2 chapters and has filed over 110 patents for inventions.

Dr. Obiefuna Okafor is a Senior Project Leader at Corning Incorporated, where he currently leads development and implementation of new technologies in the Environmental Technologies division. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and Project Management Professional with over 14 years of strong, diversified experience in Research, Development, and Engineering. Prior to his current role, he worked in a Corporate Engineering capacity, delivering project results via lead technical and project management roles in development and engineering projects involving process simulation, design, scale-up and optimization; cost estimation; development of characterization techniques; and engineering upgrades to various divisions including Emerging Innovations Group, Environmental Technologies, and Life Sciences. Dr. Okafor received his Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria, where he graduated with First Class Honors (Summa Cum Laude). He received his Master of Engineering and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, where he specialized in Microreactor Technology applications for the specialty chemicals industry. Prior to joining Corning Incorporated, he worked as a Process/Systems Engineer in the oil and gas industry, as a Risk Manager in the finance industry and as a Faculty member teaching undergraduate chemistry courses. He serves as a local section leader of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, as well as on the board of several non-profit organizations. He has two published patents, three pending patent applications, and a trade secret.

Prof. Weiguo Cheng earned his Ph.D. degree from Dalian University of Technology in 2005, majoring in Industrial Catalysis. He served as a visiting scholar at the University of Waterloo (Canada). He was appointed professor by the Institute of Process Engineering, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2014. Prof. Weiguo Cheng focuses on revealing the essential relationship between the catalyst structure and the catalytic performance by using surface analytical techniques, particularly in-situ vibrational and optical spectroscopies. He specializes in the design of novel catalytic materials and catalytic process. His current research interests include synthesis of ionic liquid catalysts, mechanisms and kinetics of catalytic reaction, carbon dioxide utilization, and a new catalytic process for the synthesis of ethylene glycol based on ionic liquids. To date, he has presided over one national high-tech research and development program, has served as the chief scientist at the National Natural Science Fund, and has participated in many projects, including the National Basic Research Program. He has published 35 peer- reviewed papers, including one in the Journal of Catalysis (2008;255:343), and submitted 21 invention patent applications, of which 12 have been granted.

Dr. Nicholas Litombe received his PhD (2015) from Harvard University in experimental condensed matter physics. His research focused on lithographic patterning and characterization of high-temperature superconductors in the cuprate 214-family into nanostructures to probe dimension-limited superconductivity through transport measurements. His expertise is in low-temperature, low-noise measurements of strongly correlated systems. From 2015 to 2016, he was Post-Doctoral Fellow in Physics at the Department of Physics, Harvard University, United States. Currently he is a post-doctoral associate of the department. He is also a Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office under the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). In this role, he supports a portfolio focused on cleantech energy and innovation for energy-intensive manufacturing sectors in the United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University where he has also got trained in Applied Mathematics.