Catalytic and Noncatalytic Upgrading of Oils

"Dr. Ajay K. Dalai obtained his B.Sc. Tech. (Petro-Chem) from LIT, Nagpur, India, and M. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT, Kanpur, India, and obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering with Professors N.N. Bakhshi and N.M. Esmail from University of Saskatchewan. He is working as a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. He has served as Head of Chemical Engineering, as Associate Dean, Research and Partnership in the College of Engineering, and as Special Adviser to VP Research Signature Areas of Energy and Mineral Resources. Dr. Dalai's research focus is the novel catalyst development for gas to liquid technologies, biodiesel production, hydrogen/syngas production, hydroprocessing, value-added products from biomass, and pollution control. Dr. Dalai has published over 550 research papers, mostly in heterogeneous catalysis and catalytic processes in international journals and conference proceedings. He has submitted several patent applications. His ground-breaking research has led to over 28,000 citations of his work and H-index of 80. He serves in the Editorial Board of several prestigious journals. Professor Dalai has received fellowship from different societies such as Royal Society of Canada, Royal Society of Chemistry in UK, International Association of Advanced Materials, American Institute of Chemical Engineering, Canadian Academy of Engineering, Chemical Institute of Canada, Engineering Institute of Canada, and Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is a Fulbright Fellow from USA, DAAD Fellow from Germany and JSPS Fellow from Japan. Professor Dalai has received several national and international awards. Recently, he received the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers DRC Life Time Achievement Award, Canadian Society of Chemical Engineering R.S. Jane Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to Chemical Engineering Profession, Royal Society of Canada's Miraslow Romanoswki Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Science, and University of Saskatchewan's George Ivany Internationalization Award. Prof. Dadyburjor received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and graduate degrees from the University of Delaware, working with Jon H. Olson and Stanley I. Sandler. He carried out post-doctoral research with Eli Ruckenstein at SUNY Buffalo. Dr. Dadyburjor's research interests are primarily in heterogeneous catalysis, clean fuels and chemicals, deactivation and regeneration of catalysts and the design of novel catalysts specific for selective reactions. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology and a director of the Division of Energy and Fuels of ACS. He is a Fellow of ACS and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Dr. Ying Zheng is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Western University, Canada. Dr. Zheng joined as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of New Brunswick in 1999 where she was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in 2004 and to full professor in 2008. She was awarded the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Chemical Process & Catalysis in 2012. In 2015, she joined the University of Edinburgh as Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering/Reaction Engineering. She is a well-known researcher in the field of catalysis and reaction engineering. She is an elected fellow of Canadian Academic of Engineering, the Chemical Institute of Canada, Institute of Chemical Engineer and member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada. She is also awarded with the CSChE Syncrude Canada Innovation Award, Imperial Oil Research Award and Humboldt Fellowships. Dr. Duan is a Professor of Petrochemical Processing and Catalysis Engineering in the College of Chemical Engineering and Environment at the China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the China University of Petroleum, Beijing (2002); M.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the China University of Petroleum, East China (1993); B.Sc. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the China University of Petroleum, East China (1991). Her research areas focus on the synthesis of novel materials and catalysts for ultra-clean fuel production technologies, reaction kinetics for hydrogenation of transportation fuels, efficient green transformation and optimal utilization of fossil energy. Dr. Duan has published over 200 research papers in several international journals and conference proceedings with citations over 5,700 and an H-index of 45. Dr. Roberts is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. His research interests include experimental combustion, propulsion, and laser-based optical diagnostics for reacting flows. Of fundamental interest is the complex interaction between the various length and velocity scales in turbulent flows and the chemical kinetics associated with combustion. His focus is on understanding these interactions in canonical flames, using advanced techniques to measure scalar and vector quantities of interest. He is currently building a unique high-pressure combustion capability at KAUST, which will be used to understand combustion phenomena, particularly the formation of pollutants such as soot, occurring in practical combustion hardware such as gas turbines and internal combustion engines. Dr. Sonil Nanda is a Research Associate at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He received his Ph.D. degree in Biology from York University, Canada; M.Sc. degree in Applied Microbiology from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT University), India; and B.Sc. degree in Microbiology from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, India. Dr. Nanda's research areas are related to the production of advanced biofuels and biochemical through thermochemical and biological conversion technologies such as gasification, pyrolysis, carbonization, torrefaction and fermentation as well as agronomic applications of biochar, phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils and carbon sequestration. He is the editor of books entitled ""New Dimensions in Production and Utilization of Hydrogen"" (Elsevier), ""Recent Advancements in Biofuels and Bioenergy Utilization"" (Springer Nature), ""Biorefinery of Alternative Resources: Targeting Green Fuels and Platform Chemicals"" (Springer Nature), ""Fuel Processing and Energy Utilization"" (CRC Press), ""Bioprocessing of Biofuels"" (CRC Press) and ""Biotechnology for Sustainable Energy and Products"" (I.K. International Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.)."