The Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering is interviewing two candidates for a 21-month term position. Each candidate is invited to provide a public presentation and everyone is welcome to attend. Dr. Veluchamy Chitraichamy will present on July 27, 2022, at 2 pm, in FSDE 128B, and Dr. Shakirudeen Salaudeen on July 29, at 2 pm, in FSDE 202.

Below is information about the candidates and their respective presentations:

Dr. Veluchamy Chitraichamy:

Dr. Veluchamy Chitraichamy is currently a Post Doctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Guelph (UoG) Ridgetown Campus. Dr. Chitraichamy graduated from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), India (B.Tech. Agricultural (Bioresource) Engineering -2014). In 2018, he earned his Doctorate from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) in Civil Engineering with specialization in Environmental Engineering. He received a Shastri Indo-Canadian Research Student Award, allowing part of his PhD research to be conducted at UoG. As a postdoc at UoG, Dr. Chitraichamy received the Webster Postdoctoral Award, which is given for “ground-breaking environmental science research toward making a better planet”, from the School of Environmental Sciences.  During his PDF, he gained industrial experience in operations of a 250-kW commercial scale on-farm anaerobic digester which uses a combination of agricultural residues and industrial organic waste streams to generate renewable electricity for the Ontario grid. His research is focused on biochemical conversion of organic wastes into biofuels and bioenergy production. He has expertise in pre-treatment of lignocellulosic waste materials for development of value-added by-products, bioreactor designs, kinetic studies, modeling of biochemical reactions, evaluating techniques including empirically screening feedstock to estimate energy potential, waste valorization, profiling microbial communities, determining the fate of pathogens during anaerobic digestion, monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and developing decision support guidance. Dr. Chitraichamy has published numerous articles in Q1 journals such as the Journal of Cleaner Production and Bioresource Technology and presented his findings at renowned international conferences such as the European Biomass Conference and Exhibition. He is currently acting as a Guest Editor for a Special Issue on ‘Development and Utilization of Agricultural By-Products Based on Agricultural Wastes” in the Agronomy MDPI journal. Dr. Chitraichamy’s research has been supported through competitive grants awarded from NSERC, OMAFRA, and Ontario Pork.

Public presentation: Renewable bioenergy production and by-product development from bioresource waste material:

Increasing global energy demands and the threat of climate change due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have made urgent the need to develop sustainable, affordable, and environmentally friendly energy resources and technology. Anaerobic digestion (AD) converts organic material into biogas, a renewable fuel that could be used to produce electricity, heat or as vehicle fuel. In recent years, AD of waste and residues from agriculture and industry, municipal organic waste, sewage sludge, etc. has become one of the most attractive renewable energy pathways. In this presentation I will present the results from two large projects, one focusing on AD of pulp and paper mill sludge (PPMS) and one focused on co-digestion of swine manure and crop residues in a plug-flow reactor.

In the PPMS study, the substrate was studied with and without pretreatment in biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay, in a batch reactor, and in a semi-continuous lab scale anaerobic reactor.   In the BMP test, PPMS was observed to have a high potential for energy recovery, but substrate hydrolysis was the rate limiting step. To overcome this challenge, different pretreatment methods were employed such as thermal, biological, and electrohydrolysis. Chemical and instrumental (FT-IR, XRD, FESEM) analyses were used to demonstrate that all the pretreatment methods showed improved substrate solubilization.

In the swine manure study, long-term continuous experiments were conducted in a newly designed plug-flow reactor at both lab-scale (65 L) and pilot-scale (1 m3). The studies focused on impact of increasing organic loading rate (OLR) on CH4 production and associated physicochemical parameters, along with community level physiological profiling of the microbial community.  As OLR increased, biogas volume increased while CH4 content decreased. Furthermore, a mathematical model was developed on the effect of moisture content on mass diffusion for solid-state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD). This model proposed that decreased moisture content causes augmented mass diffusion resistance by the accumulation of hydrolytic product, leading to reduced CH4 production. Based on this hypothesis, a new SS-AD model was developed based on mass diffusion limitation and hydrolysis inhibition.

Dr. Shakirudeen Salaudeen:

Dr. Salaudeen is an Assistant Professor at FSDE, UPEI. His research focuses on the thermochemical conversion of biomass and waste into high-value bioproducts including bioenergy, biofuels, chemicals, and materials. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria; his MSc in Mechanical Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, and PhD from the University of Guelph, Canada. He previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Bio-Renewable Innovation Lab of the University of Guelph before joining UPEI. So far, he has published 22 peer-reviewed journal articles, 1 book chapter, and 9 conference presentations.

Public Presentation: Development of high-value bioproducts from low-value biomass:

The quest for renewable energy, climate change, and demand for sustainable fuels has increased interest in the bioeconomy. Research on renewable resource-based chemicals and materials to facilitate a smooth transition to a bioeconomy is vital from social, economic, and environmental perspectives. Biomass, an abundant and renewable source of feedstock, has a significant role in the sustainable production of energy, fuels, chemicals, and materials. This, however, requires continuous innovation to develop low-cost and high-quality homogenous feedstock, innovative pretreatment, conversion and upgrading technologies, and new approaches for utilizing intermediate products. The inherent properties of biomass also provide significant challenges for the development of high-value bioproducts. In this presentation, I will talk about the development of innovative and environmentally friendly processes and technologies to convert low-value biomass and waste into high-value bioproducts. The bioproducts include biofuels, biocarbon, and hydrogen-rich syngas, which are suitable for a variety of industrial applications.