L S Fan Facility for Clean Energy Research
Welcome to the Clean Energy Research Laboratory
L.-S. Fan is Distinguished University Professor and C. John Easton Professor in Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Ohio State University.
A member of the National Academy of Engineering, e is one of the world's leading authorities on fluidization and multiphase flow and reaction engineering, powder technology, particle science, and energy and environmental reaction engineering systems.
He is actively engaged in teaching and research in both the fundamentals as well as applications of fluidization and fluid-particle principles, powder technology and multiphase reactor engineering.
Fan has been on the faculty of Chemical Engineering at Ohio State since 1978 and served as Department Chair from 1994 – 2003. Professor Fan received his B.S. (1970) from National Taiwan University, and his M.S. (1973) and Ph.D. (1975) from West Virginia University, all in Chemical Engineering. In addition, he earned an M.S. (1978) in Statistics from Kansas State University.
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KEY DISTINCTIONS
- Professor Fan is the inventor of a number of industrially-viable clean fossil conversion processes including OSCAR, CARBONOX, pH Swing, Calcium Looping, Syngas and Coal-Direct Chemical Looping Processes. These processes control sulfur, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emissions and convert carbonaceous fuels to hydrogen, chemicals or liquid fuels.
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Dr. Fan’s invention of a clean-coal technology that would enable power plants to burn sulfur-rich coal in a more cost-effective, environmentally sound way was hailed as “revolutionary” by Forbes magazine for its implications for the environment, energy efficiency, and economic activity. The process, which is currently being demonstrated at pilot scale, was further improved by his invention of a highly durable particle which has taken his chemical looping processes to the next level of efficiency and subsequently, cost-reduction.
- Not only does Professor Fan's process eliminate the costs associated with regulating, monitoring, and cleaning up after using coal to produce energy, carbon dioxide is actually extracted from the air into the combustion process, captured before being released into the environment, and converted into new products such as a fuel gas called synthesis gas, or "syngas," which can be used to produce gasoline, methanol, and chemical building blocks such as hydrogen fuel cells and carbon fiber.
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His chemical looping processes for electricity, hydrogen, fuel and chemical production have been licensed and are currently being demonstrated at a pilot scale for commercial applications.
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He also invented the SULGEN process for H2S capture and conversion to hydrogen and sulfur that is being planned for further development by a commercial partner.
- Dr. Fan also invented the first and only electrical capacitance volume tomography for 3-dimensional, real time multiphase flow imaging and reactor systems that is currently being used in academia and industry worldwide.
- 55 patents
Major Awards and Honors
- National Academy of Engineering Member, 2001
- AIChE Institute Lecturer, 2015
- ACS E.V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 2006
- AIChE Alpha Chi Sigma Award in Chemical Engineering Research, 1996
- AIChE Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering, 2013
- AIChE 67th Institute Lectureship Award, 2015
- ASEE Dow Lectureship
- Council for Chemical Research Pruitt Award
- R&D 100 Award
- International Fluidization Achievement Award
- International Pitt Award for Innovation in Coal Conversion
- Joseph Sullivant Medal of The Ohio State University (highest award at university, given every five years)
- Named one of the “One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era” by the AICHE, 2008
- Memberships of National Academies and Professional Societies
National Academy of Engineering (Member, 2001), National Academy of Inventors (Member, 2013), Chinese Academy of Engineering (Foreign Member, 2009), Australian Academy of Technology Science and Engineering (Foreign Member, 2013), Mexican Academy of Sciences (Foreign Member, 2005), Academia Sinica (Academician, 2006), Indian National Academy of Engineering (Foreign Member, 2019), American Association for Advancement of Science (Fellow, 2000), AIChE (Fellow, 2000), American Society of Engineering Education (Member), ACS (Member).
- Service
Professor Fan is the Editor-in-Chief of Powder Technology. He has also served as a consulting editor of ten other journals and book series, including the AIChE Journal and the International Journal of Multiphase Flow, and as a consultant for 20 major corporations.
Fan has authored or co-authored five books, 450 journal papers, and 55 patents.
Some of the books authored by Professor Fan include Gas-Liquid-Solid Fluidization Engineering (1989), Bubble Wake Dynamics in Liquids and Liquid-Solid Suspensions (1990), both published by Butterworths, Fundamentals of Gas-Solid Flows (1998) published by Cambridge University Press, Chemical Looping Systems for Fossil Energy Conversions (2011) published by John Wiley & Sons, and Chemical looping partial oxidation: gasification, reforming, and chemical syntheses (2017) by Cambridge University Press. In addition, one monograph on sulfur control in fluidized bed combustors, and 19 book chapters and journal reviews have also been published.
See PUBLICATIONS below for more information.
Research
Professor L.-S. Fan’s fundamental and applied research and development have been focused on the field of particle science and technology and encompasses several subjects in this field, including particulates and multiphase flows, reaction and reactor engineering, ceramic material science, and computation and measurement techniques.
He has been extensively involved in studies pertaining to fluidized bed and bubble column reactor systems, chemical looping technology for carbonaceous energy conversions and CO2 capture, and electrical capacitance volume tomography for three-dimensional multiphase reactor imaging.
His research has resulted in new technology generation that is applied commercially to energy, environmental, chemicals, fuels, and process industries.
In fundamental research, Professor Fan has extensively investigated experimentally and/or through computation the intricate dynamic phenomena of bubble, particle/cluster and fluid interactions in high pressure and high temperature three-phase fluidized bed and slurry bubble column reactors and gas-solid fluidized bed reactors, and the Leidenfrost phenomena for film boiling upon collisions of reactive droplet and catalyst at high temperatures.
His work is closely related to industrial practices associated with operations such as the production of polyethylene and polypropylene, reside hydrotreating, and fluidized catalytic cracking of gas oil.
Professor Fan published three books in this area including “Gas-Liquid-Solid Fluidization Engineering” by Butterworths, 1989, and “Principles of Gas-Solid Flows”, a textbook by Cambridge University Press, 1998; both have been translated to Chinese and referenced extensively.
His fourth book, a textbook, that was published in 2021 by Cambridge University Press, “Dynamics of Multiphase Flows,” introduces the general multiphase flow principles as applied to the volume-time-averaged transport theorems and associated Lagrangian-trajectory modelling and Eulerian-Eulerian multifluid modelling, computational techniques and measurement methods, with representative multiphase flow systems of practical relevance to engineering practice.
Professor Fan has also been engaged in research on chemical, physical and reactive properties of metal derivatives for use in seeking alternative reaction paths for various product generation. For example, he has been probing metal oxide materials design used as oxygen carriers and their synthesis and redox reaction mechanisms for chemical looping combustion and gasification applications.
Specifically, he has discerned the ionic migration mechanisms of metal and oxygen ions in complex metal oxide composites for redox reactions that are crucial to chemical looping technology development.
Professor Fan and his team have invented eight processes that enable carbonaceous feedstock to be converted to electricity, hydrogen, chemicals, and liquid fuels which are both more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly. (See "Inventions" for more detail.)
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DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT MESOPOROUS SILICA-SUPPORTED NANOPARTICLE SCALEUP OF CARBON-DIOXIDE-REDUCING PROCESS TRANSFORMING SHALE GAS INTO PRODUCTS
Innovation: Liang-Shi (L.-S.) Fan’s new oxygen carrier enables a near 100% CO selectivity with high recyclability at a significantly lower temperature range than in conventional oxygen carrier systems. Impact: The value of product selectivity is so far the highest observed for chemical looping systems. These findings contribute to a nanoscale understanding of the underlying metal oxide redox chemistry for chemical looping processes, and provide a systematic strategy toward the design of robust oxygen carrier nanoparticles with superior activity and selectivity at a broader operating temperature window.
Machine learning is a powerful tool for modeling complex non-linear systems. In Professor Fan’s group neural network (NN)-based model development has been conducted for various applications such as computational fluid dynamics, process monitoring and tomography. They have developed an interaction force model for irregular shaped particles in gas-solid flow1. In addition, a recurrent NN-based fault detection model has been studied for chemical looping process2. For electrical capacitance volume tomography, a NN-based optimization method with multi-criterion has been provided for image reconstruction3.
1 Hwang, S., Pan, J., & Fan, L. S. (2021). A machine learning-based interaction force model for non-spherical and irregular particles in low Reynolds number incompressible flows. Powder Technology.
2 Pan, J., Pottimurthy, Y., Wang, D., Hwang, S., Patil, S., & Fan, L. S. (2020). Recurrent neural network based detection of faults caused byparticle attrition in chemical looping systems. Powder Technology, 367, 266-276.
3 Warsito, W., & Fan, L. S. (2001). Neural network based multi-criterion optimization image reconstruction technique for imaging two-and three-phase flow systems using electrical capacitance tomography. Measurement Science and Technology, 12(12), 2198.
Process simulations serve an important role from the initial conceptual design stage of a process through optimization of existing processes. Process simulation software varies in complexity, with an inverse relationship existing between process software complexity and process input requirements. By providing a flexible template and integrated mathematical equations that accurately model the common unit operations, process simulation software significantly reduces the time required to develop and analyze complex chemical processes. Process simulations provide an inexpensive route to optimize flows, observe effects of altering process parameters, and reduce costs. Professor Fan’s research involves commercial scale evaluation of several chemical looping technologies using process simulations and comprehensive techno-economic analysis. Extensive analysis through process simulations is conducted to evaluate the economic potential of various technologies developed using the OSU chemical looping platform such as syngas generation from natural gas with CO2 utilization as feedstock, hydrogen generation using various process schemes, direct air capture, etc.
Based on the vast experience of operating various reactor systems at lab scales and understanding the critical relationship between process thermodynamics and reaction kinetics, various chemical looping technologies have been successfully scaled up in at The Ohio State University. Scale up enables identification of various technological challenges, which can be addressed as the technology becomes sufficiently mature for commercial demonstration. Some of the process schemes scaled up at OSU include 25 and 250 kWth Coal Direct Chemical Looping (CDCL) , 250 kWth Syngas Chemical Looping (SCL), and 15 kWth Methane to Syngas (MTS) Chemical Looping processes.
Scale-Up image: Particle-Technology Based Chemical Looping
Group Members
Ph.D. Students
- Eric Falascino (falascino.2)
- Soohwan Hwang (hwang.528)
- Kalyani Jangam (jangam.4)
- Qichang Meng (meng.428)
- Cody Park (park.1432)
- Yaswanth Pottimurthy (pottimurthy.1)
- Qiaochu Zhang (zhang.8334)
- Anuj Joshi (joshi.325)
- Pinak Mohapatra (mohapatra.23)
- Sonu Kumar (kumar.820)
- Rushikesh Joshi (joshi.352)
- Ashin Sunny (sunny.15)
Post-Doctoral Researchers
- Zhuo Cheng (cheng.963)
- Lang Qin (qin.96)
- Dikai Xu (xu.1045)
Senior Researchers
- Dawei Wang (wang.2744)
Undergraduate Researchers
- Zain Mohammad
- Lindsay Isom
- Louann Kovach
Publications
Books and monographs:
Authored Books:
1. “Gas-Liquid-Solid Fluidization Engineering,” L.S. Fan, Butterworth Publisher, 784 pages (1989), translated to Chinese by Z.-Q. Yu, P. Cai and Y. Jin; the Chinese edition published by Petrochemical Publishing House (1993).
2. “Bubble Wake Dynamics in Liquids and Liquid-Solid Suspensions,” L.S. Fan and K. Tsuchiya Butterworth Publisher, 363 pages (1990).
3. “Principles of Gas-Solid Flows,” a textbook (553 pages), L.-S. Fan and C. Zhu, Cambridge University Press (1998); ); translated into Chinese in two volumes (312 pagers for Volume 1, 267 pages for Volume 2) by Shuo-Shiu Chang, Science Publisher, China (2018).
4. “Solution Manual for Principles of Gas-Solid Flows,” (150 pages) L. S. Fan, C. Zhu and J. Zhang, Cambridge University Press (1998).
5. “Active Chemistry”, textbook for high schools, as Team Leader/Contributing Writer of NSF sponsored national high school chemistry textbook writing team ( contributing authors for the team: L. S. Fan, J. Parson, D. Schuster, P. Sheets, and H. Gupta), It’s About Time Inc. publisher, (ISBN:1-58591-451-7) (2007).
6. “Chemical Looping Systems for Fossil Energy Conversion Systems” L. S. Fan, AIChE / Wiley publication (2010).
7. “Chemical Looping Partial Oxidation: Gasification, Reforming, and Chemical Syntheses”, L.S. Fan, Cambridge University Press (2017).
8. “Multiphase Flow Dynamics”, Chao Zhu, L.-S. Fan and Zhao Yu, Cambridge University Ptress (in print, 2019).
Authored Monograph:
- “Sorbent Utilization Prediction Methodology - Sulfur Control in Fluidized Bed Combustors,” ANL/CEN/FE-80-10, Argonne National Laboratory Press, 484 pages, September 1980, D. Fee, W.I. Wilson, J.A. Shearer, J. Lenz, L.S. Fan, K.M. Myles and I. Johnson.
Edited Books:
1. “Fluidization and Fluid-Particle Systems - Fundamentals and Application,” editor, L.-S. Fan. AIChE Symposium Series, No. 270, Volume 185 (1989).
2. “Advances in Fluidization Engineering,” editor, L.-S. Fan. AIChE Symposium Series, No. 276, Volume, 86 (1990).
3. Festschrift issue of Journal of Chinese Institute of Chemical Engineering in honor of Professor C.C. Chen National Taiwan University, Guest Co-editor: L.-S. Fan and S.-H. Weng (November, 1991).
4. Special issue of Chemical Engineering Science; “Gas-Liquid and Gas-Liquid-Solid Reactor Engineering,” Guest editors: L.-S. Fan, U. Ozkan, S.T. Yang and J. Chalmers, Vol. 47, No. 13/14 (647 pages), (1992).
5. “Fluid-Particle Processes: Fundamentals and Applications,” Co-editor with A. Weimer, John Chen and W.C. Yang, AIChE Symposium Series, No. 296, Volume 89 (1993).
6. “Fluid-Particle Technology - Analysis and Applications,” Co-editor with A. Weimer, J.C. Chen, and D. King, AIChE Symposium Series, No. 301, Vol. 90 (1995).
7. “Developments in Fluidization and Fluid-Particle Systems” with H. Arastoopour, D. King, A.W. Weimer and W.C. Yang, AIChE Symposium Series, No. 308, Vol. 91 (1995).
8. “Fluidization-9” with Ted Knowlton, Engineering Foundation publication (850 pages), (1998).
9. “The Expanding World of Chemical Engineering” 2nd Edition, with S. Furusaki and John Garside, 357 pages, Taylor and Francis, New York (2002).
10. Special issue of Powder Technology in honor of Prof. Mooson Kwauk, Powder Technology, Volune 111, No. 1-2 (2000), edited with J-H Li.
11. Special Issue of Journal of the Chinese Institute of Chemical Engineers in honor of Dr. Norman Li, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2002).
12. Special issue of Journal of the Chinese Institute of Chemical Engineers in honor of Chi Tien, 35, No.1 ( 2004).
13. Special issue on Particle Technology, Journal of the Chinese Institute of Chemical Engineers, 36, No.1 ( 2005)
14. Special issue on Particuology, “Particulate Flows and Reaction Engineering”. Vol. 8, No. 5 (2010), with Chao Zhu.
Book Chapters and Journal Reviews
1. “Kinetics of Hydrolysis of Insoluble Cellulose by Cellulose,” in “Advances in Biochemical Engineering,” Springer-Verlag, Ed. by A. Fiechter, Vol. 17, 131-172, 1980, with L.T. Fan, and Y.H. Lee.
2. “Gas-Liquid-Solid Fluidization - Journal Review,” AIChE J., 31, 1-34 (1985), K. Muroyama and L.S. Fan.
3. “Advances in Gas-Liquid-Solid Fluidization,” in “Transport in Fluidized Particle Systems,” ed. by L.K. Doraiswamy and A.S. Mujumdar, Elsevier Publisher, invited book chapter, 105-170, Chapter 4 (1989); L.S. Fan, B. Kreischer and K. Katsumi.
4. “Bubble Flow in Liquid-Solid Suspensions,” Chapter 23, pp. 811-861 in “Particulate Two-Phase Flow,” ed. by M.C. Roco, Butterworth Publishers (1993); L.-S. Fan and K. Katsumi.
5. “Heat Transfer in Fluidized and Packed Beds,” in “Handbook of Heat Transfer,” 3rd Edition, ed. by W.M. Rohsenow, J.P. Hartnett, and Y.I. Cho, Chapter 13, pp. 13.1-13.41, McGraw-Hill (1998).
6. “Multiphase Flow - Gas/Solid” in “The Handbook of Fluid Dynamics,” ed. by R.W. Johnson, with C. Zhu, Chapter 18, pp. 18-1 C 18-48, CRC Press (1998).
7. “Multiphase Flow-Liquid/Solid” Chapter 14, in “The Handbook of Fluid Dynamics,” ed. by R.W. Johnson, with R-H. Jean, Chapter 19, pp. 19-1 C 19-25, CRC Press (1998).
8. “Particle Image Velocimetry Characterization of the Flow Structure in Three-phase Fluidized Beds” in “Non-Invasive Monitoring of Multiphase Flows,” edited by J. Chaoki, F. Larachi, and M. Dudukovic, Elsevier, Chapter 5, pp. 495-515, (1997).
9. “Industrial Application of Three-phase Fluidization,” Chapter 9 in “Fluidization, Solids Handling, and Processing,” ed. by W.-C. Yang, Noyes Publishers, pp. 582-682 (1999).
10. “Dense Gas-Solid Fluidization” in “Fluidization Engineering Principles,” Ed. by Y. Jin, J. Zhu, Z. Wong, and Z. Yu (in Chinese), with P. Cai, Chapter 3, 53-103, Tsing-Hua University Press, Beijing (2001).
11. “Flue Gas Desulfurization for Acid Rain Control” Chapter 1 in “Dry Scrubbing Technologies for Flue Gas Desulfurization” with J.R. Kadambi, M. Prudich, S.J. Khang and T.C. Keener, pp. 1-114, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston (1998).
12. “Sorbent Transport and Dispersion” Chapter 4 in “Dry Scrubbing Technologies for Flue Gas Desulfurization” with E. Abou-Zeida, S.-C. Liang and X. Luo, pp. 255-342, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston (1998).
13. “High Temperature Desulfurization of Flue Gas Using Calcium-Based Sorbents” Chapter 6 in “Dry Scrubbing Technologies for Flue Gas Desulfurization” with A. Ghosh-Dastidar, S.Mahuli, and R. Agnihotri, pp. 421-528, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston (1998).
14. “Approaches toward Gas-Solid Reactor Design,” Chapter12 in “Handbook of Fluidization and Fluid-Particle Systems,” ed. by W.-C. Yang, Marcel-Dekker, 309-342 (2003).
15. “Gas-Liquid-Solid Three-Phase Fluidization”, Chapter27 in “Handbook of Fluidization and Fluid-Particle Systems,” ed. by W.-C. Yang, Marcel-Dekker, 765-809 (2003).
16. “Advanced Technologies for Reduction of Emission from Coal Usage, ed. S.-J. Khang and T.C. Keener, with D.J. Bayless, R. Agnihotri, T.C. Keener, S.-J. Khang, and A. Wang, CRC press (in press, 2001).
17. “Nitrogen Oxides Control,” Chapter 4 in “Advanced Technologies for Reduction of Emission from Coal Usage,” ed. S.-J. Khang and T.C. Keener, with H. Gupta, U.S. Ozkan, D.A. Pena, P.G. Smirniotis, B.S. Uphade, and J.M. Watson, CRC Press (in press, 2001).
18. “Trace Toxins Control,” Chapter 7 in “Advanced Technologies for Reduction of Emission from Coal usage,” ed. S.-J. Khang and T.C. Keener, with P. Biswas, T.-G. Lee, R. Jadhav, H. Gupta, Y. Zhuang, and E. Hedrick, CRC Press (in press, 2001).
19. “Advanced Coal-Based Power Generation: H2S Control,” Chapter 8 in “Advanced Technologies for Reduction of Emission from Coal Usage,” ed., S.-J. Khang and T.C. Keener, with R. Jadhav, CRC Press (in press, 2001).
20. “Fluidization” in “Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing,” ed., S. Lee, with A. Park, Dekker Encyclopedias, Taylor & Francis, 997-1107 (2006).
21. “Carbon Dioxide Capture and Disposal: Carbon Sequestration,” ed., S. Lee, with K. S. Lackner and A. Park, Dekker Encyclopedias, Taylor & Francis, 305-315 ( 2006).
22. “3D Simulation of Gas-Liquid-Solid Fluidization using Front Tracking and Level-Set Methods,” with Y. Ge, Advances in Chemical Engineering, Volum1 31, pp. 1-63, (2006).
23. “Particle Technology”, in Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia, with A. Park and C. Zhu. John Wiley,(2008). (http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/emrw/9780471238966/home)
24. “Carbon Sequestration”, in “Hydrogen Fuel: Production, Transport, and Storage”, Edited by Ram B. Gupta, CRC Press: Boca Raton, with Ah-Hyung Alissa Park, and Klaus S. Lackner, Chapter 17, pp. 569-601, (2008).
25. “ Gas-Liquid-Solid Fluidization”, Chapter 20 in “Handbook of Fluidization and Fluid- Particle Systems,” with G.Q. Yang, ed. by W.-C. Yang, Marcel-Dekker, (2003).
26. “General Approaches to Reactor Design”, Chapter 12 in “Handbook of Fluidization and Fluid- Particle Systems,” with A. Jiang and F. Wei, ed. by W.-C. Yang, Marcel-Dekker, (2003).
27. "Electrical Capacitance, Electrical Resistance, and Positron Emission Tomography Techniques and Their Applications in Multi-Phase Flow Systems" with Fei Wang, Q. Marashdeh and R. Williams, Advances in Chemical Engineering V 37, pp 179-222, Chapter 5 (2009).
28. “Particle Characterization and Behavior” with Dawei Wang, Chapter 2 in “ Fluidized-Bed Technologies for Near-Zero Emission Combustion and Gasification”, edited by F. Scala, Woodhead publishing, pp. 42 – 76 (2013).
29. "Chemical Looping Combustion and Gasification" with Elena Chung, Sam Bayham, Mandar Kathe, Andrew Tong, and Liang Zeng, in Handbook of Clean Energy Systems, edited by Jinyue Yan, Volume 3, pp. 1409-1430, Wiley, (2015).
30. “Applications of capacitance tomography in gas-solid fluidized bed systems” with Aining Wang, Q. Marashdeh and F. Teixeira, in Industrial Tomography: Systems and Applications, 529-550, Woodhead Publishing, (2015).
31. "Chemical Looping Technology for Fossil Fuel Conversion with In Situ CO2 Control" Chapter 12 in Multiphase Reactor Engineering for Clean and Low-Carbon Energy Applications, with Andrew Tong, and Liang Zeng, edited by Yi Cheng, Fei Wei, Yong Jin, pp. 377-401, Wiley, (2017)
32. “ Moving Bed Fuel Reactor Process” Chapter 1 in “Handbook of Chemical Looping Terchnology”, with Andrew Tong, Mandar Kathe and Dawei Wang, edited by Ron Breault, pp. 1-31, Wiley-VCH (2018).
33. “Natural gas reforming to industrial gas and chemicals using chemical looping” in Advances in Carbon Management Technologies, Volume 1, edited by Subbas Sikdar and Frank Princiotta, Chapter 11, with Wang, Dawei, Zhang Yitao, Kong, Fanhe, and Tong, Andrew, CRC Press, in press, (2019).
34. “Particle Technology” Chapter in Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology with Park, Ah-Hyun Alyssa, Zhu, Chao, and Sandvik, Peter, Wiley, DOI: 10.1002/0471238961 (2019).
35. ” Role of Chemical Looping in Industrial Gas Separation” Chapter in Sustainable Separation Engineering with Shah, Vedant, Jangam, Kalyani, Joshi, Anuj, Mohapatra, Pinak, and Falascino, Eric, Wiley (accepted, In press 2020)