Multiphase and Multiscale Chemical Reaction
Engineering for Clean and Sustainable Production of Fuels, Materials, and
Chemicals.
Staff
Scientist at Ames Lab-US DOE
Research
Interests:
My research interests reside in the area of chemical
reaction engineering, the branch of chemical engineering which deals with the
design and optimization of chemical reactors and process, with a keen focus on solving
the problems with multiphase and multiscale characters. My current research
mainly aims to develop advanced computation models for multiphase flow
and multiphase turbulence. I firmly believe that a judicious balance
of theory, experiments and computation can yield critical insight into
multiphase flow physics that enables the development of
physics-based models that can be predictive and robust to be
used to simulate the performance of real industrial reactors, which in turn can
lead to more efficient chemical reactor design. Looking forward, I am expecting
to apply my research experience and talent to advance both fundamental research
and applications of chemical reaction engineering using both experimental and
computational tools, with the ultimate goal of designing better chemical
reactors and achieving cleaner and more sustainable production of fuels, materials,
and chemicals, thus generating broad impact to industries and society.
Research Projects:
1. Polydisperse
Gas-Particle Flows Modeling Using Quadrature-Based Moments Method, sponsored by
DOE-NETL, PI: Rodney Fox, ISU & Ames Lab
2. Kinetic
Theory Modeling of Turbulent Multiphase Flow, sponsored by DOE-NETL, PI: Rodney
Fox, ISU & Ames Lab
3. Development
of a Computational Fluid Dynamic Model for Large-scale Three-phase Stirred-Tank
Reactor, sponsored by SABIC, PI: Rodney Fox, ISU
4. A
Computational Fluid Dynamic Model for Multiphase Loop Polymerization Reactor,
sponsored by Chevron Phillips Chemical, PI: Rodney Fox, ISU
5. A
Polydispersed Multiphase CFD Model for Veba-Combi-Cracking (VCC) Process,
sponsored by BP America, PI: Rodney Fox, ISU
6. Model
Validation for Photosynthetically Active Radiation Transport and Multiphase
Flow in Algal Photobioreactors, by sponsored NSF, PI: Dennis Vigil and Micheal
Olsen, ISU
7. A
Novel Taylor-Couette Photobioreactor for Energy Efficient Micro-algae Cultivation,
sponsored by Conoco-Phillips, PI: Dennis Vigil and Jacqueline Shanks, ISU
Successful Proposals: National
Science Foundation, CBET-1236676
Ph.D. Dissertation:
Experimental and Computational Study of
Turbulent Mixing in a Confined Rectangular Reactor, under
supervision of Michael G. Olsen and James C. Hill, ISU Research Experience:
All my research effort in last twelve years has been
solely focused on the area of chemical reaction engineering, with a gradual
shift from using experimental techniques to computational methods. During my
Ph.D. years, I studied turbulent mixing and reacting flows in liquids using
advanced laser-based fluid diagnostic techniques, such as PIV, PLIF, LDV. In
liquid medias, Schmidt number is ofter very high, which means mixing and
reactions take place in much smaller length scale than hydrodynamics. The
multiscale nature makes it very hard to predict in simulations. Thus, I
implemented various reaction models and performed large-eddy simulations to
test and validate them against my experimental data. As a postdoc, I worked to
develop more energy efficient photobioreactor for microalgae cultivation. Again,
I not only designed and conducted various experimental research, but also
developed many mathematical models for improving the design of bioreactors. I
studied a broad range of issues involved in bioreactors, such as, the
gas-liquid hydrodynamics and mass transfer, bubble population balance, photosynthetic
active radiation transfer, algae growth kinetics under different light conditions,
and coupling difference processes on a large range of time scale together to
predict overall reactor performance. Moreover, in the last four years, I have
had the privilege of closely working with Prof. Rodney Fox, a world-renowned pioneer
in the area of developing and utilizing the computational tools in chemical
reaction engineering. Together, we have developed many advanced models for
gas-solid and gas-liquid reactor systems, such as polydispersed multiphase
solvers based on quadrature-based moment method (QBMM), and new multiphase
turbulence models. I implemented many of those models in open-sourced software packages
and performed many large-scale simulations on high-performance clusters to study
complicated multiphase problems and validate our models. What is more, I also
had the opportunities to work on several industrial projects sponsored by major
petrochemical companies, BP, SABIC, and Chevron-Phillips, which helped me
accumulate some good experiences in working with industries. In summary, I have
a solid background in fundamental research in multiphase flow modeling, code
development, high-performance simulation, industrial applications, and experiment
design and measurement techniques, which can allow me to work in close collaboration
with people with a different background to solve some important and complicated
issues related to chemical reaction engineering.
Teaching Interests:
Aside from my research career, I also have extensive teaching
experience. I TAed and guest-lectured undergraduate lecture and
laboratory courses at the Iowa State University, duties included lecture
undergrads, holding office hours and developing course material. Lastly, I
mentored many graduate students and postdocs. My non-traditional background
enables me to teach a broad range of undergraduate as well as graduate courses.
I am particularly interested in following courses, thermodynamics, transport
phenomenon, numerical analysis, process engineering, reactor design, turbulent
reacting flow, multiphase flow.
Future Direction:
As faculty, I would like to continue my pursuit in
the area of chemical reaction engineering, using both experimental and
computational tools. In particular, there are three areas I am very interested
in working on. First, model development. There are many knowledge gap and lacks
of good models in the broad area of multiphase systems, such as bubble dynamics
and gas-liquid mass transfer, multiphase turbulence, close-packed particle
behavior et.al. I can identify the modeling need, design well-thought
experiments, come up with better models using experiments or DNS, and eventually
test them in my codes. Second, code development. With increasing computational
capacity of modern computer technique, such as GPU, it has also been becoming
feasible to perform large-scale simulations of industrial scale reactor
systems, not only just small size lab/pilot-scale reactors. However, high-quality
open-source computer code, which can utilize these new computer techniques, can
handle all kinds of physical and chemical processes in a real reactor, and more
importantly can integrate all the difference process on multi time and length
scale together, is in great need right now. Third, bioreactor and biomedical
applications. There are many revolutionary new technologies developed in the
area of synthetic biology and biomedical areas. However, there are very few
biologists have a solid background in chemical reaction engineering, such as
transport phenomenon and the reactor/process design. I can foresee many
opportunities for me to work with them to bring their research one step further
to commercialization.
Selected Publications:
M. Ramezania, B. Kong, X. Gao, M. G. Olsen and R. D. Vigil, ``Experimental
measurement of oxygen mass transfer and bubble size distribution in an
air-water multiphase Taylor-Couette vortex bioreactor", Chemical
Engineering Journal 270 (2015): 508-518.
X. Gao, B. Kong and R. D. Vigil, ``CFD investigation of bubble effects on
Taylor-Couette flow patterns in the weakly turbulent vortex regime",
Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 270 pp. 508-518, 2015.
C. Yuan, B. Kong, A. Passalacqua, and R. O. Fox, ``An extended
quadrature-based mass-velocity moment model for polydisperse bubbly
flows", The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, vol. 92, no. 12, pp.
2053-2066, 2014.
K. M. Nilsen, B. Kong, R. O. Fox, J. C. Hill, and M. G. Olsen, ``Effect of
inlet conditions on the accuracy of large eddy simulations of a turbulent
rectangular wake", Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 250, pp. 175-189,
Aug. 2014.
B. Kong and R. D. Vigil, ``Simulation of photosynthetically active radiation
distribution in algal photobioreactors using a multidimensional spectral
radiation model", Bioresource Technology, vol. 158, pp. 141-148, Apr.
2014.
B. Kong and R. D. Vigil, ``Light-limited continuous culture of Chlorella vulgaris
in a Taylor vortex reactor", Environ. Prog. Sustainable Energy, vol. 32,
no. 4, pp. 884-890, Dec. 2013.
B. Kong, J. V. Shanks, and R. D. Vigil, ``Enhanced algal growth rate in a
Taylor vortex reactor", Biotechnology and Bioengineering. vol. 110, no. 8,
pp. 21402149, Aug. 2013.
B. Kong, M. G. Olsen, R. O. Fox, and J. C. Hill, ``Predictive capability of
Large Eddy Simulation for point-wise and spatial turbulence statistics in a
confined rectangular jet", Chemical Engineering Science, vol. 69, no. 1,
pp. 240-256, Feb. 2012.
B. Kong, M. G. Olsen, R. O. Fox, and J. C. Hill, ``Population, characteristics
and kinematics of vortices in a confined rectangular jet with a co-flow",
Exp Fluids, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 1473-1493, Jun. 2011.