University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry
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E.J. Acosta, PhD. (Oklahoma)
Complex fluids research: surfactant and block copolymer micelles, microemulsions, emulsions, monolayers and liquid crystals. Surfactant-based processes: remediation of oil spills, colloid-enhanced ultrafiltration, admicellar chromatography, suspension - emulsion and microemulsion polymerization, froth flotation processes (paper de-inking, mineral separations and water decontamination), aqueous solvents for vegetable oil extraction. Formulation Engineering: molecular structure - physicochemical properties - formulation performance relationships in applications such as: delivery of drugs, cosmetics and food additives, coatings, paints and inks, detergency and general surface cleaners, water-based solvent replacements of organic degreasers (including dry cleaning systems). |
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Bioprocess engineering and its environmental applications. Biological Waste Treatment: performance and design of biological treatment systems for toxicity reduction in pulp mill effluents, biological treatment of chlorinated organic compounds, biofiltration of air pollutants. Bioconversion of waste water and waste solids into value added fuels, chemicals and materials. Microalgae production from carbon dioxide, sunlight and wastewater for production of biofuels and biochemicals. Biofilm formation and adhesion. Microbiology and floc formation in waste treatment systems and the development of techniques of monitoring microbial communities. |
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Organic Photovoltaic Devices including design, synthesis and crystal engineering of light harvesting organic materials, hole- and electron-transporting organic materials and polymers, chemical process engineering, design of experiments, parallel chemistry, molecular modeling. |
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Atmospheric chemistry, particulate matter and human health, organic aersols, analytical techniques for resolving complex organic mixtures. |
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Controlled release drug delivery. Diffusion in polymers. Responsive polymers. Biomaterials. |
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Applications of kinetics, isotopic techniques, spectrosopy, and theoretical modeling to address problems in catalytic conversion technology. Design and synthesis of materials and development of microreactor technology. Specific topics include renewable energy, fuel processing, fuel cells, exhaust emission control, microchemical reactor systems, and nanostructured materials. Correlation of surface dynamics and their kinetic consequences during chemical reactions |
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System identification, control and design. Systems biology. |
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Food Engineering - the application of chemical engineering principles to the processing of agricultural products for concurrent recovery of food, nutraceuticals and biofuels. Process development for recovering oil, vegetable proteins and valuable minor components based on modern membrane separation technologies. Catalytic hydrogenation of edible oils. Nitrite-free meat curing. Study of chemical and functional changes during extrusion, in line monitoring of extrusion and other food processes. Microencapsulation of food ingredients and nutraceuticals for controlled release of micronutrients in food fortification - both for international development, and for the North American food industry. |
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Biodegradation and bioremediation of aromatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents. Anaerobic processes for bioremediation and wastewater treatment. Rates and biochemical pathways of microbial degradative reactions. Evaluation of intrinsic and enhanced bioremediation. Identification of microbial species capable of anaerobic biodegradation. Environmental microbiology and molecular biology. |
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Aerosols, Environmental Chemistry and Air Pollution: health and environmental impacts of aerosols, urban air pollution, chemical analysis of particulate matter, in vivo and in vitro investigation of pathophysiological mechanisms and toxicological potency, aerosols in climate change, receptor modeling and source identification, development and application of statistical software. |
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Biomaterials, bioenergy, and environmental engineering: Novel green products based on forest biomass, hydrothermal biomass conversion, inkjet micro-fabrication of intelligent devices, advanced treatment technologies for reuse applications, micro-structure characterization of materials. |
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Environmental science and engineering: Fate and transport of pollutants in multi-media environments; Industrial pollutant abatement technologies; Environmental and industrial applications of inorganic sulphur chemistry; Environmental applications of sulphate-reducing bacteria. |
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Multiphase flow and phase change heat transfer, transport phenomena, microfluidics, micro-heat pipes, nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics and safety analysis, microgravity fluid physics and transport phenomena, thermal diffusion, advanced instrumentation, numerical simulation of free surface problems, compact heat exchangers, thermal analysis of Kraft Recovery boilers and lime kilns, sustainable energy, biomass gasification, thermal energy storage, hydrogen production by electrolysis. |
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Electrochemical engineering, design, modelling, reaction kinetic studies, pollution control, metal dissolution and organic electrosynthesis, environmental studies (recovery and recycling). |
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COMPOSITE SCIENCE AND REINFORCED POLYMERS: Structure/property relationships for non-metallic materials; studies of delamination in carbon fiber reinforced epoxy; manufacture and properties of wood fiber reinforced thermoplastics, manufacture and properties of engineered wood building products. PAPER PHYSICS: Structure/property relationships in paper with emphasis on fracture micromechanical analysis of energy absorption during crack growth; relationship between formation and fracture toughness; phenomenological descriptions of fracture. |
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Applying Information Technology with analytical and numerical methods to solve complex, but practical, problems. Research areas: business process optimization, financial engineering, asset management in the municipal environmental sector and environmental research. |
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Modeling and analysis of biological systems across multiple time and length scales with a focus on metabolic and gene regulatory networks; model-based engineering of cellular systems for biomedical, and biochemical applications including metabolic engineering, bioprocess optimization & control, and bioremediation. bioinformatics & computational/systems biology methods for reconstruction and analysis of metabolic pathways and gene regulatory networks. |
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Wood biotechnology, genome mining, biocatalyst production and design, biomaterial development, biocommodity engineering, biofuels. |
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Tissue engineering, microfabrication tools for biology, developmental biology, systems biology, 2D and 3D cell organization and self-assembly, cell migration, patterned gene delivery, modelling tissue organization mechanisms. |
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Applications of surface science and kinetics to problems in heterogeneous catalysis and materials processing. Selective oxidation, methane conversion, coal gasification, CO hydrogenation. Dynamic isotope tracing of catalytic reaction mechanisms, correlation of surface chemistry with materials and catalytic performance. |
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Corrosion and protection of metals, stress corrosion cracking, nanoporous materials, sensors, coatings, membranes, nuclear power systems and waste management, oil and gas production and refining, pulp and paper. |
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Aqueous process engineering; chemical process metallurgy, hydrometallurgy; process modelling; electrolyte solution chemistry; mineral-water interfaces; recycling of inorganic wastes; environmental remediation from mining and metallurgical activities. |
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Research interests concentrate on the Financial Services Industry and the communications carriers' technology and performance evaluation needs. Productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in the services industries are the major focus of the work. |
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Tissue engineering, bioreactors, biophysical modulation of engineered tissues, patterned cell co-culture (2D and 3D), Modeling of transport processes relevant to tissue engineering. |
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Rheology of concentrated dispersions of rigid or soft particles, migration mechanisms in suspensions of rigid and deformable particles (drops, vesicles, capsules), coalescence/fusion and breakup of drops and vesicles, mechanism of vesicle formation and evolution, manipulation of size and lamellarity distributions of vesicles, measurement and manipulation of bilayer properties, drug delivery using liposomes, microfluidic flows, solutal dispersion. |
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Professor Reeve has recently focused his attention on engineering education; student leadership development, and engineering and public policy. |
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X-ray crystallography, Molecular Microbiology, Structural Proteomics, Structural and functional characterisation of novel proteins from microbial genomes for industrial and biomedical purposes, Protein crystallization and 3D protein structure determination processes. |
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Kinetics and mass transport in biomedical and biochemical systems: enzymes for biochemical production and other industrial processes; enzyme inactivation and regulation of enzyme activity; metabolism and transport phenomena in organs; pharmacokinetics. |
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Tissue engineering, cardiovascular biomaterials, medical implants, cell transplantation, gene delivery systems. |
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Advancing innovative polymeric drug delivery and tissue engineering solutions to problems arising as a result of either traumatic injury to the central nervous system or cancer. Focus is on stem cell guidance within defined 3-D matrices; injectable hydrogels for cell and biomolecule delivery; polymeric nanoparticles for targeted delivery. |
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Developing advanced technologies and strategies for increasing energy and chemical recovery efficiencies in the kraft pulping process; control of deposit formation and high temperature corrosion in industrial boilers and rotary kilns; utilization of biosludge; thermal conversion of biomass to fuel; combustion behaviours of solid biofuel mixtures. |
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Enzyme discovery and enzyme genomics, enzymatic screening of unknown proteins for functional annotation, biochemical and structural characterization of novel enzymes. Identification of novel industrial enzymes for applications in bioremediation and biotechnology. |
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Molecular self-assembly: Protein-ligand and biomolecular complexes and elucidation of the mechanisms associated with their formation. Organic solid-state focusing on molecular and biomolecular crystals and their properties. Biomolecular and ligand-receptor interaction forces. Application of scanning probe microscopy to the characterization of biomolecular processes and structures. Novel protein complexes at interfaces. Molecular modeling of biomolecular complexes. Synthesis and characterization of molecular solids. Structure-property relationships in supramolecular assemblies. |
