Events Calendar

Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar

Speaker: Dr. Kandis Leslie Abdul-Aziz , Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside

Talk Title: Creating Value from Waste and Pollution: Sustainable chemical processes to promote a circular economy

Abstract: A circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on society-wide benefits beyond the current take-make-waste industrial model. It entails an economic outlook that goes beyond the consumption of finite resources and develops strategies for utilizing waste. This presentation presents two strategies for the utilization of waste. The project will discuss the advent of a circular agriculture economy and how one of the top waste agriculture crops in the U.S., corn stover, can be engineered into valuable products. The first part of the presentation will discuss our efforts to convert corn stover into a source for sugar fatty acid ester pesticides to control the population of Asian citrus psyllid. Asian citrus psyllid poses a risk to citrus crops, and there are limited organic pesticide choices for growers and farmers. Sugar fatty acid ester pesticides are renewable and environmentally benign alternatives. The second part of the presentation will demonstrate the influence of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) or slow pyrolysis (SP) process conditions on the physicochemical properties of precursor biochars and activated carbon (AC). The AC is achieved through a direct or two-step method with subsequent chemical activation using KOH. A theory is developed on the biochar propensity to be chemically activated based on the composition of the lignocellulosic structure. The activated carbon was utilized for wastewater treatment applications. The presentation will conclude with a discussion on a circular economy and the role of engineers.




Biography: Dr. Kandis Leslie Abdul-Aziz is an Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering department at the University of California, Riverside. She joined the University in 2018 after receiving her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining UC Riverside, she was a Provost postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where she developed procedures for synthesizing heterogeneous catalysts using atomic layer deposition. She has also worked previously as a Forensic scientist for the Philadelphia police department and as a Refinery chemist at Sunoco Chemicals in Philadelphia after receiving a B.S. in Chemistry from Temple University. Her research group develops sustainable catalytic processes using an interdisciplinary toolset from materials and chemical engineering and physical chemistry for sustainable applications. She was awarded a 2022 National Science Foundation Career Award and is a Scialog Negative Emissions Fellow.

Host: Dr. Amy Childress

Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91873923659 Meeting ID: 918 7392 3659 Passcode: 975701

Location: Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience (MCB) - 101

WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91873923659 Meeting ID: 918 7392 3659 Passcode: 975701

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes