The paper titled "Systematic Synthesis of Augmented Biomass-to-Liquid Fuel Processes" was presented by Graduate Student Dharik Mallapragada at the 2012 Annual AIChE meeting in Pittsburgh (Oct 28-Nov 2). During the talk, a global optimization model to identify novel, carbon-efficient biofuel processes was introduced, and sample solutions obtained from the model were presented. The co-authors of the presentation consisted of Prof. Mohit Tawarmalani from the Krannert School of Management and Professors Fabio Ribeiro, Nick Delgass, and Rakesh Agrawal from the School of Chemical Engineering.

Here is a link to the abstract: https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2012/webprogramadapt/Paper268322.html

The presentation was identified by the session chair, Thomas Adams II (McMaster University) as the best presentation of the session titled "Process Design I."

Dharik S. Mallapragada received his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2008. Thereafter, he joined the School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue to pursue his PhD under the guidance of Professors Fabio Ribeiro, Nicholas Delgass and Rakesh Agrawal. In his work, Dharik uses process synthesis and optimization techniques to systematically analyze solutions for energy challenges like renewable transportation fuels and grid-scale energy storage. Being interested in energy policy issues, Dharik recently participated as a Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Fellow at The National Academies, Washington, D.C.