Chemical engineering and materials science doctoral student wins GreenUp Best Poster Award
PHOTO RELEASE (Nov. 9, 2012) - Elvan Sari, a Wayne State University College of Engineering chemical engineering and materials science doctoral student, was the winner of the Best Poster Award at the Michigan Green Chemistry and Engineering (GreenUp) Conference held at WSU, Oct. 26, 2012. More than 20 competitors from Michigan universities submitted posters.
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Grand Valley State University Professor Dalila Kovacs, Sari, |
Sari's poster, titled "Production of Green Diesel from Brown Grease via Selective Decarboxylation," was inspired by the large amount of waste cooking oil and grease collected from restaurant traps every year in the United States.
"Disposing of this brown grease is a costly process," Sari said. "Therefore, there is a need for the conversion of waste brown grease into usable form such as biofuels. Also, using this waste oil source instead of food grade vegetable oil is advantageous for the biofuels production from the sustainability point of view."
According to Sari, the study applied the principles of green chemistry and sustainable engineering such as renewable feedstocks, atom efficiency, energy efficiency, use of catalyst and accident prevention. Green diesel production with a low cost alternative technique was achieved while the expensive and hazardous chemicals use was greatly reduced compared to the existing processes.
Poster authors included Elvan Sari, Manhoe Kim, Steven O. Salley, and K. Y. Simon Ng.
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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 29,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.