It's been an exceptional year for UVA chemical engineering faculty, whose innovative research, teaching excellence and entrepreneurship are improving lives through applications in medicine, energy, agriculture and many other areas.
We highlight a few here, starting with the ingenuity of associate professors Gary Koenig and Geoffrey Geise and assistant professor Gaurav “Gino” Giri, who have teamed with an industry partner to compete for the U.S. Department of Energy's American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize.The DOE program is designed to speed development of technologies for direct extraction of lithium from geothermal brines a byproduct of existing geothermal energy production in California's Salton Sea region to meet our future electricity storage needs. Lithium is a critical material in batteries for electric vehicles and grid-scale electricity storage.
Koenig, Geise and Giri's Team TELEPORT made it to the final phase to vie for one of three awards from the $2 million prize pool to be announced in 2023. The team won prizes of $280,000 and $40,000 in earlier rounds to develop their concept, which combines their labs' expertise to selectively extract lithium from geothermal brine while minimizing the need for additional chemicals used in current technologies.
Associate professor Bryan Berger and Giri both made news as entrepreneurs.
Lytos Tech, which Berger co-founded with biofungicide technology he developed at UVA, was named the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council's 2022 Innovator of the Year. Lytos develops greener and safer organic alternatives to chemical pesticides and disinfectants used in agriculture.
Giri co-founded Hava Inc., to produce fully washable, highly efficient fabric face masks and filters made with metal organic frameworks-based air filtration technology created in his UVA lab. He is designing the MOF material to meet American Society for Testing and Materials' specifications for breathability and filtration efficiency for nonmedical face masks.
Giri has filed a patent on his process to rapidly synthesize the metal-organic frameworks material, which can be applied to ordinary fabric using existing manufacturing technology.
Hava received a $259,484 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the Centers for Disease Control to continue moving the face masks toward commercialization.
The Jefferson Scholars Foundation presented the 2022 Hartfield Excellence in Teaching Award to assistant professor George Prpich. The award honors faculty who demonstrate that communicating knowledge and inspiring students are as important to the education process as scholarship, and they exemplify the highest standards and practices of teaching.
Koenig, Geise and Giri also won the Hartfield in consecutive years from 2018 to 2020, making Prpich the fourth chemical engineering recipient since the award was created in 2010.
William Epling, department chair and Alice M. and Guy A. Wilson Professor of Chemical Engineering, and assistant professor Chris Paolucci received a $422,695 National Science Foundation grant to study the performance of metal-exchanged zeolites under varying reaction conditions.
Metal-exchanged zeolites are common catalysts used in myriad environmental applications, such as CO2 capture and mitigation of diesel engine exhaust emissions.
The project incorporates using experimental data to build predictive computer models. The team's insights will lead to improved catalyst designs enabling more efficient use of expensive noble metals, improved energy efficiency of catalytic processes, and more durable catalysts regardless of operating conditions.
Epling and Paolucci also will collaborate with researchers at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague.
Lawrence R. Quarles Professor of Chemical Engineering Giorgio Carta has been elected fellow of the International Adsorption Society.
Carta is a distinguished leader in education and research in separation technologies, including adsorption, used to make products and industrial processes cleaner, safer and more effective. He is a recognized expert in purification processes of biomolecules at manufacturing scale for the production of biopharmaceuticals.