Tata Center faculty member Ahmed Ghoniem from MIT Mechanical Engineering, along with ten other affiliates from the MIT Mechanical Engineering Department have been awarded by the American Physical Society (APS). APS is the leading membership organization for physicists from academia, industry, and the national laboratories, and APS prizes are highly regarded as a showcase of critical recognition by peers worldwide.
Ghoniem, the Ronald C. Crane (1972) Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was honored for “contributions to computational fluid dynamics with vortex and particle methods, flame modeling for turbulent combustion, and explanation and control of combustion dynamics.” Ghoniem serves as director of MIT’s Center for Energy and Propulsion Research and of the Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory.
Turning agricultural waste into solid fuel
Ahmed Ghoneim is working with Tata Fellow Kevin Kung to convert organic waste into biochar by developing a low-cost, portable, and small-scale thermochemical conversion process.
Open burning of biomass is a widespread practice and is estimated to account for 18% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Much of this burning takes place on farms to clear land of agricultural residue for another crop cycle. By converting this waste into biochar, what was once a burden would have various commercial uses, such as a cost-saving solid fuel or a carbon-negative fertilizer.
Look for a report on this project in the next issue of Energy Futures magazine.
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