WebCAST seminar entitled:

"Multiscale Modeling and its Application to Catalyst Design and Portable Power Generation"

By
Professor Dion G. Vlachos
Department of Chemical Engineering,
Center for Catalytic Science and Technology
University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716-3110

Date: April 24, 2008, 2-4 pm (EST)
Dial-in from the comfort of your office to hear the presentation
Deadline to Register: April 14, 2008 (details at http://www.castdiv.org/WebCAST.htm)

Abstract

Multiscale simulation is emerging as a new scientific field in chemical, materials, and biological sciences. The idea
of multiscale modeling is straightforward: one computes information at a smaller (finer) scale and passes it to a model
at a larger (coarser) scale by leaving out degrees of freedom as one moves from finer to coarser scales. The obvious
goal of multiscale modeling is to predict macroscopic behavior of an engineering process from first principles
(bottom-up approach). However, the emerging fields of nanotechnology and biotechnology impose new challenges
and opportunities (top-down). For example, the miniaturization of microchemical systems for portable and
distributed power generation imposes new challenges and opportunities than the conventional scaling up chemical
engineers  have worked on.

In this talk, I will describe the development of multiscale models for catalytic reactors with a focus on small-scale
hydrogen production. Limitations in model development, including multi-level uncertainty, will be discussed. A new
multiscale and informatics-based framework will be presented for design of experiments (DOE) in order to enable
model assessment and parameter refinement. The framework is designed to overcome uncertainties by allowing
experimental data injection into multiscale models. Finally, I will discuss how one could use these models to enable
both catalyst design and microsystem optimization for portable and distributed power generation.

Dion Vlachos is a Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware since 2003.
He is currently an associate director of the Center for Catalytic Science and Technology. Dion obtained a five years diploma
in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical Univ. of Athens, in Greece, in 1987. He obtained his MS and Ph.D.
from the University of Minnesota in 1990 and 1992, respectively, and spent a postdoctoral year at the Army High Performance
Computing Research Center, MN, after which he joined UMass as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to an associate
professor at UMass in 1998. Dion was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University in the spring of 2000, a visiting faculty at
Thomas Jefferson Univ. and Hospital in spring of 2007 and the George Pierce Distinguished Prof. of Chemical Engineering
and Materials Science at the Univ. of Minnesota in the fall of 2007. Dion is the recipient of an ONR Young Investigator
Award, a NSF Career Award, a Junior Faculty Award, and the Best Advisor Award (twice). He is a member of the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Chemical Society, The Combustion Institute, The Catalysis Society, and
SIAM. His main research thrust is multiscale modeling and simulation along with their application to catalysis and portable
microchemical devices for power generation, nucleation and growth of nanomaterials, microporous thin films, and molecular
cell biology. He is the corresponding author of more than 160 refereed publications and has given more than 120 invited talks
(plenary lectures, keynote lectures, etc.).

-- 
Mayuresh V. Kothare (WebCAST chair)
R. L. McCann Associate Professor
Chemical Process Modeling and Control Research Center
Department of Chemical Engineering
Lehigh University, 111 Research Drive
Bethlehem, PA 18015, U.S.A.
Office: D322 Iacocca Hall
Tel: (610) 758 6654, Fax: (610) 758 5057
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.lehigh.edu/~mvk2