University of Kentucky CAER Home

PowerGen Staff

  • Kunlei Liu
    Associate Director for Research of the Center for Applied Energy Research
    Research Engineer
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research interests include fossil fuel combustion and pollutant (SOx, NOx and PM) control; mercury transformation and control; carbon management in power plants; metal corrosion in utility environmental; gasification high temperature flue gas cleanup

  • Balraj Ambedkar
    Post Doctoral Scholar - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Expertise and Research Interests include CO2 Capture; Design of Absorber and Stripper for CO2 Capture and Stripping; Clean Coal Technology using Power Ultrasound; Coal to Liquid Fuels using Power Ultrasound; Erosion Modeling of Power Plant Boiler Accessories; CFD Modeling of Hydrocyclone for Fine Particle Separation; Ultrasound-Assisted Industrial Effluent and Municipal Waste-Water Treatment; Fabrication of Nano Particles and Nano-Coposites using Power Ultrasound; CFD Modeling of Spray Drier; Megasonic Cleaning.

  • Saloni Bhatnagar
    Scientist I - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Expertise includes analytical chemistry, HPLC, -MS, GC-MS, ion chromatograph. Research interests include method development for analysis of samples of solvent degradation products of CO2 capture experiments by HPLC MS, GCMS, and Ion Chromatography.

  • Payal Chandan
    Scientist II - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research interests include value added chemicals from renewable resources; Catalytic organic transformations; CO2 capture Technologies; Heterogeneous solid acid, base and redox catalyst synthesis, characterization, evaluation, and scale-up; Solvent degradation studies; Kinetic studies, mathematical modeling and mechanistic investigations.

  • Liangyong Chen
    Visiting Scientist - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    A visiting scientist, has a Ph.D in Environmental Engineering and is from the Southeast University in China. He is working with the Power Generation Research Group (Jan 2012 - Jan 2013).

  • Reynolds Frimpong
    Engineer Associate II - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research consists of catalysts development; synthesis and characterization of catalysts for enhanced CO2 capture; process optimization for enhanced CO2 capture.

  • Xin Gao
    Post Doctoral Scholar - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research interests include electrochemical devices for energy storage and generation (e.g., batteries and fuel cells), characterizations of electrode and membrane materials (e.g., carbon and ion-exchange membranes), and modeling of electrochemical systems. Recent and current work is principally on characterizations of porous carbon electrodes for capacitive desalination (CDI) application.

  • Robert Hodgen
    Engineer Associate II - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky

  • Brian Hogston
    Engineer Tech Associate - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research interests include Industrial scale CO2 capture from coal fired emissions; Qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis and energy storage solutions.

  • Quanzhen Huang
    Scientist I - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research is in the area of simulating CO2 capture (with ammonia) process and locating the optimum conditions; also studying catalysts which could be used in CO2 capture process.

  • Qiying Jiang
    Engineer II - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky

  • James Landon
    Engineer Associate II - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research expertise includes a broad background in electrochemistry including electrocatalyst design and operation for fuel cells, hydrogen production, and gas separations; currently work includes designing porous carbons for various deionization activities. Research interests include alkaline fuel cells, waste water remediation, and energy conversion technology.

  • Cameron Lippert
    Post Doctoral Scholar - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Expertise in both inorganic and organic synthetic techniques, including characterization.

  • Kun Liu
    Post Doctoral Scholar - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Expertise includes thermodynamics and kinetics in gas separation; environmental separation; and mathematical modeling.

  • Naser Matin
    Scientist II - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    A visiting scientist, will be working with the Power Generation Group (June 2011 - June 2012). He has a a Ph.D in Chemistry from the Tehran University.

  • Darryl McClean
    Engineer Tech Associate - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Provides technical assistance in laboratory experiments; prepares and preps materials; collects samples for research; hazardous waste containment and safe disposal of solid hazardous wastes; management of research equipment in Materials Prep Laboratory.

  • Jim Neathery
    Engineer Associate - Program Manager - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research includes carbon management and CO2 absorption processes; biomass combustion/gasification; process simulation (Aspen/ChemCad); process development; physical and chemical separation technologies.

  • Heather Nikolic
    Engineer Associate I - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research interests include CO2 Capture; Plasma Polymerization; Thin Films; Adhesion.

  • Roger Perrone
    Scientist I - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Collection and processing of ash samples in support of research activities.

  • Joe Remias
    Scientist IV, Program Manager - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research focus is CO2 capture technologies; reaction modeling, kinetics and mechanistic evaluations; catalysis synthesis, evaluation and scale-up; oxidation chemistry (C-H activation, hydrogen peroxide, epoxidation).

  • Lisa Richburg
    Scientist Assistant - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Assists the Power Generation research group and associate direction in creation of reports, computer training, work schedules, inter-group communication, tech transfer, data/information disseminiation within carbon management projects. Expertise includes science teaching certification.

  • Steve Summers
    Engineer Tech Senior - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Expertise is in welding, machining, and equipment fabrication. Steve has over 6 years experience in automotive technology and industrial maintenance.

  • Darrell Taulbee
    Scientist III/Industrial Support Coordinator, Analytical Services - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Serves as initial contact person for external technical assistance requests. Research interests include: briquetting and agglomeration of waste materials; binder formulations for coal and biomass; structural chemistry of fossil fuels; utilization of coal-combustion byproducts; and reduction of toxic emissions during the production of metal castings. Expertise is in instrumental analyses - capillary gas chromatography (GC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR); Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy; thermogravimetric analysis (TGA); SEM; BET; separation by density gradient centrifugation and briquetting.

  • Jesse Thompson
    Post Doctoral Scholar - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research interests include Analytical method development for energy research involving GC/MS, LC/MS and IC; Environmental sampling and analysis; Developing novel surface and headspace sampling techniques using SDC, DESI and SPME; Biofuel feedstock characterization for sustainable energy production.

  • Yi Zhang
    Engineer Associate II - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research interests include advanced combustion and gasification process development; material characterization; TG/DSC-MS, UV-vis, IR, diffraction particle sizing, ellipsometry, electrochemical analysis, AFM, SEM, TEM, 3D atom probe microscope.

  • Liangfu Zheng
    Post Doctoral Scholar - Power Generation and Utility Fuels
    Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
    Research interests include nano-materials including nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and metal based nano-composites; corrosion resistant coatings such as aluminizing coatings and electrodeposited Ni-Al/Cr nanocomposite coatings; thermal stability, electrochemical corrosion and high temperature oxidation.

  • Gwen Pasley
    Administrative Assistant

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