Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Research Seminar Series - Pooja Bhalode

Integrating molecular science with systems engineering for sustainability and circularity

Presented by: Pooja Bhalode, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware

Abstract

An escalating global population has resulted in rapid resource depletion, inefficient utilization, and end-of-life waste accumulation, leading to an increased need to design efficient, scalable, and recyclable processes. The concept of circular economy lies at the heart of addressing this need. A persistent challenge, however, is to bridge the gap between the fundamental molecular physics and the scalability of the proposed process at a local and systems level. The vision of the proposed research is to develop novel multiscale approaches to tackle this challenge. These approaches enable integrated decision making for optimal design considerations across various length scales, from intermolecular interactions to process scale, along with techno-economic feasibility and environmental impact. Such a strategy allows devising efficient, accurate, and circular solutions, which can be utilized to develop resilient and modular systems.

The seminar talk will showcase the implementation of such approaches in the areas of pharmaceutical manufacturing and polymer recycling. In pharmaceutical manufacturing, such an approach allowed developing informed process models integrating particle-level information within a predictive digital framework of the manufacturing process. The digital framework can foresee any discrepancies and enable process adaptability, thus reducing material and resource losses. Similar multiscale approach when applied for recycling of waste rubber tires, permitted computational screening of efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly solvents for solvent-based extraction and recycling of end-of-life tire components. This talk will further highlight avenues for utilization of such approaches in the fields of multi-layer plastics and textile waste upcycling, extraction of rare earth metals, and active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing.

Bio

Dr. Pooja Bhalode is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware, working on polymer recycling in the Center for Plastics Innovation (CPI) under the supervision of Professor Dionisios Vlachos. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, M.S. in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University under the supervision of Professor Marianthi Ierapetritou and Professor Fernando J. Muzzio. Her research interests include multiscale modeling, systems engineering, process optimization, solvent-based extractions, molecular-level decision making. She has worked in the areas of pharmaceutical manufacturing and polymer recycling including plastics and waste rubber tires.