Dr. Mahmoud El-Halwagi, the managing director of TEES GFRC, received the 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Fuels and Petrochemicals Division Award.
This award is El-Halwagi’s third from AIChE for his research in sustainable design of industrial processes and process integration, safety, intensification, and simulation. This is the highest honor given by the institute’s Fuels and Petrochemicals Division every year to an individual who has made substantial technical contributions to the petrochemical industries, according to the AIChE website.
“It is humbling to receive this award from the chemical engineers’ premier organization,” El-Halwagi said. “I have been very fortunate to work with brilliant students and colleagues, and I consider that this award is really in recognition of their amazing contributions.”
The award recognizes El-Halwagi’s research in the design of industrial processes with a focus on sustainability and innovation through systems integration approaches.
Chemical industries produce a wide variety of products such as fuels, energy carriers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, fertilizers and engineered materials; because of this, they consume tremendous amounts of natural resources and discharge significant amounts of waste. El-Halwagi’s research focuses on the substantial opportunities for making these industries more sustainable by making them more efficient to work better, cheaper, greener and safer by reducing waste and huge amounts of mass and energy.
El-Halwagi’s previous awards with the AIChE include the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award from the Computing and Systems Technology Division in 2020 and the Research Excellence Award from the Sustainable Engineering Forum in 2009.