Dr. Mahmoud El-Halwagi is the McFerrin Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his M.S. and B.S. from Cairo University. Dr. El-Halwagi has about 30 years of experience in the areas of process integration, synthesis, simulation, design, operation, and optimization, techno-economic analysis, sustainable process design, and molecular/product design. In addition to the theoretical foundations he helped lay down in these areas, he has been active in education, technology transfer, and industrial applications especially in the area of hydrocarbon processing. He has served as a consultant to a wide variety of gas, fuels, chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. He is the coauthor of about 200 papers and 60 book chapters. He is also the author/co-author/co-editor of nine books including three textbooks on sustainable process design and integration. He is the recipient of several awards including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Sustainable Engineering Forum (AIChE SEF) Research Excellence Award, the DuPont Excellence Award in Safety, Health and the Environment, and the National Science Foundation’s National Young Investigator Award.
Research
Dr. El-Halwagi’s research is in the area of process design, integration, and optimization. The focus is on the development of systematic and generally applicable methodologies and tools that can guide engineers in the design and operation of gas and fuels processing facilities. The strength and attractiveness of these methodologies and tools stem from their ability to systematically offer the following:
- Fundamental understanding of the global insights of a process and the root causes of performance limitations
- Ability to benchmark the performance of various objectives for the process ahead of detailed design through targeting techniques
- Effective generation, synthesis, and screening of solution alternatives to achieve the best-in-class design and operation strategies
Multiple objectives are used to drive the design and operation of sustainable processes. These include:
- Resource (mass and energy) conservation
- Recycle/reuse
- Pollution prevention
- Profitability enhancement
- Yield improvement
- Capital-productivity increase and debottlenecking
- Quality control, assurance, and enhancement
- Process safety
Facitilies
Dr. El-Halwagi’s group has state-of-the-art computing systems as well as simulation and optimization software.