BIO

Dr. Ashraf Abedin is a Leidos Research Scientist working with the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s Reaction Engineering team in Morgantown, West Virginia. He completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 2021. His expertise includes research in the field of energy and catalysis. He is currently working at NETL to develop a microwave system for catalytic plastic gasification to produce clean energy. Dr. Abedin has published over 20 peer reviewed articles, including four book chapters, and presented in over 25 national and international conference proceedings. He has also served as an American Chemical Society Energy and Fuels Special Issue Guest Editor for the scientific journal Catalysis Today as well as Editor and Journal Reviewer for Elsevier, Wiley, De Gruyter, and Royal Society of Chemistry.

ABSTRACT

Microwaves can interact rapidly and directly with feedstocks in gasification reactions, a process where raw materials are converted into synthetic gas. Microwave gasification for hydrogen production offers several advantages over traditional methods (often high temperature/pressure vessels) including higher hydrogen yield, enhanced selectivity, and a more compact gasifier design. Leveraging a co-gasification process using waste plastic and agricultural biomass, such as corn stover, can be an effective way of producing hydrogen while reducing costs, the high volume of discarded plastic waste, and the carbon footprint prevalent in other hydrogen-producing processes.