Professor

Associate Professor Kitirote Wantala (Ph.D., Chemical Engineering)

Director of Laboratory

Biography:  Kitirote Wantala is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University. He began his career as a lecturer in 2011 and served the academic world for over 12 years. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Thammasat University, Thailand, in 2010.  His research focuses on catalysis, especially photocatalysis and VOC oxidation in the gas phase, reaction engineering, and renewable energy in liquid and solid biofuels. He synthesizes and characterizes photocatalysts such as N-TiO2, Fe- TiO2, Fe-N- TiO2, Fe- TiO2/GAC, Fe-TiO2-C, SrTiO3, CeSrTiFeO3, LaSrTiFeO3, ZnO, K-OMS-2, Cu-OMS-2, etc. and tests its performance on organic pollutant degradation in liquid and gas phases. He also studies liquid biofuel production via pyrolytic catalysis cracking (PCC) under atmospheric pressure from waste cooking oil and palm oil. Then, he also explores upgrading the pyrolytic oil produced from biomass pyrolysis. Additionally, he focuses on hydrochar synthesis via hydrothermal carbonization and hydrothermal co-carbonization from industrial and agricultural wastes. 

Over the academic years, he managed to secure more than 20 national grants. He has published in more than 100 peer-reviewed journals. Regarding editorial work, he is an associate editor and guest-editor in Scopus journals such as Applied Environmental Research (AER), Asia-Pacific Journal of Science and Technology (APST), Sustainability, and Material Today: Proceeding. He was the conference chair for an international conference on advanced materials in environment, energy, and health applications-AMEEHA 2022, Thailand, The Chemical Engineering Senior Project Pitching Contest, 7 March 2024, Krungsri  River Hotel, Ayutthaya, Thailand, The 4th Thailand Biorefinery Symposium (TBioS-4), 13 - 14 June 2024, Pullman Khon Kaen Raja Orchid, Khon Kaen, Thailand, and The 34th Thai Institute of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry International Conference (TIChE2025), 20-21 May, 2025, Dusit Thani, Pattaya, Thailand, including TIChE 2025, TIChE Design 2025, TIChE Senior Project Contest 2025, TIChE High School Project Contest 2025.

He is also an active reviewer for many high-impact journals published by Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and Springer. He is also actively involved in consultation projects and continues contributing his knowledge to solve industry problems.