Christine El Khoury
PhD Programme: Nanoscience, Materials and Chemical Engineering
Research group: SUSCAPE - SUStainability using Computer Aided Process Engineering tools
Supervisors: Laureano Jiménez Esteller & Carlos Pozo Fernández
Bio
Christine El Khoury, Lebanese PhD student in the Chemical Engineering Department, holds a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering with a research focus on enzymatic kinetic mathematical modelling of microbial fermentation for the production of biofuel. Prior to joining URV, she was in Cycleco (France) performing Life Cycle Assessment of building integrated photovoltaic systems for an H2020 project ("BIPV BOOST"). Christine has joined the SUSCAPE research group to apply mathematical tools to help solve sustainability problems, with an emphasis on chemical recycling of plastic waste. The environmental perspective will be integrated by the planetary boundaries. She is contributing to the team with her skills in process optimization, life cycle assessment, programming/machine learning and possesses a deep interest in developing decision support tools to help decision makers to include the sustainability perspective in the development of their policies.
Project: Techno-economic and environmental assessments of existing and emerging processes and technologies
Chemical recycling of plastic waste (PW) into fuel has been a highlighted research topic due to its contribution as promising substitute to reduce global warming and increase circular economy. The project will consist of identifying the different chemical routes of the recycling of PW with focus on biomass as an energy source, modeling the processes and conducting several simulations and optimization methods, implementing environmental assessment tools to detect, analyze and help propose alternatives for the negative impacts in the environment. Multi-objective stochastic programming tools combined with life cycle assessment will be used to create solutions for the proposed process networks to pave a path towards a sustainable future in the field of PW.
Outreach activities
- European Researchers' Night 2022: "Optimització".
- European Researchers' Night 2023: "Parc de Fluídica".
Awards & Prizes
- 1st prize for “2nd year students” category, of the 18th Doctoral Day of the Doctoral Programme in Nanoscience, Materials and Chemical Engineering.
- Best Poster Award at the "1st Forum on Nutrition and Technology of Healthy and Sustainable Food".
