Madhumita Ray

Qualifications

• Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, University of Minnesota, USA,
• M.Tech., Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, India
• B.Tech., Chemical Engineering, University of Calcutta, India
• B.Sc., Chemistry, University of Calcutta, India

Our research can be categorized in two broad areas: (i) advanced treatment technologies for water and waste treatment, and (ii) environmental modelling. All our contributions in research have a direct bearing on the reduction of environment pollution or understanding the fate processes of the pollutants in natural environment. Some of our pioneering research in advanced treatment technologies include: removal of bioaerosol using indoor lighting and a thin layer of TiO2 for designing sanitary surfaces for hospital, food processing industry or other clean room applications; improving the surface area and subsequent improvement in adsorption of organics by TiO2; doped TiO2 nanowires for water treatment and hydrogen production; photochemical reaction pathways relating hydroxyl radical, electron/hole, and superoxide radicals involved in photocatalysis of micropollutants in water; ultrasonication to pretreat anaerobic sludge prior to digestion to improve biogas production, odor removal, and sludge dewatering; membrane processes for removal of volatile compounds and micropollutants from water; application of bioassays for water quality evaluation; and modification of petroleum coke for adsorption of naphthenic acids from oil-sand processed water. In environmental modeling, we use both traditional approaches based on first principles, kinetics and equilibrium processes, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The recent work in this area includes modeling of pneumatic dryers for municipal sludge, determination of kinetic constants due to ultrasonic pretreatment of anaerobic sludge in traditional anaerobic digestion model and its sensitivity to relevant pretreatment parameters; design of open channel UV-disinfection reactor using CFD and CFD modeling of jet-mixing in wastewater reactor.

Professional Activities (last 5 years)

• Organizer of symposium on Environment, 67th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference, Edmonton, Alberta, October 22-25, 2017.
• Organizer of symposium on Environment, 66th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference, Quebec City, October 16-19, 2016.
• Organizer, CSC symposium on Environmental Engineering, Halifax, NS, June 5-9, 2016.
• Book endorsement review- Wastewater Treatment: Occurrence and Fate of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs); CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.
• Organizer, CSC symposium on Environmental Engineering, June 13-15, Ottawa, 2015.
• Chair of committee 29 (Environmental Engineering – Water), CFI Innovation Fund, 2015.
• Member, organizing committee, 3rd International Conference Bioprocess and Engineering, 4-5 May, 2015, Baltimore, USA.
• International Program Committee member, Water Resource Management (AfricaWRM 2014, September 1-3, 2014, Gaborone, Botswana.
• Co-Chair, Industrial Wastewater Treatment and Environment, CSChE 2013 Annual Conference, October 2013, Fredericton, New Brunswick.
• Member, International Advisory Board ICACE-2013, on Advances in Chemical Engineering” on March 8-9, 2013, NIT, Raipur, India.

Publications (selected)

• “Simulating the Degradation of Odor Precursors in Primary and Waste Activated Sludge during Anaerobic Digestion,” (with Saad Aldin,FuzhouTu, George Nakhla) Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 2011.
• “The Drying of Sludge in a Cyclone Dryer Using Computational Fluid Dynamics,” (with Tarek J. Jamaleddine), Drying Technology, 2011.
• “Photodegradation of 17Estradiol in Aquatic Solution under Solar Irradiation: Kinetics and Influencing Water Parameters,” (with R. Roychowdhury, P. Charpentier) Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, 2011,
• “Combination of Mechanical and Chemical Pretreatment for Waste Activated Sludge,” (with Bipro Ranjan Dhar and George Nakhla) Bioresource Technology, 102, 3776-3782, 2011.
• “Modeling the Effect of Sonication on Biosolids Anaerobic Digestion, Saad Aldin, Elsayed Elbeshbishy,” (with George Nakhla) Energy and Fuels, 24 (9), 4703–4711, 2010,.
• “The drying of sludge in a pneumatic dryer using computational fluid dynamics,” (with Tarek Jamaleddine) Drying Technology, 29 (3), 308-322, 2011.
• “Simulation of the Impact of SRT on Anaerobic Digestability of Ultrasonicated Hog Manure,” (with Elsayed Elbeshbishy, Angel Nakevski, Hisham Hafez and G. Nakhla) Energies, 5, 974-988, 2010,.
• “Impact of Ultrasonication of Hog Manure on Anaerobic Digestability, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry,” (with Elsayed Elbeshbishy, Saad Aldin, Hisham Hafez and George Nakhla) Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 18, 164-171, 2011.
• “Numerical Simulation of a Pneumatic Dryer Using Computational Fluid Dynamics” (with T. Jamaleddine), Ind.Eng.Chem. Res, 49 (12), pp 590-591, 2010.
• “Photocatalytic Inactivation of Airborne Bacteria in a Continuous Flow Reactor” (with A. Pal*, S. Pehkonen and L. Yu) Ind.Eng.Chem. Res., 47, 7580-7585, 2008.
• “Photocatalytic Oxidation of Paracetamol: Dominant Reactants, Intermediates, and Reaction Mechanisms,” (with Yang, L.* and Yu, Liya) Environmental Science and Technology. 43 (2), 460-465, 2009.
• “Photooxidation of Dicarboxylic Acids. Part I: Effects of Inorganic Ions on Degradation of Azelaic Acid” (with Yang, L.M. and Yu, L.E.) Atmos. Environ., 42:855-866, 2008.
• “Performance Improvement of TiO2 Supported on Adsorbents for Photocatalytic Degradation of MEK in Air,” (with Pavan Kumar Puttamraju) International Journal for Environmental Technology Management, Vol. 9 (1), 105-124. 2008.
• “Potential Photooxidation Pathways of Dicarboxylic Acids in Atmospheric Droplets,” (with L.M. Yang and L.E. Yu) American Journal of Environmental Sciences, 4 (5): 462-466, 2008.
• “Inactivation of Gram-positive and Gram-negative Bacteria using TiO2 and Fluorescent Light,” (with Amrita Pal, Simo O. Pehkonen and Liya E. Yu) Journal of Photobiology and Photochemistry, 186 (2-3), 335-341, 2007.
• “Simulation of Radiation Field in Multilamp Photoreactor Using the LSDE Model,” (with Yang Q and S.O Pehkonen) Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol. 83, 705-711, 2005.
• “Measurement of Drop Size and Distribution in an Annular Two-Phase, Two Component Flow Occurring in a Venturi Scrubber,” (with Shekar Viswanathan and D.S. Lim) Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 44, 7458-7468, 2005.
• “Light Distribution Field in Catalytic Suspension within an Annular Photoreactor,” (withQuan Yang,PeiLing Ang and Simo O. Pehkonen) Chemical Engineering Science, 60, 5255-5268, 2005.