Novel Catalytic and Separation Processes Based on Ionic Liquids

Dr. Dickson Ozokwelu has 40+ years of diversified chemical engineering and management experience, spread evenly between entrepreneurship, government, industry and academia, including 16 years at US Department of Energy. Currently, he is Lead Technology Manager for the Chemicals' portfolio at the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. In this position, Dr. Ozokwelu plays significant roles in reshaping the US government's energy policy, as well as developing and deploying energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies in key manufacturing industries in the United States, including Chemicals, Petroleum Refining and Pulp and Paper Industries. Dr. Ozokwelu was an invited author and online editor for Toluene Manufacturing Technology and Economics in the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. In the last 12 years at US DOE, Dr. Ozokwelu championed the focusing of R&D on ionic liquids by funding and managing several R&D projects in ionic liquids as part of the Chemicals portfolio. Subsequently, he pioneered the inclusion of Ionic Liquids into Topical Conference series at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, AIChE Annual Meetings Program. Dr. Ozokwelu's expertise is in process design, process economics and process synthesis, separation technologies, energy efficiency and renewable energy. In a total of more than 10 years prior to US DOE, Dr. Ozokwelu held several technical and managerial positions in the US chemical industry. He was Engineering Associate (2nd highest rank in technical ladder) at BP North America, formerly BP-Amoco and Senior Research Chemical Engineer at Eastman Chemicals Company. He is widely recognized (US and abroad) as an expert in separations technology and won the OIT-DOE First Technology Vision 2020 Award for the Chemical Industry in Separations. Prior to US industrial experience, Dr. Ozokwelu has more than 10 years of university teaching and accomplishments. Dr. Ozokwelu is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He received PhD and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1981 and 1978 respectively; a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of Ife, Nigeria in 1975 and an MBA in Planning and Management from The University of Memphis in 1984. To date, Dr. Ozokwelu has been a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Tennessee, USA, since 1984.