FAROOQ, Shamsuzzaman

Professor

PhD (Chem. Eng.) UNB, Canada, 1988
MSc (Chem. Eng.) BUET, Dhaka, 1985
BSc (Chem. Eng.) BUET, Dhaka, 1982

Contact information
Blk E5, 4 Engineering Drive 4, #02-26, Singapore 117576
Tel: (65) 6516 6545    Fax: (65) 6779 1936
Email: chesf@nus.edu.sg

RESEARCH

Adsorption Gas Separation

Primary research interest is in the area of adsorption science and its applications in gas separation. Over the years, several experimental facilities and computational tools have been developed and perfected to carry out a complete range of adsorption studies starting from basic equilibrium and kinetic characterization of adsorbents at the particle scale to process development through laboratory scale process experiments and comprehensive modeling.
 
Very few adsorption research groups around the world do conduct research from adsorbent synthesis, equilibrium and transport characterization of adsorbents to process development and modeling.

Current Focus

Gas transport in CMS micropores

In recent years, the focus has been experimental and modeling studies of diffusion of gases in adsorbent micropores. Consistent database has been produced from this laboratory to overcome the apparent anomaly in the literature. A computational framework has been proposed that quantitatively predicts multicomponent uptake of gases in CMS at high pressure using only single component information. These results are of both fundamental and practical importance. Unlike gas adsorption and diffusion in activated carbon, gas transport in CMS micropores presents a case where the adsorption equilibrium is energetically homogeneous, but the transport activation energy is distributed. The challenge is to establish a procedure for characterizing this transport activation energydistribution that can be used for predicting uptake in a wide range of operating conditions.

Pore tailoring at the molecular scale

 The major thrust of current research is adsorption and transport of gases in small-pore titanium silicate, ETS-4 – a patented material from Engelhard Corporation. Strontium or Barium exchanged forms of the original Na-ETS-4 can be structurally contracted by adjusting the regeneration temperature. The net effect of this property is that the pore size of ion exchanged ETS-4 can be adjusted within 0.1 Å. As such, ETS-4 holds the potential to tailor kinetic selectivity for oxygen-nitrogen or methane-nitrogen separation, as well as to open opportunities for exciting new applications.  Information on equilibrium and kinetics of gas adsorption on this new material or its pore tailored variants is practically inexistent. An investigation in this unexplored area is in progress. Adsorbents have been developed that show promising kinetic selectivity for methane-nitrogen separation.

Next generation adsorbent

While the existing materials and processes will continue to play a major role in the industry, there is an increasing emphasis on new materials and advances in the latter will, to a great extent, shape the future directions. It would be synergistic to further develop our recent experience in adsorbent synthesis, in order to leverage more on the strengths gained over the years.  An exploratory project on the suitability of perovskites as potential adsorbent for air separation has recently been undertaken.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Marathe, R.P., S. Farooq and M.P. Srinivasan, 2005, “Modeling Gas Adsorption and Transport in Small-Pore Titanium Silicates”, Langmuir, 21, 4532-4546 (2005). 

Ding, L.P., Y.X. Yuan,  S. Farooq and S.K. Bhatia, 2005, “A Heterogeneous Model for  Gas Transport in Carbon Molecular Sieves”, Langmuir, 21, 674-681 (2005).

Huang, Q., S. M. Sundaram and S. Farooq,  “Revisiting Transport of Gases in the Micropores of Carbon Molecular Sieves”, Langmuir, 19, 393-405 (2003).

Malek, A. and S. Farooq, “Hydrogen Purificaition from Refinery Fuel Gas by Pressure Swing Adsorption”, AIChE Journal,  44, 1985-1992 (1998). 

Malek, A. and S. Farooq, “Kinetics of Hydrocarbon Adsorption on Activated Carbon and Silica Gel”, AIChE Journal, 43, 761-776 (1997).

Ruthven D.M., S. Farooq and K.S. Knaebel, Pressure Swing Adsorption, VCH Publishers Inc., New York (1994).