Gasification of Waste Materials

Dr. Simona Ciuta was born in Bucharest, Romania. She received her B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Politehnica University of Bucharest. Dr. Ciuta developed her bachelor's thesis at the University of Trento, Italy after being awarded an Erasmus Scholarship. She obtained a Masters Degree in Environmental Management and a Ph.D. in Power Engineering from Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania. During her Ph.D. she was invited at University of Trento, Italy for research stages to further develop her thesis. Currently, Dr. Ciuta works as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate for the Combustion and Catalysis Laboratory in the Department of Chemical Engineering at City College of New York (CCNY). Prior to CCNY, she was an Assistant Professor in the Power Engineering Department at Politehnica University of Bucharest. She worked as Research Assistant on several European Union funded projects during her Ph.D, in particular in the field of biomass conversion into energy, waste characterization and advanced thermal processes. Dr. Ciuta`s research focuses on waste materials conversion into energy, waste management, thermal processes such as gasification and pyrolysis. She published 12 journal papers, 2 book chapters, and approximately 30 conference proceedings papers in the field. Dr. Ciuta developed a one of a kind intra-particle gas sampling technique that provides significant insight into fundamental reaction sequences happening during thermal decomposition of waste materials.

Demetra Tsiamis is the Associate Director of the Earth Engineering Center at City College of New York (EEC|CCNY). Ms. Tsiamis oversees the applied research programs at EEC|CCNY sponsored by operating companies and industry consortia in the field of sustainable waste management and conversion. She serves as lead engineer on several projects and has led research programs on waste conversion for companies and organizations such as Covanta and the American Chemistry Council. Her expertise is in thermal conversion of waste with a focus on gasification and pyrolysis of non-recyclable plastics. Ms. Tsiamis is also involved in the development of waste education and public outreach efforts of EEC|CCNY and has participated in the establishment of research partnerships with government agencies and municipalities including the Department of Sanitation in the City of New York. Prior to joining EEC|CCNY, Ms. Tsiamis worked at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services in New York. Ms. Tsiamis received a B. E. in chemical engineering from The Cooper Union in New York and an M.S. in chemical engineering from Columbia University where she investigated the technical feasibility of commercial pyrolysis technologies in the treatment of New York City's non-recyclable plastics.

Marco Castaldi was born in New York City and received his B.S. ChE (Magna cum Laude) from Manhattan College. His Ph.D. is in Chemical Engineering from UCLA and he has minors in Advanced Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics. Prior to joining CCNY he was Associate Professor at Columbia University’s Earth & Environmental Engineering Department. Professor Castaldi has approximately 90 peer-reviewed research articles, 40 peer-reviewed conference papers, 3 book chapters and 11 patents in the fields of catalysis, combustion and gasification. Some of his research findings have been covered by The New York Times, The Observer, CNN, and other trade publications. In addition, he was the Editor of the North American Waste to Energy Conference (NAWTEC) Series (ISBN: 978-0-7918-4393-2), Co-Editor of the Waste to Energy text published by Woodhead Publishing, Editorial Board Member of Waste and Biomass Valorization published through Springer (ISSN: 1877-2641) and Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). Prior to his academic career in Professor Castaldi worked first as Manager of Fuel Processor Component Development for Precision Combustion Inc. in New Haven, CT overseeing projects totaling $5 MM. Professor Castaldi is Past Chair of the Materials and Energy Recovery Division of ASME, Past Chair of the Research and New Technology Council of AIChE and recent Past-Chair of the North American Catalysis Society’s New York Metropolitan Section. He is a consultant to several companies including WasteManagement and AECOM. Dr. Castaldi is the Director of the Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council (WTERT) in the United States, an international organization that supports several students and post doctoral researchers; also, his group is recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as the foremost research group on chemical kinetics of converting wastes to energy. Dr. Castaldi’s research will lead to the development of advanced waste-to-energy processes and in particular the high-efficiency recovery of energy from biomass processes using catalysis. Understanding the fundamental reaction sequences and their associated kinetic parameters is the sure way to provide the requisite capability to explore and develop new technologies while improving existing ones for converting “waste” resources into renewable energy. Currently Dr. Castaldi has established the Earth Engineering Center at City College, City University of New York. The goal of EEC|CCNY is to bring to bear rigorous engineering solutions that enable responsible use of energy and materials for the advancement of society. Through industry collaborations and research sponsorship EEC|CCNY develops novel solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.