EERG – ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH GROUP

Raja Muhammad Afzal, Ph.D.

Dr. Raja Muhammad Afzal holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Process Engineering at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, obtained in 2017. Prior to this, he completed his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, in 2009, and his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, in 2007. Currently, he is working as a Postdoctoral Associate in the EERG group and as a Research Scientist in the Environmental Services Group at InnoTech Alberta. Previously, he held Postdoctoral Researcher positions at Polytechnique Montreal and Tsinghua University. Dr. Raja has substantial research experience with a focus on Hydrogen production, CCU/ carbon management for climate change mitigation, process design, simulation, and optimization, techno-economics, LCA, scale-up analysis at different TRLs and technology commercialization. In addition to his research expertise, Dr. Raja has EPC project management and midstream oil and gas operational experience from 2008 to 2013.  In the industry, he served as a Process Safety Engineer at Pakistan Oilfields Ltd. and Descon Engineering Ltd.  

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Keyword:

CO₂ capture
CO₂ utilization
Simulation
Hydrogen Production
Techno-Economic Analysis

Education

  • University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 2017
    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering Dissertation: Process integration and analysis of liquid fuels and hydrogen production by oil shale
  • University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan 2009
    M.Sc. Chemical Engineering Thesis: Design philosophy of natural gas processing facility and trunk line isolation
  • University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan 2007
    B.Sc. Chemical Engineering

Research Interests

  • Carbon management and its role for climate change and net zero economy
  • Process design, simulation, and optimization
  • Techno-economics and scaleup analysis
  • Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Energy and Economy
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Data Science, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Work Experience

  • Energy and Environment Research Group, Dept. of Chemical Petroleum Engg., University of Calgary, Canada
    Postdoctoral Associate 2022 - Continued
  • Process Engineering Advanced Research Lab (PERAL), Polytechnique Montreal, Canada
    Postdoc Fellow 2020-2022
  • School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
    Postdoc Fellow 2018-2020
  • School of Chemical & Material Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology Islamabad, Pakistan
    Visiting Lecturer 2013
  • Pakistan Oilfields Ltd. Rawalpindi, Pakistan
    Process Safety Engineer 2011-2013
  • Descon Integrated Projects Ltd., Lahore, Pakistan
    Process Safety Engineer 2008-2011
  • Ittehad Chemicals Ltd. Lahore, Pakistan
    Trainee Production Engineer 2008

Expertise

  • I can handle tools Ansys Fluent, Aspen plus, Aspen Hysys, Gambit, Solidworks, RETScreen Expert, Simapro, MathType, Graph digitizer, Origin, Visio, MS Office (Excel, Word & Power Point).
  • Project OPEX and CAPEX estimation and optimization
  • Techno-economic Analysis and assessments for commercialization of technologies
  • Process design, simulations, scale up and optimization
  • Process Safety Management (6 years of industrial experience)
  • Renewable/sustainable energy project design
  • Accredited Instructor for RETScreen Expert Software

Fellowships / Achievements / Honours and Awards

  • Postdoc fellowship Montreal University, Canada (2020-2022)
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship Tsinghua University (2018-2020)
  • CAS-TWAS President's PhD fellowship winner (2013-2017)
  • Talented Young Scientist Program (TYSP) winner (2017-2018)
  • Certified RETScreen Software Expert (2019)
  • Accredited Trainer by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Canadian Institute of Energy Trainings (CIET) for RETScreen Expert Software

Journal Publications

  • Raja MA, Chen H, Wang H, Zhao Y, Shi C, Zhang S, Zhang X. Process Analysis for the Production of Hydrogen and Liquid Fuels from Oil Shale. Energy Technology. 2017 Nov;5(11):1963-78.
  • Raja MA, Zhao Y, Zhang X, Li C, Zhang S. Practices for modeling oil shale pyrolysis and kinetics. Reviews in Chemical Engineering. 2017 Dec 20;34(1):21-42.
  • Raja MA, Chen H, Zhao Y, Zhang X, Zhang S. Process simulation and assessment of hydrogen and high valued hydrocarbon fuels products from oil shale. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 2017 Feb 23;42(8):4922-34.
  • Zhao Y, Gani R, Afzal RM, Zhang X, Zhang S. Ionic liquids for absorption and separation of gases: An extensive database and a systematic screening method. AIChE Journal. 2017 Apr;63(4):1353-67.
  • Zhao Y, Gao J, Huang Y, Afzal RM, Zhang X, Zhang S. Predicting H 2 S solubility in ionic liquids by the quantitative structure–property relationship method using S σ-profile molecular descriptors. RSC Advances. 2016;6(74):70405-13
  • Zhao Y, Zeng S, Huang Y, Afzal RM, Zhang X. Estimation of heat capacity of ionic liquids using S σprofile molecular descriptors. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. 2015 Dec 16;54(51):12987-92.
  • Kang X, Zhao Z, Qian J, Muhammad Afzal R. Predicting the Viscosity of Ionic Liquids by the ELM Intelligence Algorithm. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. 2017 Sep 19;56(39):11344-51.
  • Iqra Ashraf, Shi Yong, Raja Muhammad Afzal, Guo Kun., Empirical analysis of foreign direct investment and economic growth in Pakistan using VECM model. African Journal of Business Management (Accepted on 16 September 2019).

Conference / Presentations / Abstracts

  • Raja MA., Application of RETScreen Expert Software for Energy Conservation and Management. Beijing, September 03, 2020.
  • Raja MA., Renewable Energy Technologies and application of RETScreen Expert Software. Beijing, January 11, 2020.
  • Raja MA., Sustainable eco-environmental and eco-economical solutions for the development of decertified areas of China. Eco-Economical Summit in Alxa Inner Mongolia, September 27-29, 2019
  • Raja MA, Process Integration and Analysis for Multi-Products Production by Oil Shale. Continuing Development Program, Pakistan Engineering Council, University of Wah, Pakistan, 27-02-2018
  • Raja MA, Zhang XP, Zhang SJ. Integrated oil shale refinery (OSR) with systemized use of retorting gas (RG). Integrated Industrial and Energy Processes Conference, University of Gujarat, Pakistan from June16-17 2015
  • Raja MA, Zhao YS, Zhang XP, Zhang SJ, High valued hydrocarbon fuels production from New Albany oil shale retorting. CAS-TWAS Symposium on Green Chemistry and Engineering for Sustainable Development (GCE 2016) August 28-31, 2016 Beijing, China
  • Raja MA, Replacement of fossil fuels with sustainable alternative energy resources. CAS-TWAS Training Workshop on Frontier of Green Technology Sep. 28-02 Oct. 2013 Beijing, China.
  • Raja MA, Zhang XP, Zhang SJ. Process Integration and assessment of Shale oil production and Retorting gas utilization. CAS-TWAS Symposium on Green Technology for Sustainable Development (2015 Green Tech) July 23-25, 2015 Beijing, China