Biocatalysis in Oil Refining focuses on petroleum refining bioprocesses, establishing a connection between science and technology.
The micro organisms and biomolecules examined for biocatalytic purposes for oil refining processes are thoroughly detailed. Terminology used by biologists, chemists and engineers is brought into a common language, aiding the understanding of complex biological-chemical-engineering issues. Problems to be addressed by the future R&D activities and by new technologies are described and summarized in the last chapter.
Author Biography
Dr. Maria Magdalena Ramirez-Corredores is currently a Senior Scientist at Kior Inc. She is responsible for the definition of project portfolio and the execution of long-term technology development activities for enabling commercial deployment for KiOR's process technology platform. Dr. Ramirez's work history consists of more than 30 years of technology research and development for major oil companies and includes the definition of strategic technology plans; leading R&D projects on processing and treatment of unconventional oils, clean fuels manufacturing processes, computational design of catalysts, olefins production, hydroprocessing and hydrotreatment catalysts, and scaling up and manufacturing of catalysts and absorbents; acting as academic liaison for the coordination of national and international programs in chemistry and catalysis; mentoring and managing teams of researchers and technical staff; coordinating and executing specialized technical services. Dr. Ramirez has authored more than 250 publications (1 book, 6 monographs/book chapters, 100 papers and 152 reports), 32 (US) patents (more than 150 Worldwide) and numerous conferences (23 invited, 75 Presentations). She received her PhD in Chemistry at University of Bath, England: "The formation of Solid solutions of CaO-SrO and investigation on their surface properties" in 1980. She received her BSc in Chemistry at Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas: "Isotopic effect in the catalytic cracking of alkylbenzenes" in 1974.
