Peter Englezos

Professor

Office: CHBE 229

Email: peter.englezos@ubc.ca


Research Summary

Clathrate (gas) hydrates: thermodynamics, kinetics, impact on climate change and technological applications; Optimization and machine learning in process engineering

Education

University of Calgary, 1990, Ph.D.

University of Calgary, 1986, M.A.Sc.

National Technical University of Athens, 1981, B.Sc.

Research interests + projects

Clathrate (gas) hydrates: fundamentals and applications. Clathrate or gas hydrates are non-stoichiometric crystalline inclusion compounds formed by water and over one hundred other molecules at suitable temperature and pressure conditions. We have over 30 years of experience in this field and made important contributions to understanding of their phase behaviour and the kinetics of formation and dissociation.  We have utilized this fundamental knowledge to contribute to technological innovations such as the hydrate-based gas separations with applications to carbon dioxide capture. Other areas include the elucidation of the way in which antifreeze proteins inhibit hydrate crystal growth. We have also advanced our knowledge of the positive feedback processes to climate change due the uncontrolled dissociation of the earth’s methane hydrates.

Optimization and machine learning in process engineering. In the past 30 years we have developed nonlinear optimization methods for parameter estimation in various fields of chemical engineering.  This work is mainly based on the use of phenomenological models and the matching of these models with experimental data to extract parameter values and their statistical properties. The recent advances in computer processing speed and information storage density are increasingly exploited to extract patterns of behaviour from large experimental datasets using machine learning. We are also interested in evolving machine learning as a modelling approach for physical and chemical systems of interest in chemical engineering.

Awards and honours

R.S. Jane Memorial Award , 2021

Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering , 2009

Fellow, Tokyo Electric Power Company endowed Chair, Keio University , 1999

UBC Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Faculty Research Fellowship , 1997

Full publications list

Selected publications + presentations

Townson, I., C. Haynes, P. Englezos, “Tetrabutylammonium lactate semiclathrate hydrate phase equilibria and polymorphs”, Fluid Phase Equilibria, 579, April 2024, 114020

Englezos, P., “Phase equilibrium in canonical cubic structure I (sI) and II (sII) and hexagonal (sH) gas hydrate solid solutions”, Fluid Phase Equilibria, 578, March 2024, 114005

Englezos, P., “Technology Readiness Level of Gas Hydrate Technologies”, Can J. Chem. Eng., 101 (6), 3034-3043, 2023

Sharifi, H., P. Englezos, A Dual Bed – Cyclic Gas Hydrate Process (DB-CGHP) for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Other Gas Separations, Energy and Fuels, 36(18), 10610-10617, 2022.

Muromachi, S., H. Sharifi, S. Alavi, J. A. Ripmeester and P. Englezos,Structural characterization of pyrrolidine-including structure II clathrate hydrates, Crystal Growth and Design, 21, 5, 2828-2836, 2021.

Mirvakili, M.N., S.G. Hatzikiriakos, and P. Englezos, “Opaque and translucent films from aqueous microfiber suspensions by evaporative self-assembly”, Physics of Fluids, 33(3), 032012 (2021). h