Mohammad Reza Rahimpour

Prof. Mohammad Reza Rahimpour is a professor in Chemical Engineering at Shiraz University, Iran. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Shiraz University in coporation with University of Sydney, Australia. Prof. M.R. Rahimpour, was a Research Associate at University of Newcastle Australia as Research Associate working with Prof. Behzad Moghtaderi Research Group for one year in 2003 and at University of California Davis from 2012 till 2017. He started his independent career as Assistant Professor in 1998 at Shiraz University. He has been a Chair of Department of Chemical Engineering at Shiraz University from 2004 till 2009, and then Dean of Faculty of Engineering at Shiraz University from 2009 till 2012. Prof. Rahimpour was strated-up the Natural Gas Center of Excellence in 2006 and he was the Dean of that center from 2006 up to now focusing on the basic science and engineering of energy transformation from natural gas to hydrogen and synthesis gas in developing countries. Since the environmental concerns of the chemical processes, increase rapidly in developing and developed countries, Prof. Rahimpour, decided to focuse on the environmental aspects of such processes. In order to achieve these objectives, he developed different methods such as chemical looping and plasma technology for conversion of methane to hydrogen and syngas. He proposed different catalysts and processes for chemical looping reforming via experiments and design. The necessity of environmental protection, encourage him, to focus on the reduction of process side effects on the environment. Consequently Prof. Rahimpour, was started the different researches in greenhouse gas emission control and converting such gases, e.g. CO2 to valuable compounds and green fuels like methanol. He was also proposed the novel reaction process, known as chemical looping to maximize the heat recovery and reduction of greenhouse gas production in reaction mechanisms. One of the main scientific topics for industrial production of chemical compounds in Petro. Companies, is reduction of the gases, flow to flare. In the research group of Prof. Rahimpour, new techniques, based on the mathematical model and experimental results, was investigated to reduce the flare gasses and recycle such compounds to the process. During his stay in University of California from 2012 till 2017, he developed different reaction networks and catalytic processes such as thermal and plasma reactors for upgrading of lignin bio-oil to biofuel with collaboration of Prof. Bruce C. Gates research group in UCDAVIS. In 2017 he founded Methanol Institute whose mission is to build centers of research for developing value chain and Roadmap for conversion of natural gas to syngas and methanol. In this regard, he developed new processes for the direct conversion of carbon dioxide to green methanol. In addition, he developed new processes for thermally coupled membrane reactors for efficient production of hydrogen, syngas and other valuable fuels from natural gas. Prof. M.R. Rahimpour leads a research group in fuel processing technology focused on the catalytic conversion of fossil fuels such as natural gas, and renewable fuels such as bio-oils derived from lignin to valuable energy sources. He provides young distinguished scholars with perfect educational opportunities in both experimental methods and theoretical tools in developing countries to investigate in-depth research in the various field of chemical engineering including carbon capture, storage and utilization technologies, novel technologies for natural gas conversion and improving the energy efficiency in the production and use of natural gas industries, separation and conversion of H2S associated with natural gas and for sulfur utilization in SRU units. He is teaching courses such as Natural gas processing and conditioning, Heterogonous catalysis, Chemical reaction engineering, applied mathematics and Modeling in chemical engineering in both graduate and undergraduate levels. More than 40 Ph.D students and 200 M.Sc. students were graduated under his supervision. Prof. M.R. Rahimpour has collaboration with Prof. Angelo Basile Research Group in Italy for more than 5 years in researches about syngas and hydrogen production using catalytic membrane reactors. Prof. M.R. Rahimpour has been bestowed with the honor of National distinguished researcher and professor in Iran (2008 – 2010) for his scientific accomplishments. He was also selected as the most Innovative researcher and top engineer (2008 and 2010). His outstanding contribution and impressive performance as the chair of Gas Excellence at Shiraz University received the national award for the distinguished researcher in natural gas, Tehran (2007). He was the member of scientific committee of Iran Membrane Conference on 20 and 21 May 2015, Tehran. All in all, he has been named in the list of most highly cited researcher worldwide with publishing over 400 articles, books and chapter books and 200 conference presentations..