Harvey G. Stenger

Professor of Chemical Engineering

Associated with

Energy Research Center

Process Modeling & Control Research Center

Sc.D. MIT, 1984
B.S. Cornell University, 1979

Contact Information
phone: (610) 758-4791 / 5308
fax: (610) 758-5057
e-mail: hgs0@lehigh.edu

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Research Interests
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My research has been and is centered on reacting heterogeneous systems. This has included work in natural products processing, semiconductor materials manufacturing, emission control processes, and synthetic fuels research. For the past two years I have focused on the application of heterogeneous reactor engineering to emission control processes. Current research projects being conducted in this area include: "catalytic destruction of chlorinated hydrocarbons, development of a new mordenite for removal of SO2 from flue gas, analytical electron microscopy of catalyst preparations, and electrical resistivity of fly ash.

These projects involve obtaining fundamental kinetic and thermodynamic data for the subprocesses of adsorption, surface reaction, and desorption of gas phase pollutants on catalysts and adsorbents; representing these subprocesses using a first-principle mathematical description of the overall process; and then tailoring (through the use of the mathematical model) the reactor, the material (catalyst or sorbent), or both to develop optimum configurations for a given emission control process. The targeted pollutants under investigation include SO2, SO3, fly ash, NOx, trichloroethylene, and dichloroethane.

The scope of this work is broad and addresses questions with both scientific and engineering importance. At the fundamental level, this involves measuring surface phase reacting species using infrared spectroscopy and developing first principle models to describe the overall process. At the applied level, this involves building and operating a bench- scale coal combustor and installing a pilot plant reactor to remove SO2 and NOx at a local coal fired utility.

An important contribution made during the course of this research has been an understanding of how to prepare, characterize, and operate catalyst-sorbents. Catalyst-sorbents are materials which act as both long-lived catalysts and regenerable sorbents. They have the ability to remove one pollutant by adsorption-desorption (e.g., SO2 or HC1) and a second pollutant by catalyzing a desired reaction (e.g., NO or a chlorinated hydrocarbon).

Recent Scholarship

For selected 2002 scholarship, click here.

For selected 2001 scholarship, click here.

For selected 2000 and prior years scholarship, click here.