About

Dr. Adhikari leads the energy modeling component within the Energy and Wastewater GRACE subteam, developing CEA energy models to predict climate-control energy demand and evaluate energy-saving strategies, with emphasis on hot-climate operation.

Dr. Jahromi leads GRACE thermochemical conversion efforts — including hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), pyrolysis, and gasification — to valorize high-moisture greenhouse residues into bio-crude and industrially relevant chemicals, while enabling low-carbon energy for greenhouse climate control.

Accomplishments

• Developed and validated CEA energy-demand models to quantify heating/cooling needs and test energy-saving strategies aimed at hot climates.
• Coordinated modeling needs with experimental data streams so results from residue characterization and conversion pathways can be used for CEA modeling and optimization.
• Advanced experimental plans linking feedstock collection/processing and physicochemical characterization to thermochemical conversion scenario testing and performance evaluation.
• Initiated work to quantify CO₂ production and evaluate exhaust contaminant removal (SOx/NOx/heavy metals) to enable safe CO₂ utilization in CEA and improve carbon efficiency.
• Developed catalytic HTL to sustain high yield and promote upgrading toward ester-rich bio-crude, supporting production of renewable chemicals relevant to solvents, plasticizers, and pharma intermediates.
• Supported integration across subteams by providing modeling outputs that help compare decarbonization scenarios and prioritize interventions for maximum emissions reduction.
• Expanded residue valorization beyond fuels by leveraging extractable bioactive compounds (e.g., terpenoids, phenolics, carotenoids, glycoalkaloids, flavonoids) with potential applications in pharmaceuticals, food additives, fragrances, and pesticides — supporting a biorefinery approach.

Publications

• Publication Title 1 ↗ Short description here.
• Publication Title 2 ↗ Short description here.
• Project Website / Dataset ↗