The Engineer's Impact - Hassan Gomaa

Your inside look at faculty’s research and its effect on society

In this new Q&A series, we’ll feature Western Engineering faculty members to gain a succinct overview of their research, understand its impact on society, and discover intriguing little-known facts.

Meet Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Professor Hassan Gomaa. 

gomaaCan you describe your research?

My main area of research has been developing and enhancing membrane separation and reaction processes for waste treatment and the production of specialty products. From an engineering perspective, my research focuses on achieving synergy through the application of Process Intensification (PI) strategies, including hybrid reactor design, process integration, functionalized composite membranes, and advanced flow modulation techniques. Such approaches aim at achieving compact energy-efficient system designs for water purification and recycling and for converting waste into value-added products while mitigating its negative impact on the environment.

How does your research impact society in everyday life?

Clean water shortage and increases in daily waste generation have been identified as serious challenges to human health, ecosystems and sustainable development. Our research efforts aim to address these issues to achieve a type of circular economy by developing energy-efficient systems for profitable waste conversion and enhancing clean water supplies. 

What’s an interesting, little-known fact related to your research?

Many products used in our daily life are based on membrane processes. Examples include bottled drinking water from membrane reverse osmosis, reconstituted high-quality juices, and recovery of valuable health food products, such as specialty proteins from dairy waste streams. As membrane technologies are being enhanced, their application will continue to expand to include other areas of resource recovery and environmental and energy-saving applications.