Kristine Horvat, Ph.D.
Chemical Engineering Program Director
Chemistry and Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Department
Tagliatela College of Engineering
Education
Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, Stony Brook University, NY
M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, Stony Brook University, NY
B.E. Chemical & Molecular Engineering, Stony Brook University, NY
About Kristine
Research Interests
I am interested in finding alternative sources of energy, especially those that are cleaner for the environment. Specific areas of interest include gas hydrates. A vast amount of energy-rich methane containing hydrates occur naturally in permafrost and marine environments when water and gas come in contact, but their extraction is costly and could result in seafloor instability. A solution is to exchange methane with carbon dioxide in methane hydrate reservoirs to form more stable carbon dioxide hydrates. I am interested in understanding the thermodynamics and kinetics of this exchange process. Also, I am working on projects investigating biofuel options, particularly those from cellulosic or algal sources. Specifically, I am working on finding energy efficient methods to pretreat and dewater algae for biofuel production and determining techniques to extract biogas and bioethanol from waste cellulosic materials.
Selected Publications
Horvat, K. & Randi, J. A Partnership Model for Integrating Technical Communication Habits Throughout Undergraduate Engineering Courses. ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings 2020.
Wu, B., Horvat, K., Mahajan, D., Chai, X., Yang, D., & Dai, X. Free-conditioning dewatering of sewage sludge through in situ propane hydrate formation. Water Research 2018, 145, 464-472.
Wu, B., Ni, B.-J., Horvat, K., Song, L., Chai, X., Dai, X., & Mahajan, D. Occurrence State and Molecular Structure Analysis of Extracellular Proteins with Implications to the Dewaterability of Waste Activated Sludge. Environmental Science & Technology 2017.
Horvat, K. & Mahajan, D. Carbon Dioxide-Induced Liberation of Methane from Laboratory-Formed Methane Hydrates. Canadian Journal of Chemistry 2015.
See MoreKerkar, P., Horvat, K., Mahajan D., & Jones, K. Imaging Methane Hydrates Growth Dynamics in Porous Media Using Synchrotron X-ray Computed Microtomography. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 2014, 15(12), 4759-4768. [An image from this paper was used for the issue鈥檚 cover page.]
Kerkar, P. B., Horvat, K.., Mahajan D., & Jones, K. W. Formation and Dissociation of Methane Hydrates from Seawater in Consolidated Sand: Mimicking Methane Hydrate Dynamics beneath the Seafloor. Energies 2013, 6 (12), 6225-6241.
Horvat, K., Kerkar, P., Jones, K., & Mahajan, D. Kinetics of the Formation and Dissociation of Gas Hydrates from CO2-CH4 Mixtures. Energies 2012, 5(7), 2248-2262.
Book Chapter
Gill, S., Horvat, K., & Rao, T. Increasing National Laboratory and University Collaborations: The Career Advancement in Research Environments Workshop Series at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In Forward to Professorship in STEM Inclusive Faculty Development Strategies That Work; Heller, R. S.; Mavriplis, C.; Sabila, P. S., Eds. Elsevier 2015. ISBN: 978-0-12-800855-3.