ECES 1B47
1111 Engineering Drive,
Boulder, CO 80309
Education
- Ph.D., Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder (2014)
- B.S., Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado State University, Magna cum Laude (2009)
Post-doctoral Research
Aaron is the project manager and technical lead on an ARPA-E funded project (award DE-AR0000404) to investigate the technical and commercial feasibility of magnesium production using carbothermal reduction. The project builds from WW2-era technology in order to realize cost and energy savings for light metal production. Magnesium has inherent appeal as the lightest structural metal, and it is a direct replacement for steel and aluminum in applications such as automotive parts, electronics housings, and consumer devices (e.g. laptop cases). Aaron and two other Team Weimer members have since founded Big Blue Technologies as the medium for commercializing the innovative process technology.
Ph.D. Dissertation
Aaron's thesis involved high temperature, solar-driven thermochemical processing of biomass and natural gas for the production of synthesis gas (CO & H2) specifically for liquid fuel production. The focus was to understand the fundamental transport phenomena occurring within the reaction tube and characterize overall gasification performance. Emphasis was placed on the process of flash pyrolysis and the heat transfer between the tube wall, particles, and fluid using a variety of experimental and modeling efforts.
Publications
Chubukov, B.C., Paumbo, A.W., Rowe, S.C., Hischier, I., Groehn, A.J., Weimer, A.W. "Pressure dependent kinetics of magnesium oxide carbothermal reduction." Thermochimica Acta 636 (2016) p23-32. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tca.2016.03.035
Palumbo, A.W., Sorli, J.C., Weimer, A.W. "High temperature thermochemical processing of biomass and methane for high conversion and selectivity to H2-enriched syngas." Applied Energy 157 (2015) p13-24. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.07.072
Palumbo, A.W. and A.W. Weimer. (2015) "Heat transer-limited flash pyrolysis of woody biomass: Overall reaction rate and time analysis using an integral model with experimental support." Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 113 (2015) p474-482. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaap.2015.03.010
Rowe, S.C., Groehn, A.J., Palumbo, A.W., Chubukov, B.C., Clough, D.E., Weimer, A.W., Hischier, I. "Worst-case losses from a cylindrical calorimeter for solar simulator calibration." Optics Express 23 (2015) A1309-A1323. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.23.0A1309
Palumbo, A.W., Jorgensen, E.L., Sorli, J.C., Weimer, A.W. "Co-processing methane in high temperature steam gasification of biomass." Bioresource Technology 128 (2013) p553-559. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.10.033