1. Introduction to Our Research Group:

Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Research Group (CRERG) is one of the leading and pro-active research groups at the Department of Chemical Engineering with an aim to promote research in multi-dimensional catalysis/photo catalysis for production of biofuels, water splitting, dyes degradation and efficient chemical reactions overall. The group also has members working in areas process modeling and simulations.

The group is headed by Pakistan’s renowned scientist Dr. Murid Hussain. Dr. Hussain has published more than 100 research articles in well know SCI journals in the field with cumulative impact factor >800. His research work has more than 2400 citations and an overall h-index of 29 and i10-index of 62. He has attended several renowned international conferences held in various developed countries. He is recipient of “BEST RESEARCHER AWARD of Chemical Engineering for the year 2017 by COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus”. He has been ranked among the top productive scientists of Pakistan in the field of Engineering and received Research Productivity Awards (in years 2015, 2016, 2017) by Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST).

Dr. Hussain is currently leading Catalysis & Reaction Engineering Research Group and has a diverse working experience on the development of nanomaterials, heterogenous catalysis, photocatalysis and their applications in the area of energy and environment. The research group with MS & PhD students is currently working on several funded applied projects (SRGP, TDF, NRPU) for research and products development and is striving to promote academia-industry linkage.

2. Our Team:

2.1. Head:

Dr. Murid Hussain (Associate Professor)

Research Interests: Heterogeneous Catalysis, Photocatalysis, Chemical Reaction Engineering, Nanostructured Materials, Energy for Next Generation.

Home Page: https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/Employees/205

2.2. Members:

1) Dr. Farrukh Jamil (Assistant Professor)

Research Interests: Photocatalysis.

Home Page: https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/Employees/478

2) Dr. Nabeel Ahmad (Assistant Professor)

Research Interests: Thermal conversion processes, biofuels, Energy, Plastic and rubber waste to valuable products, Coal and biomass conversion.

Home Page: https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/Employees/974

3) Dr. Muhammad Haris Hamayun (Assistant Professor)

Research Interests: Process Simulation, Process Design and Optimization, Catalysis.

Home Page: https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/Employees/1056

4) Engr. Mian Hamood ur Rehman (Lecturer)

Research Interests: Catalysis, Fuel Cells

Home Page: https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/Employees/973

5) Engr. Nasir Shezad (Lecturer / On Study Leave)

Research Interests: Photocatalysis, CO₂ reduction, Water Splitting, Solar Fuels.

Home Page: https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/Employees/1053

6) Engr. Mulazim Ali (Lab Engineer)

Research Interests: Catalysis, Rice Bran Oil, Polymeric Materials.

Home Page: https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/Employees/1122

2.3. Our Students:

• 30 MS and 01 PhD students graduated from this research group.
• Currently, 05 MS and 05 PhD students are working on different research areas in this research group.

3. Collaborations:

3.1. Industrial Collaboration:

• Shama Banaspati & Cooking Oils
• PARCO

3.2. Academic Collaboration:

• University of Seoul, South Korea
• Harbin Institute of Technology, China
• Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia
• University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
• University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
• The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan

3.3. Industrial Projects Won:

Dr. Murid Husain (Principal Investigator) won a Technology Development Fund (TDF) Project under Academia-Industry linkage, funded by Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan and Shama Banaspati & Cooking Oil, Multan in 2019.

As part of the TDF project, to serve the national cause and to provide extensive research platform for fellow colleagues/students in the area of cleaning products developments and, catalysts development & their applications, Catalysis & Reaction Engineering Research Lab has been established under this linkage. Mr. Sh. Ahsan Rasheed, CEO/Vice-Chairman of Shama Banaspati & Cooking Oil and Dr. Tahir Naeem, Director CUI Lahore Campus inaugurated the research lab. The CEO/Vice-Chairman appreciated the PI and his team and mentioned that the deliverable of this collaboration gave birth to brand Wiz a house of cleaning products. The Director CUI-Lahore Campus appreciated the efforts of the project team of the Department of Chemical Engineering, the management and team of Shama Bansaspati & Cooking Oil and HEC Pakistan for this joint venture to develop and commercialize the products. He further added that the Department of Chemical Engineering and Shama Banaspati & Cooking Oil will further strengthen this collaboration of products development and commercialization for the national development.

4. Research Facilities:

5. Research Publications (Last 05 years):

The research group has published more than 200 articles, with 150+ articles in last 05 years.

5.1. Selected Publications(from last 02 years):

Year 2022:

• Iqra Mahboob, Iqrash Shafiq, Sumeer Shafique, Parveen Akhter, Um-e-Salma Amjad, Murid Hussain, Young-Kwon Park (2022), "Effect of active species scavengers in photocatalytic desulfurization of hydrocracker diesel using mesoporous Ag₃VO₄", Chemical Engineering Journal, pp: 136063, Vol: 441, ISSN: 1385-8947, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.136063, Impact Factor: 13.273.
• Um-e-Salma Amjad, Arshia Tajjamal, Anwar Ul-Hamid, Abrar Faisal, Syed Ammar Hussain Zaidi, Lubna Sherin, Amna Mir, Maria Mustafa, Nabeel Ahmad, Murid Hussain, Young-Kwon Park (2022), "Catalytic cracking of polystyrene pyrolysis oil: Effect of Nb₂O₅ and NiO/Nb₂O₅ catalyst on the liquid product composition", Waste Management, pp: 240-250, Vol: 141, ISSN: 0956-053X, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2022.02.002, Impact Factor: 7.145.
• Iqra Abdullah, Nabeel Ahmad, Murid Hussain, Ashfaq Ahmed, Usama Ahmed, Young-Kwon Park (2022), "Conversion of biomass blends (walnut shell and pearl millet) for the production of solid biofuel via torrefaction under different conditions", Chemosphere, pp: 133894, Vol: 295, ISSN: 0045-6535, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.133894, Impact Factor: 7.086.
• Maira Shabir, Muhammad Yasin, Murid Hussain, Iqrash Shafiq, Parveen Akhter, Abdul-Sattar Nizami, Byong-Hun Jeon, Young-Kwon Park (2022), "A review on recent advances in the treatment of dye-polluted wastewater", Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, pp: 1-19, Vol: 112, ISSN: 1226-086X, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2022.05.013, Impact Factor: 6.760.
• Muhammad Haris Hamayun, Naveed Ramzan, Murid Hussain, and Muhammad Faheem (2022), "Conventional and Advanced Exergy Analyses of an Integrated LNG Regasification–Air Separation Process", Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, ISSN: 1520-5045, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.1c03730, Impact Factor: 3.720.
• Abideen Temitayo Oyewo, Oluleke Olugbemiga Oluwole, Olusegun Olufemi Ajide, Temidayo Emmanuel Omoniyi, Muhammad Haris Hamayun, Murid Hussain (2022), "Experimental and theoretical studies to investigate the water absorption behavior of carbon/banana fibre hybrid epoxy composite", Materials Chemistry and Physics, pp: 126084, Vol: 285, ISSN: 0254-0584, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2022.126084, Impact Factor: 4.094.
• Iqrash Shafiq, Murid Hussain, Sumeer Shafique, Muhammad Haris Hamayun, Muhammad Mudassir, Zeeshan Nawaz, Ashfaq Ahmed & Young-Kwon Park (2021), "A comprehensive numerical design of firefighting systems for onshore petroleum installations", Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, pp: 1768–1780, Vol: 138, ISSN: 0256-1115, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-021-0820-6, Impact Factor: 3.309.

Year 2021:

• Iqrash Shafiq, Sumeer Shafique, Parveen Akhter, Ghulam Abbas, Ahsanulhaq Qurashi, Murid Hussain (2021), "Efficient catalyst development for deep aerobic photocatalytic oxidative desulfurization: recent advances, confines, and outlooks", Catalysis Reviews, ISSN: 520-5703, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01614940.2020.1864859, Impact Factor: 20.217.
• Iqrash Shafiq, Murid Hussain, Ruhma Rashid, Sumeer Shafique, Parveen Akhter, Wenshu Yang, Ashfaq Ahmed, Zeeshan Nawaz, Young-Kwon Park (2021), "Development of hierarchically porous LaVO4 for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic desulfurization of diesel", Chemical Engineering Journal, pp: 130529, Vol: 420, Issue: Part 3, ISSN: 1385-8947, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.130529, Impact Factor: 13.273.
• Umair Qasim, Sikander Rafiq, Farrukh Jamil, Ashfaq Ahmed, Touqeer Ali, Jaan Kers, M Shahzad Khurram, Murid Hussain, Abrar Inayat, Young-Kwon Park (2021), "Processing of lignocellulose in ionic liquids: A cleaner and sustainable approach", Journal of Cleaner Production, pp: 129189, Vol: 323, ISSN: 0959-6526, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129189, Impact Factor: 9.297.
• Ruhma Rashid, Iqrash Shafiq, Parveen Akhter, Muhammad Javid Iqbal, Murid Hussain (2021), "A state-of-the-art review on wastewater treatment techniques: the effectiveness of adsorption method", Environmental Science and Pollution Research, pp: 9050–9066, Vol: 28, ISSN: 0944-1344, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12395-x, Impact Factor: 4.223.
• Farea Asif, Muhammad Haris Hamayun, Murid Hussain, Arif Hussain, Ibrahim M Maafa, Young-Kwon Park (2021), "Performance Analysis of the Perhydro-Dibenzyl-Toluene Dehydrogenation System—A Simulation Study", Sustainability, pp: 6490, Vol: 13, Issue: 11, ISSN: 2071-1050, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116490, Impact Factor: 3.889.
• Aisha Abdullah, Ashfaq Ahmed, Parveen Akhter, Abdul Razzaq, Muhammad Zafar, Murid Hussain, Nasir Shahzad, Khaliq Majeed, Shahzad Khurrum, Muhammad Saifullah Abu Bakar, Young-Kwon Park (2020), "Bioenergy potential and thermochemical characterization of lignocellulosic biomass residues available in Pakistan", Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, pp: 1899-1906, Vol: 37, Issue: 11, ISSN: 1975-7220, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-020-0624-0, Impact Factor: 3.309.
• Um-e-Salma Amjad, Manzar Ishaq, Hamood ur Rehman, Nabeel Ahmed, Lubna Sherin, Murid Hussain, Maria Mustafa (2021), "Diesel and Gasoline Like Fuel Production with Minimum Styrene Content from Catalytic Pyrolysis of Polystyrene", Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy, pp: e13493, Vol: 40, Issue: 2, ISSN: 1944-7450, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.13493, Impact Factor: 2.431.

6. Contact Us:

Dr. Murid Hussain

Associate Professor,

Department of Chemical Engineering,

COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus,

Defence Road, Off – Raiwind Road, Lahore, Pakistan.

Email: drmhussain@cuilahore.edu.pk