Mariefel Olarte

Senior Research Chemical Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Speaker

Dr. Mariefel V. Olarte joined PNNL in 2011 after completing her graduate studies from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering under Prof. Christopher W. Jones and Prof. Pradeep K. Agrawal. Her research is focused on catalytic upgrading of bio-oils to produce hydrocarbons and the analysis of the reactant and product streams. This involves working with teams at PNNL and external collaborators to develop catalyst, process and analytical methods. She has experience in the catalytic conversion of biomass to renewable fuels and chemicals and had worked on aqueous phase reforming of pine, biomass fractionation (aqueous- and ionic liquid-phase acid hydrolysis and lignin depolymerization) and catalytic upgrading of phenolic compounds. Since joining PNNL, she is mainly involved in the catalytic upgrading of pyrolysis oil and characterization of biomass-derived streams. Aside from these, she has also worked on catalytic hydrothermal gasification and hydrothermal liquefaction technologies, oxidative lignin depolymerization as well as in the commissioning a demonstration scale hydrotreater (20L) and distillation systems. Recently, she has interest in machine learning applications in chemistry and chemical processes.