Zhifa Sun
Associate Professor
physics
Otago University
New Zealand
Biography
Zhifa studied chemical engineering at Northwest University (Xi’an, China), graduating in 1977. Afterwards, he went on to complete his ME at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology in 1982, and his PhD at Tianjin University in 1988. He has worked in the Physics Department at Otago University since he was first appointed as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 1989.
Research Interest
y research includes fundamental developments in fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, non-equilibrium phase transitions, nonlinear systems and thermodynamics, and the development of new technologies to reduce the green house gas emissions and improve the energy efficiency of industry. I am interested in the following research areas Steam generation, fuel combustion and gasification Separation processes: distillation, absorption, extraction, adsorption Drying processes Coolers and heat pumps Chemical and engineering thermodynamics Fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Process modelling, simulation and optimization Exergy-economic analysis of energy systems Renewable energy, biofuels Energy systems of commercial buildings Energy end-user technology development, management and deployment
Publications
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Okoro, O., Sun, Z., & Birch, J. (2017, January). Process design of the hydroesterification of meat processing dissolved air flotation sludge for biodiesel production: Simulation study and preliminary economic assessment. Verbal presentation at the 6th International Conference on Biorefinery (ICB), Christchurch, New Zealand.
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Valentine, O. O., Sun, Z., & Birch, J. (2017). An assessment of the potential environmental impact of an integrated subcritical lipid hydrolysis and supercritical esterification process for biodiesel production. Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science & Technology (NZIFST) Conference. (pp. 19-20). Retrieved from http://www.nzifst.org.nz/
