Kentaro Umeki

Biography

Kentaro Umeki, born 1982 in Miyazaki, Japan, is associate professor in Energy Engineering at Luleå University of Technology (LTU). Umeki is also a laboratory manager and research coordinator of thermochemical area at the Division of Energy Science. He is currently serving as a subject assistant editor of Applied Energy (Elsevier Inc., IF=7.182) and a board member for Swedish Flame Research Committee. His main research interests are thermochemical conversion of biomass as alternative energy processes to fossil based technologies. Umeki earned PhD in Environmental Science and Technology in 2010 after earning BEng in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 and MEng in Environmental Science and Technology in 2007, all from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. He received research fellowships from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2008-2010) during his PhD study, and Canon Foundation in Europe (2010-2011) during his postdoctoral research at Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. He was a guest researcher at Korean Institute of Machnery and Materials 2007-2008 (5 months) and at Monash University, Australia 2011 (6 weeks). He was awarded a best paper award (6th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy, 2009), a best reviewer award (Applied Energy, Elsevier Inc., 2012), the innovative young researcher award (Norbotten Research Council, 2015), and Gunnar Öquist Fellow (2016). Umeki worked as a (tenure track) research fellow at LTU from 2011, and became associate professor in 2015. He has published >30 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals, one book chapter, and more than 55 conference contributions including 3 invited presentations.

Research Interest

Thermochemical conversion of biomass, modelling and simulation, chemical reaction engineering