Charbel Abou Khalil
Dr. Charbel Abou Khalil received his MSc. in Environmental Engineering at Notre Dame University in Lebanon and his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology in the USA. His expertise is in environmental remediation.
During his MSc., he investigated the co-digestion of food waste and wastewater using anaerobic-aerobic sequential systems and designed several novel biological reactors to enhance the treatment efficiency and biogas generation when dealing with organic wastes. In addition, he studied greenhouse gas emissions from landfills and open dumpsites by analyzing surface temperature variation using thermal remote sensing. After obtaining his MSc., he worked as an environmental consultant for 12 months on a project funded by the embassy of the Netherlands in Lebanon, whereby he designed small-scale anaerobic reactors to be installed in Syrian refugee camps for treating food waste and wastewater while generating biogas for cooking and a liquid digestate for irrigation and soil enhancement.
During his Ph.D., Dr. Abou Khalil conducted research on the bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons in oil-contaminated upper-tidal shorelines, which resulted in developing cost-effective, efficient, and non-destructive bioremediation techniques to be adopted by oil spill responders and decision-makers. He also investigated the efficiency of electrokinetic remediation and hydraulic flushing in mobilizing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from impacted soils with different clay and organic matter contents.
Dr. Abou Khalil joined ND-ECI in November 2022 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and will be working under the mentorship of Dr. Kyle Doudrick on several projects related to the remediation of PFAS-impacted soils and sediments. Specifically, Dr. Abou Khalil will be working on research pertaining to the thermal destruction of PFAS.