Mallinson, Richard

Dr. Richard Mallinson former C. M. Sliepcevich Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. He joined the faculty in 1983 after earning his Master's and Doctorate degrees in chemical engineering at Purdue University. He has undergraduate degrees in both chemical and biomedical engineering from Tulane University. His research interests have varied from biomedical engineering and polymer science to many aspects of energy and fuels. His energy related research began with studies of coal and shale oil liquefaction and includes natural gas conversion and gas vehicle fuel storage and gas transportation as well as hydrogen production.

Current research is primarily focused on biofuels and the broader picture of sustainable use of natural resources.  The emphasis on these studies has been the development of an understanding chemical and physical processes underlying the observable thermodynamic and rate behavior. The efforts are directed towards applications of reaction engineering and other chemical process operations, including process development.

Dr. Mallinson has also developed projects related to polymerization and catalytic reaction engineering. He has directed research programs funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, the U.S. Air Force, The State of Oklahoma as well as private companies.

He was Director of the Institute for Gas Utilization Technologies of the Sarkeys Energy Center from the mid 90s until 2003.  He was integrally involved in the development of a curriculum for a new interdisciplinary Masters degree program in Natural Gas Engineering and Management that includes internet based courses via streaming video, netmeeting, Tegrity and other formats.

Dr. Mallinson's research began in the area of Fuels processing, working on coal liquefaction, coal fluids and shale oil.  He developed methods for representing the chemical structure of these complex feedstocks and chemical models for the kinetics of their conversion as well as correlations of their properties. A sabbatical at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as an Associated Western Universities Faculty Fellow was spent developing an understanding of the effect of high pressures on the chemistry and kinetics of hydrocarbon pyrolysis.  A sabbatical at the NASA Kennedy Space Center focused on polymerization kinetics of high temperature polymer coatings.

Dr. Mallinson is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, as well as a member of the American Chemical Society. He has served as Secretary, Vice Chairs, Chair and Past Chair of the Fuels and Petrochemicals Division of AIChE as well as the programming co-chair for gas. He has held a five year Kerr-McGee Distinguished Lectureship in the OU College of Engineering.   He has been listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, in America and in The World.   He has been a Guest Professor of Tianjin University with their Key Laboratory for Green Chemistry and was a Visiting Associate Professor at Chulalongkorn University in their Petroleum and Petrochemical College.  He reviews for a number of journals and agencies and has consulted for a number of companies, the Energy Research and Development Authority of the State of New York and the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation.

Dr. Mallinson is an Associate Editor of Energy & Fuels, an American Chemical Society journal.

Research Web Sites

Research page

Center for Biomass Refining www.ou.edu/cbr