Meltem Urgun-Demirtas is the Group Leader of the Bioprocesses and Reactive Separations in the Applied Materials Division of Argonne National Laboratory. The group focuses on re-engineering of plant flow diagram to develop innovative technologies for industrial applications as well as development and application of intensified reactor and separation technologies for bioenergy and bioproducts production, water treatment, and manufacturing. She is also a Fellow at the Northwestern and Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering. Dr. Urgun-Demirtas has over 20 years of experience in the design and operation of chemical and bioprocesses, development and scale up of new technologies from bench- to pilot- and field-scale, techno-economic analysis and modeling of processes. Currently, she serves as Argonne’s Program Manager for Bioenergy Technologies Office of DOE which includes sustainability analysis of feedstock and development of new technologies and materials for production of biofuels and bioproducts.
Most recently, Urgun-Demirtas has been working on the development of new plastics to increase polymer recyclability and generate benign degradation products at the end of their life.