Dr. Florin Barla joined the ODU Civil and Environmental Engineering Department in March 2014 and is working with the Biofuels Laboratory team. His main research activity centers on improving a hydrothermal (HTL) process with specific biomass in order to optimize the carbohydrate yield to result in a process that is both economically efficient and environmentally friendly.  Because the focus is for a biomass to biofuels application, there is added attention to the concentration of “sugar slurry” as a main product of the HTL process as well as its other high value by-products that include proteins, oil and biochar.

 

Dr. Barla received his PhD in Applied Life Sciences from Osaka Prefecture University in Japan in 2010.  His research concentration in the nutrition biochemistry field focused on the isolation, identification and characterization of certain plant-derived biological active compounds. Additional research included nutritional food supplements and the effectiveness of dietary modifications on the health outcomes in mice and rats. Dr Barla has also researched microbial contamination in foods and drinking water as well as microbiological processes in fermentation.

Dr. Florin Barla