Indira Jayaweera

Indira Jayaweera, Ph.D., a Director and a Fellow at SRI International (SRI) is responsible for project management, R&D planning, coordination, and execution of projects for the Carbon and Water Management (CWM) laboratory in the Integrated Systems and Solutions (InSyS) division at SRI.  

Dr. Jayaweera mainly focuses on development of carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture technologies based on solvent absorption and membrane separation. She is currently the principal investigator for three projects on carbon dioxide capture from Point-Sources funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE): 

• https://netl.doe.gov/node/10671
• https://www.netl.doe.gov/projects/project-information.aspx?p=FE0031588, https://www.netl.doe.gov/node/1791
• https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-invests-45-million-decarbonize-natural-gas-power-and-industrial-sectors-using-carbon

Selected high-level development projects led by Dr. Jayaweera include development of a mixed-salt process for CO₂ capture currently undergoing engineering-scale testing; a sub-critical water technology for explosive disposal and removal of heavy petroleum components from soil (for the Department of Defense and Department of Energy); and a carbonate-aided supercritical water technology known as Assisted Hydrothermal Oxidation (AHO) for disposal of chlorinated waste (MHI, Japan). In 2002, the Japanese Government bestowed the “Golden Award” on SRI’s AHO technology. Currently, a full-scale plant based on AHO is in operation at Tokyo Bay, Japan.

Dr. Jayaweera received her Ph.D. in chemical kinetics from Dalhousie University, Canada and her B.S. in chemistry with honors from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She was named SRI Fellow in 2017.

She has published numerous research papers on vapor and aqueous phase reaction chemistry and holds nine issued patents relating to hydrothermal processes and the CO₂ capture technology based on the Chilled Ammonia Process (CAP), Mixed-Salt Process (MSP), and PBI hollow fiber membranes (PBI HFM).

Publications

• Corrêa, L., Fosbøl, P.L., Jayaweera, I., Jayaweera, P., Thomsen, K. New apparatus for CO₂ solubility measurements from total pressure-composition data. Proceedings of the 15th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference, GHGT-15, 15-18 March 2021.
• Jayaweera, I., Jayaweera, P., Perea, E., Springer, R. Engineering-scale demonstration of the mixed-salt process (MSP) for CO₂ capture. Proceedings of 15th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, GHGT-15, 15-18 March 2021.
• Jayaweera, I., Jayaweera, P., Perea, E., Springer, R. Engineering-scale demonstration of the mixed-salt process (MSP) for CO₂ capture. Proceedings of the 14th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Melbourne, 21-26 October 2018 (GHGT-14).
• Kang, C.A., Brandt, A.R., Durlofsky, L.J., and Jayaweera, I. Assessment of advanced solvent-based post-combustion CO₂ capture processes using a bi-objective optimization technique. Applied Energy 2016, 179(3): 1209-1219.
• Lillia, S., Bonalumi, D., Fosbøl, P., Thomsen, K., Valenti, G., Jayaweera, I., Analysis of the K₂CO₃-NH₃ solvent properties for carbon capture applications. Proceedings of the 14th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Melbourne, 21-26 October 2018 (GHGT-14).
• Wales, M.D., Gebremichael, E., Wang, X., Perea, E., Jayaweera, P., Jayaweera, I. Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater treatment using polybenzimidazole (PBI) hollow fiber (HF) membranes. Membranes 2021, 11: 430.
• Wales, M., Jayaweera, P., Jayaweera, I. CO₂ desorption rates for an NH₃–K₂CO₃–Amine–H₂O carbon capture solution. Proceedings of the 15th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference, 15-18 March 2021.
• Wang, X., Bandar, K.B., Wales, M.D., Jayaweera, P., Alrasheed R.A., Saad A.A, Jayaweera, I. Development of polybenzimidazole ultrafiltration hollow-fiber membranes. Desalination and Water Treatment 2021, 229: 69-78.
• Wang, X., Jayaweera, P., Alrasheed, R.A., Aljlil, S.A., Alyousef, Y.M., Alsubaei, M., Al Romaih, H., Jayaweera, I. Preparation of polybenzimidazole hollow-fiber membranes for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration by changing the spinning air gap. Membranes 2018, 8(4): 113.
• Jayaweera, I, P. Jayaweera, P. Kundu, A. Anderko, K. Thomsen, G. Valenti, D. Bonalumi, and S. Lillia “Results from Process Modeling of the Mixed-salt Technology for CO₂ Capture from Post-combustion-related Applications,” Energy Procedia (2017), 114 (GHGT-13), 771-780.