Rate My Professor Michael Ackerson

Michael Ackerson is an associate professor of chemical engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla, followed by a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arkansas in 1987. After completing his master's degrees, he served as a thermodynamicist at Phillips Petroleum. In 1988, he joined the faculty of the Ralph E. Martin Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, where he has focused his career on research in energy and sustainability.

Ackerson's academic interests encompass catalytic production, biomass conversion, biofuel production, and clean fuel technologies. His research includes bioconversion of synthesis gas into liquid or gaseous fuels, mass-transfer and kinetic aspects in bioreactors, biological production of fuels from coal synthesis gas, acid hydrolysis of biomass, and revamping diesel hydrotreaters for ultra-low sulfur fuels using IsoTherming technology. In 1993, he founded Process Dynamics Inc., a technology development and licensing company to commercialize innovations from the University of Arkansas. The company successfully commercialized four process technologies, including one for ultra-clean fuels, leading to nine licensed units (five operational, four under construction) before the process was sold to DuPont Chemical Solutions in 2007. Ackerson holds 12 U.S. patents and numerous foreign patents. He was inducted into the Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers in 2008. Notable publications include "Catalytic Production of 1-Octadecanol from Octadecanoic Acid by Hydrotreating in a Plug Flow Reactor" (2014), "Bioconversion of synthesis gas into liquid or gaseous fuels" (1992), "Biological production of fuels from coal synthesis gas" (1991), and "Two-stage acid hydrolysis of biomass" (1981). He has served on graduate dissertation committees and advised undergraduate honors theses projects in chemical engineering, contributing to student research on topics such as PFAS treatment, nanoparticle catalysts, and biofuel production.