Elizabeth M. Fisher

About

Elizabeth M. Fisher is an Associate Professor Emerita at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. She graduated summa cum laude in physics and served as president of the Yale chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society in her senior year. Her early professional experience includes work at the Thermal Sciences Branch of the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, Colorado. In 1991, she joined the faculty at Cornell and was named to a five-year Clare Boothe Luce Professorship. Her research focuses on using bench-scale experiments and numerical simulations to investigate combustion chemistry, flow, and heat transfer processes in biomass energy systems and other practical systems. Her work aims to understand chemical kinetic mechanisms related to the formation of desired products and pollutants, with applications including biomass combustion in cookstoves, biomass pyrolysis for fuels and biochar, flame inhibition, combustion of practical liquid fuels such as biodiesel and jet fuel, oxycombustion for carbon sequestration, and incineration of hazardous wastes and chemical warfare agents. Professor Fisher has taught courses such as Thermodynamics, Combustion Engines and Fuel Cells, Aerospace Propulsion, and Fluids/Heat Transfer Laboratory, emphasizing active and problem-based learning. She has received numerous awards for her teaching, including the ASEE St. Lawrence Section Outstanding Teacher Award in 2017, the Teetor Award from the Society of…

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Environmental science
• Materials science
• Waste management
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Techno-economic assessment of biomass slow pyrolysis into different biochar and methanol concepts

  Fuel · 2013-09-10 · 175 citations

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  PublisherDOI

• Pyrolysis of Centimeter-Scale Woody Biomass Particles: Kinetic Modeling and Experimental Validation

  Energy & Fuels · 2014-05-27 · 152 citations

  articleSenior author

  Pyrolysis of centimeter-scale wood particles is of practical interest and provides a sensitive test of pyrolysis models, especially their thermochemistry. In this paper we present an updated comprehensive pyrolysis model including chemical reactions and transport of heat and species, implemented independently in two different software environments. Results of the model are compared to experimental results of three independent sets of centimeter-scale experiments. Temperatures, mass losses, and r…

  PublisherDOI

• Biofuels from Pyrolysis in Perspective: Trade-offs between Energy Yields and Soil-Carbon Additions

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2014-04-30 · 69 citations

  article

  Coproduction of biofuels with biochar (the carbon-rich solid formed during biomass pyrolysis) can provide carbon-negative bioenergy if the biochar is sequestered in soil, where it can improve fertility and thus simultaneously address issues of food security, soil degradation, energy production, and climate change. However, increasing biochar production entails a reduction in bioenergy obtainable per unit biomass feedstock. Quantification of this trade-off for specific biochar-biofuel pathways ha…

  PublisherDOI

• Effect of Particle Size on Low-Temperature Pyrolysis of Woody Biomass

  Energy & Fuels · 2014-11-20 · 48 citations

  articleSenior author

  When biomass is thermochemically processed, the size of the biomass particles affects processing time requirements and yields. This study investigates the effects of particle size at the centimeter scale on pyrolysis through both experimental and modeling approaches, with three types of woody biomass; poplar, pine sapwood, and pine heartwood. Large (D = 3.81 cm) and small (D = 2.54 cm) wood spheres were pyrolyzed under thermally thick conditions at three final pyrolysis temperatures in a reactor…

  PublisherDOI

• Valveless microliter combustion for densely packed arrays of powerful soft actuators

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021-09-23 · 41 citations

  articleOpen access

  Existing tactile stimulation technologies powered by small actuators offer low-resolution stimuli compared to the enormous mechanoreceptor density of human skin. Arrays of soft pneumatic actuators initially show promise as small-resolution (1- to 3-mm diameter), highly conformable tactile display strategies yet ultimately fail because of their need for valves bulkier than the actuators themselves. In this paper, we demonstrate an array of individually addressable, soft fluidic actuators that ope…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Hadas Ritz

  Cornell University

  31 shared

• Matthew Ford

  University of Washington

  31 shared

• Soheil Fatehiboroujeni

  Cornell University

  29 shared

• Johannes Lehmann

  13 shared

• F. C. Gouldin

  13 shared

• Pamela Hallock

  University of South Florida St. Petersburg

  11 shared

• Catherine P. Koshland

  University of California, Berkeley

  8 shared

• Lei Deng

  8 shared

Education

• PhD, Engineering Science: Mechanical Engineering

  University of California Berkeley

  1990

• M.S., Engineering Science: Mechanical Engineering

  University of California Berkeley

  1987

• BS, Physics

  Yale University

  1982

Awards & honors

• James and Mary Tien Teaching Award, College of Engineering,…
• ASME St. Lawrence Section Outstanding Teaching Award, Americ…
• John Swanson '61 ME Teaching Award, in honor of his mother,…
• McManus Faculty Fellowship 2006
• Dennis G. Shepherd Memorial Teaching Prize, Sibley School of…

Similar researchers at Cornell University

• Fengqi Youh-83
• Stephen B. Popeh-83
• Rebecca J. Barthelmieh-62