About

Kim Ogden is the Department Chair of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and a Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona. She also holds the position of Professor of Agricultural-Biosystems Engineering and serves as the Director of the AZ Institute of Advanced Energy Solutions. Her research interests include bioreactor design, scale-up and optimization, algal cultivation, yeast and bacterial growth kinetics, bioremediation, and the water-energy-food nexus, as well as alternative energy. Ogden has a background in chemical engineering, holding a PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and has worked extensively in academia and industry, including positions at the University of Queensland, Texas Instruments, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. She is actively involved in teaching and research, contributing to sustainable water purification, microalgae cultivation, and process intensification education, among other areas.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Engineering management
• Engineering
• Business
• Process management
• Engineering ethics
• Public relations
• Process engineering
• Law
• World Wide Web
• Computer network

Selected publications

• Integration of Sustainability into a Chemical Engineering Senior Capstone Design Course

  2025-02-27

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Sustainability issues are attracting many incoming students into engineering as issues related to population growth, use of natural resources, and the impacts of manufacturing and use of products have emerged.Integrating sustainability issues into core courses has often been difficult because instructors feel that they need to give up other content to make room for the new materials.However, we have followed a path towards full integration of green design and sustainability into our two semester series on chemical engineering design.Originally, a free standing elective course at the senior/graduate student level was created and offered twice.The course introduced students to green design, green chemistry, life cycle assessment evaluation, and critical reading of peer reviewed literature on these topics.The students worked in teams to do one green design to replace an older technology and also attempted to perform one gate-to-gate life cycle assessment of a process.After offering the course two times, it became possible to integrate the material into the senior capstone course by rethinking the topics in that course and shifting focus slightly.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Toolbox for Integrating Information Literacy into Engineering Courses: Helping Students Help Themselves

  2025-02-27

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Guayule resin as a bio-based modifier for soy protein adhesive systems

  International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives · 2025-10-23

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Bio-Based Insect Repellents from Guayule (<i>Parthenium argentatum</i>) Resin

  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · 2023-07-10 · 3 citations

  article

  Guayule (Parthenium argentatum) is an alternative source of natural rubber that grows well in arid and semi-arid regions. The feasibility of guayule as an industrial crop is substantially impacted by the value of the rubber extraction byproducts, resin and bagasse. In this study, guayule resin, a complex mixture of secondary plant metabolites, was tested as a bio-based insect repellent. Whole guayule resin and vacuum-distilled resin fractions were tested against Turkestan cockroaches (Blatta lateralis Walker), both immediately after application and after being allowed to evaporate for one week. All resin fractions showed good repellency in their fresh form, with two fractions performing better than the positive control (citronella Java oil). The heavier resin fractions, which contain a mixture of lipid and oxygenated sesquiterpenes, demonstrated a persistent repellent activity against Turkestan cockroach nymphs, losing only ∼3% of their repellency after 7 days. The vacuum-distilled fractions were characterized by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy and fatty acid methyl ester analysis. Structural similarity analysis showed that the most abundant compounds in guayule resin overlap with some active ingredients in commercial repellents. Techno-economic analysis of guayule resin-based insect repellents showed that a substantial quantity would need to be produced and sold (∼8% of the U.S. active ingredient market for residential insect repellents) in order to achieve the targeted resin selling price of 1.00 USD/kg resin.

  PublisherDOI

• An economic and environmental assessment of guayule resin co-products for a US natural rubber industry

  Industrial Crops and Products · 2023-12-16 · 4 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• WINDS Model Simulation of Guayule Irrigation

  Water · 2023-10-07 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The WINDS (Water-Use, Irrigation, Nitrogen, Drainage, and Salinity) model uses the FAO56 dual crop coefficient and a daily time-step soil–water balance to simulate evapotranspiration and water content in the soil profile. This research calibrated the WINDS model for simulation of guayule under full irrigation. Using data from a furrow irrigated two-season guayule experiment in Arizona, this research developed segmented curves for guayule basal crop coefficient, canopy cover, crop height and root growth. The two-season guayule basal crop coefficient (Kcb) curve included first and second season development, midseason, late-season and end-season growth stages. For a fully irrigated guayule crop, the year one midseason Kcb was 1.14. The second year Kcb development phase began after the crop was semi-dormant during the first winter. The second year Kcb value was 1.23. The two-season root growth curve included a growth phase during the first season, no growth during winter, and a second growth phase during the second winter. A table allocated fractions of total transpiration to soil layers as a function of root depth. With the calibrated tables and curves, the WINDS model simulated soil moisture content with a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 1- to 3-% volumetric water content in seven soil layers compared with neutron probe water contents during the two-year growth cycle. Thus, this research developed growth curves and accurately simulated evapotranspiration and water content for a two-season guayule crop.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Water Use, Growth, and Yield of Ratooned Guayule under Subsurface Drip and Furrow Irrigation in the US Southwest Desert

  Water · 2023-09-28 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Guayule (Parthenium argentatum, A. Gray) is a perennial desert shrub with ratoon-cropping potential for multiple harvests of its natural rubber, resin, and bagasse byproducts. However, yield expectations, water use requirements, and irrigation scheduling information for ratooned guayule are extremely limited. The objectives of this study were to evaluate dry biomass (DB), contents of rubber (R) and resin (Re) and yields of rubber (RY) and resin (ReY) responses to irrigation treatments, and develop irrigation management criteria for ratooned guayule. The water productivity (WP) of the yield components were also evaluated. Guayule plants that were direct-seeded in April 2018 were ratooned and regrown starting in April 2020, after an initial 2-year harvest at two locations in Arizona: Maricopa and Eloy on sandy loam and clay soils, respectively. Plots were irrigated with subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) at 50, 75, and 100% replacement of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), respectively, and furrow irrigation at 100% ETc replacement, as determined by soil water balance measurements. The Eloy location did not include the 100% irrigation treatment under SDI due to unsuccessful regrowth for this specific treatment. The irrigation treatments at the locations were replicated three times in a randomized complete block design. After 21–22 months of regrowth, the guayule plants were harvested in plots. The results showed that DB increased with the amount of total water applied (TWA, irrigation plus precipitation), while R and Re were reduced at the highest TWA received at both locations. Ultimately, the SDI treatments with 75% ETc replacement resulted in the best irrigation management in terms of maximizing RY and ReY, and WP for both locations and soil types. Compared to the initial 2-year direct-seeded guayule crop, ratooned guayule required less TWA and attained higher DB, RY, and ReY, as well as higher WP, with average increases of 25% in dry biomass, 33% in rubber yield, and 32% in resin yield. A grower’s costs for planting the initial direct-seeded guayule crop would be offset by the additional yield revenue of the ratooned crop, which would have comparatively small startup costs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Discovering The Link Between University And Industrial Environmental Research

  2020 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • World Wide Web

  Marana Unified School District (MUSD), Nogales School District, and other districts

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Coupling Carbon Capture from a Power Plant with Semi-automated Open Raceway Ponds for Microalgae Cultivation

  Journal of Visualized Experiments · 2020-08-14 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  In the United States, 35% of the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions come from the electrical power industry, of which 30% represent natural gas electricity generation. Microalgae can biofix CO2 10 to 15 times faster than plants and convert algal biomass to products of interest, such as biofuels. Thus, this study presents a protocol that demonstrates the potential synergies of microalgae cultivation with a natural gas power plant situated in the southwestern United States in a hot semi-arid climate. State-of-the-art technologies are used to enhance carbon capture and utilization via the green algal species Chlorella sorokiniana, which can be further processed into biofuel. We describe a protocol involving a semi-automated open raceway pond and discuss the results of its performance when it was tested at the Tucson Electric Power plant, in Tucson, Arizona. Flue gas was used as the main carbon source to control pH, and Chlorella sorokiniana was cultivated. An optimized medium was used to grow the algae. The amount of CO2 added to the system as a function of time was closely monitored. Additionally, other physicochemical factors affecting algal growth rate, biomass productivity, and carbon fixation were monitored, including optical density, dissolved oxygen (DO), electroconductivity (EC), and air and pond temperatures. The results indicate that a microalgae yield of up to 0.385 g/L ash-free dry weight is attainable, with a lipid content of 24%. Leveraging synergistic opportunities between CO2 emitters and algal farmers can provide the resources required to increase carbon capture while supporting the sustainable production of algal biofuels and bioproducts.

  PublisherDOI

• Coupling Carbon Capture from a Power Plant with Semi-automated Open Raceway Ponds for Microalgae Cultivation

  Journal of Visualized Experiments · 2020-08-14 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  In the United States, 35% of the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions come from the electrical power industry, of which 30% represent natural gas electricity generation. Microalgae can biofix CO2 10 to 15 times faster than plants and convert algal biomass to products of interest, such as biofuels. Thus, this study presents a protocol that demonstrates the potential synergies of microalgae cultivation with a natural gas power plant situated in the southwestern United States in a hot semi-arid climate. State-of-the-art technologies are used to enhance carbon capture and utilization via the green algal species Chlorella sorokiniana, which can be further processed into biofuel. We describe a protocol involving a semi-automated open raceway pond and discuss the results of its performance when it was tested at the Tucson Electric Power plant, in Tucson, Arizona. Flue gas was used as the main carbon source to control pH, and Chlorella sorokiniana was cultivated. An optimized medium was used to grow the algae. The amount of CO2 added to the system as a function of time was closely monitored. Additionally, other physicochemical factors affecting algal growth rate, biomass productivity, and carbon fixation were monitored, including optical density, dissolved oxygen (DO), electroconductivity (EC), and air and pond temperatures. The results indicate that a microalgae yield of up to 0.385 g/L ash-free dry weight is attainable, with a lipid content of 24%. Leveraging synergistic opportunities between CO2 emitters and algal farmers can provide the resources required to increase carbon capture while supporting the sustainable production of algal biofuels and bioproducts.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• New, GK-12: Water and Energy Systems: The Key to the Future of Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

  NSF · $2.9M · 2010–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Peter Waller

  University of Arizona

  9 shared

• Jean‐Marc Commenge

  Université de Lorraine

  9 shared

• Bingcong Zhang

  University of Arizona

  8 shared

• Kuan‐Chen Cheng

  China Medical University Hospital

  8 shared

• Ming Ren

  7 shared

• Worawan Maketon

  University of Arizona

  7 shared

• Richard T. Sayre

  6 shared

• Jeroen van Gestel

  Utrecht University

  6 shared

Education

• PhD, Chemical Engineering

  University of Colorado Boulder

  1991

• BS, Chemical Engineering

  University of Pennsylvania

  1986

Awards & honors

• Da Vinci Fellowship College of Engineering, University of Ar…
• College of Engineering Faculty Fellow College of Engineering…
• AIChE Fellow AIChE, Fall 2012
• Gary Leach Award AIChE, Fall 2011
• AIChE, Fall 2007