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FACULTY PROFILES

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Rima Manneh
           

Director of Life Cycle Assessment Center
Faculty of Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Dr. Rima Manneh worked in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Balamand (UOB) from 2011 to 2017 as an Assistant Professor and from 2017 to 2023 as an Associate Professor. She held the position of Department Chairperson from 2019 to 2022, during which she co-organized the first online Chemical Engineering Day entitled “Chemical Engineering Research and Career Opportunities: Energy and the Environment”. 
She is currently the Director of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Center at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Balamand. During her academic career at UOB, she created and taught the following 7 courses: Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics II, Advanced Chemical Reactor Design, Advanced Transport Phenomena, Drilling Engineering, Chemical Engineering Lab, Environmental Design and Life Cycle Assessment, and Chemical Reactions and Reactor Design. 
She obtained a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Chemical Engineering from McGill University in Canada in 2004. Dr Manneh completed a Master of Applied Sciences (MASc) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal in 2006 and 2011 respectively. The focus of her PhD thesis was to evaluate the uncertainty of fate and exposure parameters used to determine the intake fraction when assessing human health potential environmental impacts in LCA. She has worked at the National Research Council of Canada as a Research Council Officer in 2009. While pursuing her PhD degree, she has won in April 2011 the award for Best Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montreal. 
Her research focuses on: 
i) environmental LCA for the Lebanese context, and 
ii) ii) organic pollution of coastal Lebanese sediments. 
Since she had joined the University of Balamand, she has been highly active in establishing a strong network for collaboration. For example, she has worked with the “National Marine Research Center” to determine and analyse the amount of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the sediments of Lebanese coastal areas. She also worked with La Rochelle University in France and the “Interuniversity Research Centre for the Life Cycle of Products, Processes and Services” in Canada to study the environmental impacts of vegetative roofs, and she collaborated with the “Country energy efficiency and renewable energy demonstration project for the recovery of Lebanon” project on Life Cycle Assessment studies for renewable energy strategies.
Dr. Manneh is pioneer and one of a select few that brought the field of LCA to Lebanon for the first time. She was a pioneer in giving a full 3 credit course on LCA in Lebanon and founded the LCA Center at UOB which was launched in April 2021 and has currently a platimum sponsorship from Matelec s.a.l.. In 2021, she organized and presented during the Faculty of Engineering online seminar entitled “Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Insights and Applications”. The seminar included national and international guest speakers.
She has co-authored several peer reviewed scientific papers and participated in more than 25 national and international conferences.  
In 2016, she was selected to be a national expert in Lebanon for the water footprint in LCA, within the MENA STAR Project of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). 
She was a member of the “Orientation” committee representing the Faculty of Engineering at UOB for several years. She also gave several students the opportunity to go for a 6 months paid training on environmental issues at the Cycleco Company in France. During the Spring 2018, she participated to the “First Faculty Professional Development Day” at UOB and gave a talk on the best practices and innovative teaching in Chemical Engineering.
She is a member of the “Order of Engineers” in Beirut and the “Life Cycle Initiative” organized by the “United Nations Environmental Program” in joint collaboration with the “Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry”. She is also member of the “Environmental Management” committee of the Lebanese Standards Institution.


Research

Dr. Manneh’s research background is threefold, with her current focus on the first two:

1) Life cycle assessment (LCA): This research axe aims to determine and analyse the environmental impacts of a product, process, or service, from the raw materials extraction to the disposal or end-of-life. The LCA methodology is based on the ISO14040 series of standards and includes 4 phases: goal and scope, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment and interpretation. Dr. Manneh uses the LCA approach to investigate the environmental impacts of different energy strategies for Lebanon, for example solar water heaters, solar street lighting systems, and vegetative roofs. She also performs LCA on diverse industrial products, such as yogurt, distribution transformers, and hair conditioners. This research resulted in many collaborations, for instance with La Rochelle University, CEDRO project-UNDP, and different Lebanese industries.
2) Water footprint in LCA: This research axe aims to determine and analyse the environmental impacts related to water for a product, process, or service, from the raw materials extraction to the disposal or end-of-life. The water footprint methodology is based on the ISO14046 standard. The research is made to investigate the water consumption and scarcity of a product during its entire life cycle and to find ways to reduce them. This research resulted in collaborations with various Lebanese industries.
3) Organic pollutants in the sediments of coastal Lebanon: The objective of this research is to determine and analyse the concentration of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the sediments of the coast of Lebanon. Pre-sampling, sediment sampling, lyophilization, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), rotary evaporation and gas chromatography are performed. The total PAHs concentrations were investigated for the regions of Tyre, Dora, Jounieh, and Tripoli. This research was in collaboration with the National Center for Marine Sciences (CNRS-Lebanon) and the Lebanese University. 

Research Interests

• Environmental Life Cycle Assessment
• Carbon Footprint
• Pollution Remediation

Selected works

• Mansour M., Harajli H., El Zakhem H., and Manneh R., “Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of a photovoltaic-diesel hybrid system: the case of an industrial facility”, Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2023
• Saoud A., Harajli H., and Manneh R., “Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of an air to water heat pump: Case study for the Lebanese context and comparison with solar and conventional electric water heaters for residential application”, Journal of Building Engineering, Vol. 44, 2021.
• Hayek J., El Bachawati M., and Manneh R., "Life cycle assessment and water footprint scarcity of yogurt", Environment, Development and Sustainability, Vol. 23, 2021.
• Boutros M., Saba S., and Manneh R., Life cycle assessment of two packaging materials for carbonated beverages (polyethylene terephthalate vs. glass): Case study for the lebanese context and importance of the end-of-life scenarios”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 314, 2021.
• Koura J., Manneh R., Belarbi R., El Khoury V., and El Bachawati M., "Comparative cradle to grave environmental life cycle assessment of traditional and extensive vegetative roofs", International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Vol. 25, 423-442, 2020
• Tannous S., Manneh R., Harajli H., and El Zakhem H., “Comparative cradle to grave life cycle assessment of traditional grid-connected and solar stand-alone street light systems:  A case study for rural areas in Lebanon”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 186, 963-977, 2018.



Teaching

• Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics II
• Advanced Transport Phenomena
• Environmental Design and Life Cycle Assessment
• Chemical Reactions and Reactor Design
• Advanced Chemical Reactor Design

Supervision

• MS thesis of Marleine Boutros (co-supervision) entitled “Life cycle assessment of two packaging materials for carbonated beverages (polyethylene terephthalate vs. glass): Case study for the Lebanese context”
• MS thesis of Assaad Saoud entitled “Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of an air to water heat pump: Case study for the Lebanese context and comparison with solar and conventional electric water heaters for residential application”
• MS project of Jane Hayek and Ghiwa Daher entitled “Cradle-to-grave environmental life cycle assessment of 1 kg of yogurt: A Lebanese case study”
• PhD thesis of Jessica Koura entitled “Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment and determination of real-time temperature seasonal variability and runoff water quality for vegetative and traditional gravel ballasted roofs”
• Senior Design project of Norma Karam, Anthony Ayoub, and Nayla Ghorayeb entitled “Water footprint scarcity of one bottle of shampoo in Lebanon: Design for its Reduction”
• MS thesis of Scarlett Tannous entitled “Comparative life cycle assessment for traditional and solar stand-alone street light systems”
• PhD thesis of Makram El Bachawati entitled “Study of environmental and energy performance of vegetative roofs and assessment of their impacts in terms of rainwater management


  1. Selected to be a speaker during the online webinar entitled “Advancing sustainability through life cycle approaches: empowering the MENA region”
  2. Elma Maalouf award for MS thesis of Marleine Boutros co-supervised by Manneh R.  entitled “Life cycle assessment of two packaging materials for carbonated beverages (polyethylene terephthalate vs. glass): Case study for the Lebanese context”
  3. First place winner, CSCHE SNC Lavalin Canadian competition, May 2004
  4. Scholarship from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Canada Lebanon, December 2009
  5. Award for best lecturer in chemical engineering department of Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, December 2010
  6. 3rd place award- Mechanical Engineering section-at the Order of Engineers-Tripoli competition for BS project supervised by Manneh R. and entitled: "Renewable energy strategies for Lebanon: A focus on geothermal energy", July 2012
  7. Elma Maalouf award for MS thesis of Rula Dahdal supervised by Manneh R.,  July 2014
  8. Selected as a national expert in water footprint in Life Cycle Assessment within the ISO MENA STAR project, January 2016 
  9. 1st place award-Chemical Engineering-at the Order of Engineers-Tripoli competition for MS project supervised by Manneh R. and entitled: "Determination of physical and chemical properties of olive and oak trees residues for the production of briquettes", July 2016
  10. 2nd place award-Chemical and Petrochemical Engineering section-at the Order of Engineers-Tripoli competition for MS project supervised by Manneh R. and entitled: “Comparative cradle to grave life cycle assessment of traditional grid-connected and solar stand-alone street light systems:  A case study for rural areas in Lebanon”, July 2018
  11. Elma Maalouf award for MS project of Jane Hayek supervised by Manneh R., June 2019
  12. 2nd place award-Chemical and Petrochemical Engineering section-at the Order of Engineers-Tripoli competition for MS project supervised by Manneh R. and entitled: “Cradle-to-grave environmental life cycle assessment of 1 kg of yogurt: A Lebanese case study”, July 2019