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Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering (1 unread)

February 09, 2010
8:19
New Composite Material Could Mean Cars of the Future are Powered by their Bodywork
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

A team of researchers from Imperial, comprising several Chemical Engineers including Prof. Alexander Bismarck, are developing a prototype material which can store and discharge electrical energy and which is also strong and lightweight enough to be used for car parts.

In addition to making hybrid vehicles lighter and more energy efficient, the researchers believe the material, which has been patented by Imperial, could potentially be used for the casings of many everyday objects such as mobile phones and computers, so that they would not need a separate battery.

You can read more about this exciting development on the College's website here, and in an article featured in tce today here.

Video: Group leader Dr. Emile Greenhalgh of the Department of Aeronautics explains how the material works

Other members of the team working on Composite Energy Storage are Prof. Milo Shaffer, Dr. Joachim Steinke, Prof. Anthony Kucernak (Chemistry) and Chemical Engineering researchers Dr. Natasha Shirshova, Dr. Kingsley Ho, Dr. Hui Qian and Atif Javaid.
December 23, 2009
6:27
Departmental Research to be Showcased at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition!
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

Prof. Sergei Kazarian and his research group have been selected to present an exhibit showcasing their research on "Chemical Photography: Seeing in a Different Light" at the highly prestigious Royal Society's 350th Anniversary Summer Science Exhibition at the South Bank Centre in London in the Summer of 2010. The exhibition is aimed to present scientific achievements at the forefront of the UK's research activities.

Says Prof. Kazarian: "Our group is excited by the opportunity to present highlights of our research to the public and to contribute to public engagement with science and engineering. It will be the longest exhibition yet which will require much preparation, but even former members of the group have expressed interest in helping to present our research, so we are all very enthusiastic about the event."
November 17, 2009
10:34
Sustainable Energy Futures MSc Wins Top Innovation Award!
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

The Faculty of Engineering's multi-disciplinary MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures has won the prestigious iChemE Innovation and Excellence Award in Education and Training. The course, which is the first of its kind in the UK, was established by a team led by Chemical Engineering's Prof. Sandro Macchietto in 2007, and many of our academics are involved in the teaching and research elements of the programme. You can read more about the course here, and an interview with Prof. Macchietto here.

Prof. Macchietto (3rd from left) accepting the award
alongside one of last year's students, Philip Grünewald
November 03, 2009
3:38
More Recognition for Chemical Engineering's Researchers
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

Many congratulations this week to two of the Department's leading researchers!

Dr. Claire Adjiman, pictured left, has been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for Engineering for her work on optimisation theories, algorithms and property prediction methods. The Prizes are awarded annually to outstanding young scholars who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study, are recognised at an international level, and whose future contributions are held to be of correspondingly high promise.

More good news this week has come with the announcement that Dr. Serafim Kalliadasis, left, has been successful in winning an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council - grants that allow exceptional established research leaders to pursue frontier research of their choice.
October 15, 2009
5:53
Success in Research Excellence Awards!
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

The Department's Molecular Systems Engineering group, led by Prof. George Jackson, has been recognised by the College in the 2009 Research Excellence Awards - designed to reward research teams that have demonstrated high academic achievement and have significant future potential.

More information about the Molecular Systems Engineering group, pictured below, and Prof. Jackson can be found by clicking on the links above.

Many congratulations to the group!
September 01, 2009
8:04
Virtual modelling tool helps industry to predict properties of liquids and gases
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

Academics from the Department's Centre for Process Systems Engineering have developed a new virtual modelling tool which scientists say could revolutionise parts of industry, making processes more efficient and cost effective.

Read all about it by clicking here
July 30, 2009
10:05
Head of Department Wins Prestigious Award
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

Prof. Andrew Livingston, Head of Chemical Engineering here at Imperial, was recently awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal, awarded annually to recogonise individuals that have made an outstanding contribution to British engineering, for his research on and commercialisation of membrane technology.

Says Prof. Livingston in this interview: "It is a great personal honour to be picked out and recognised in that way. I am also very proud and think it reflects well on Imperial and the environment that we have at the College. I think the UK really encourages scientists to take their ideas and use them in the real world."

Congratulations Andrew!
9:36
2009 Professorships Announced
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

Earlier this month two new Professorships were announced by the Department, for two highly deserving candidates Dr. Yun Xu and Dr. Alexander Bismarck, pictured below. The promotions are effective as of 1st October. Congratulations to both! You can find out more about our newest Professors by clicking the links above.
July 28, 2009
4:20
How to say NO to atheroslerosis
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

From an article published in the August issue of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface ( [rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org] ):
Dr. F. Palombo and Prof. S.G. Kazarian (Chemical Engineering) in collaboration with Prof. P. D. Weinberg (Bioengineering) studied the precise composition of the fat-rich atherosclerotic lesions, which is of key importance in understanding the evolution of the disease. The high spatial resolution of ATR imaging enabled them to visualise changes in lesion composition with age in the rabbit aorta and to demonstrate beneficial effects of dietary arginine (the precursor of nitric oxide (NO)). This may have clinical implications since the composition of atherosclerotic lesions in human aortas also appear to change with age and diet. This chemical imaging approach could potentially improve understanding of atherosclerosis, the arterial disease that remains the primary cause of mortality in all developed countries.
July 23, 2009
14:26
Imperial College Sustainable Energy Futures Team Wins Npower Challenge
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

What is right to be done, cannot be done too soon" Jane Austen

The "Sense and Sustainability" team from Imperial College won the nPower Energy Challenge 2009, ahead of stiff competition. The team consisted of Philipp Gruenewald, Andrew Hadland, Gaurav Monga and Alan Whitaker, postgraduate students in the interdepartmental MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures, supported by the Course Director, Prof. Sandro Macchietto, from the Department of Chemical Engineering (contacts below).

The 2009 Energy Challenge was: How does a power generation company respond to climate change? The final consisted in an 8 minute presentation in front of the RWE npower board at Wembley, with a £10K prize and a trophy (see picture attached). The team's proposed an energy service model, showing how an enrgy company could get customers to enter into new energy efficiency agreements and make a profit in the process.

The winning team were also invited to a reception at Westminster on 21st July, to meet and give their presentation to David Kidney, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Energy, a number of members of Parliament, other guests and senior management from RWE nPower, headed by Volker Beckers, Chief Financial Officer and board member of the German parent RWE group. On the occasion, each team member were presented with a personal letter signed by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, congratulating them: "Your winning submission is testimony to the excellent standard of engineering graduates in our universities, which in turn is crucial to the future success of industry in our country". Or, as the minister said, "The future is in safe hands with people like yourselves..."

The MSc is Sustainable Energy Future is part of a significant Imperial College initiative in the energy area, the Energy Futures Lab. That a team from the course won such a prestigious event confirms we indeed attract some really bright and enterprising people (the team members are very interesting personalities from diverse backgrounds!) who have a real chance of making a difference.

Sense and Sustainability Team Members

Alan Whitaker - alan.whitaker08@imperial.ac.uk (Team captain)

Andrew Hadland - andrew.hadland08@imperial.ac.uk

Gaurv Monga - gaurav.monga08@imperial.ac.uk

Philipp Gruenewald - philipp.gruenewald08@imperial.ac.uk

Supporting academic: Prof Sandro Macchietto - [www3.imperial.ac.uk]
MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures : [www3.imperial.ac.uk]
June 25, 2009
16:05
Neil Hirst ...
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

Neil Hirst addresses the IC4S launch

Imperial college was pleased to launch the Imperial College Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage on Tuesday. This centre, a part of the Energy Futures Laboratory and supported by the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, will act as a focal area for researchers at Imperial investigating all aspects of carbon capture and storage.

Carbon capture and storage is a group of technologies which prevent the release of CO2 from a power station or other large CO2 source by either taking it out from the exhaust gases or modifying the process and separating out the CO2 at a different stage. The CO2 is then compressed, transported to a storage site and pumped underground.

We were pleased that Mr Neil Hirst, Director for Energy Technology and R&D at the International Energy Agency was able to give the keynote speech, where he discussed the urgent need for carbon capture research. After this, there were presentations by Dr Jon Gibbins (Mechanical Engineering), Dr Tara LaForce (Earth Sciences) and Dr Paul Fennell (Chemical Engineering), outlining some of the ongoing projects in different areas of Imperial, ranging from capture (minimising the cost of capture) all the way through to storage (ensuring that the CO2 remains safely locked away below ground). A poster session followed, which gave everyone a chance to discuss potential joint work over a glass or two of wine.

Further information about CCS can be found at www.imperial.ac.uk/ccs, or contact the author
June 12, 2009
6:03
Concerted Effort on Solar Hydrogen Production
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering
Academic staff in Chemical Engineering (Klaus Hellgardt, Geoff Kelsall, Geoff Maitland) are involved in a £4.2M EPSRC funded project on developing the fundamentals but also the devices for the economical production of hydrogen from sunlight and water (nothing added...).
There are two strands to the project:
- Biophotolytic hydrogen production
- Photoelectrochemical hydrogen production
Working with a team of Biologists (Jim Barber, Peter Nixon) we are developing bioreactor systems to culture and grow algae (Clamydomonas Reinhardtii). When the growth medium for this algae species is deprived of sulphur, the metabolic pathway of the organism switches, leading to the photolytic production of hydrogen (from water). We can harvest this hydrogen via membranes and feed the hydrogen to fuel cells (Klaus Hellgardt, Nigel Brandon).
Working with Chemists (James Durrant, David Klug) we are also pursuing another avenue whereby we design appropriate semiconductors which upon illumination by sunlight have the ability to evolve oxygen from water. If we then connect these semiconductors to another electrode, we can complete a circuit and evolve hydrogen at a connected cathode (much like an electrolysis cell). The hydrogen can again be fed to a fuel cell.
In addition to the fundamental studies on the algae systems and the semiconductors, there are lots of engineering issues to be overcome to make cost effective devices that could eventually be installed on roofs and in our homes. We are working on these using e.g. fluid dynamics/multi-physics modelling packages such as Comsol to help us design and fabricate clever devices to incorporate the above materials and organisms into working demonstrators.
Today we had a very fruitful conversation wtih Neil Alford and Nic Harrison (they have just received a new grant from EPSRC to specifically develop novel nanostructured materials for energy systems) on how to push the semiconductor side further by using
- theoretical models to predict band gaps for mixed and doped systems and
- practical film growth techniques that might incorporate novel strain engineering concepts to change the chemistry and electronic properties of the materials.
So, perhaps in the not too distant future we might be making our own hydrogen at home from solar hydrogen reactors on our roofs and in our walls...
June 09, 2009
6:28
Carbon/Air - a new type of fuel cell
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

Almost all fuel cells operate on either liquid or gaseous fuels. However, the energy density of solid fuels such as coal or biomass is much higher than that for liquids or gases. That is one reason why there are so many coal power stations in the world!
We have recently patented a new type of fuel cell (a Carbon/Air fuel cell) that utilizes coal, biomass or hydrocarbons directly to extract electrical energy at high efficiencies.
This type of fuel cell could offer a paradigm shift for the power industry.
Imagine a new type of power station operating at 70% efficiency and only creating a pure CO2 stream that could be used as feedstock for liquid fuel production (such as methanol)!
6:07
Imaging of proteins
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

A paper by Professor Sergei Kazarian and Dr Andrew Chan, Chemical Engineering, et al. ‘ATR-FTIR Spectroscopic Imaging of Protein Crystallization‘ was featured on the 15 May 2009 cover of Analytical Chemistry, the leading journal in the field. This is the first paper to appear from the 5 year, the ERC Physical Science and Engineering Advanced Grant on Microchemical Imaging awarded to Professor Kazarian last year. The approach described in this article allows identification of protein crystals in situ, as the crystals form, without the need to disturb the sample or x-raying the crystals because spectra extracted from the image can be used as a direct indicator to distinguish protein from salt or other precipitants. This spectroscopic imaging can also be used for high-throughput analysis of protein crystallisation by studying different samples under a range of conditions.
5:49
Flow Chemistry to help the Pharmaceutical Industry
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

We have recently started a new research project in collaboration with Mimi Hii from the Department of Chemistry (Enabling Oxidation Reactions on a Large Scale: Combining Electrochemistry with Flow). The project involves partners from Pfizer Global R & D.
In a nutshell, the project is about creating in situ reactants (oxidants and reductants) using electrochemical methods to react with pharmaceutical intermediates in a flow system (that is continuous production rather than batch operation). We hope that this will lead to much improved selectivities and yields with much reduced waste formation for many important chemical transformations.
We are currently filing a patent application on our ideas with Imperial Innovations.
5:18
Winner of the poster competition
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

Dr. K. L. Andrew Chan, who is working with Prof. S. G. Kazarian, was the winner of the Annual Hounsfield Memorial Lecture 2009 poster competition for the best research poster, held at Imperial College on the 8 June 2009. This poster was about application of spectroscopic imaging to study live cancer cells and how they react to the change in the environment and also on the use of spectroscopy to study wound healing.
5:15
Making a better drug without changing the drug?
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

How can we improve the physical properties of a drug without changing its molecular structure? It sounds impossible. Of course, drug's activity on a specific target in the body only depends on the drug's molecular structure. Luckily, however, this is only part of the story.

The physical properties of a drug, such as its solubility, dissolution rate and mechanical stability, also depend on the 3-dimensional arrangement of the drug molecules in the crystal lattice. One way to improve the physical properties of a drug is to introduce a second molecule in its crystal lattice.
How can we know which molecules are able to cocrystallise with a specific drug? What are the possible crystal structures and what are their properties? Can we know the answer to these questions before the drug is synthesised?
Our research addresses this challenge by using advances in the theory of intermolecular forces and computational science. We are progressing towards the development of algorithms to predict which molecule can form a stable cocrystal with favourable properties for a specific drug. Although further research is needed, the methodology has the potential of becoming a powerful tool in the hands of computational chemists working in drug design.
5:13
Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre
» ‎ Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

The Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre (QCCSRC) is a 10 year, $70M collaboration between engineers at Imperial College, in Chemical Engineering and Earth Science and Engineering, with Qatar Petroleum and Shell aimed at

- understanding carbonate oil and gas reservoirs better

- measuring and predicting the properties of CO2 (mixed with hydrocarbons and water) under high temperature and pressure reservoir conditions

- using these to build a state-of-the-art simulator to design and optimise improved hydrocarbon recovery and CO2 capture in these reservoirs

- validate this approach against pilot-scale and full field scale demonstration projects

- provide the engineers of the future for Qatar

- transfer this technology to Qatar to enable clean exploitation of the country's natural resources, with minimal damage to the environment and the climate.

The Centre was launched at a ceremony at Imperial in June 2008. The initial projects are underway and the recruitment of PhD students, research fellows and lecturers is in full swing. Students from Qatar and the region are particularly encouraged to join the programme which aims to attract the best researchers in these fields from across the world to address one of the biggest engineering challenges of the 21st Century - continuing to meet the world's growing energy demands using fossil fuels without releasing the greenhouse gases which cause climate change.

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