Sep 2022
The design of current processes in chemical and pharmaceutical industries is limited in geometrical shapes. From the process perspective, the shape of the reactor and of the separation process has impact on the overall performance of each unit. Internally, the shape of the elements of the different processes will also influence the final performance. In many situations, the operation of these units is limited by secondary effects like heat transfer, mixing and/or diffusion. The advances in manufacturing techniques like 3D printing, offer us tremendous opportunities to design new unitary processes and new internal geometries fully based on mathematics and geometry. Combining advanced design, phenomenological modelling and 3D printing we can create units where the main limitation is the primary phenomena targeted: i.e. chemistry in reactors and adsorption or absorption equilibrium in separation processes.
This value-chain is fully digital and has the potential to reduce footprint and energy consumption at the same time. One important added benefit is that with 3D printing, we can create complex shapes using less material, so the sustainability of customized processes starts in their cradle. In this seminar, I will provide examples of applications in different areas, hoping to captivate engineers to become the new architects of processes.
Carlos Grande is an Associate Professor at KAUST since September 2021. He is affiliated with the AMPM and KCC centers. Before joining KAUST, he worked as a Senior Scientist in SINTEF Industry in Oslo (Norway) for 10 years. He has a Ph.D. from Porto University in Portugal (2005) where he also worked for five years as a Research Assistant. He graduated as Chemical Engineer at South University in Argentina (1998). He works with process intensification applied to separation and reaction processes with a strong focus on adsorption and novel manufacturing techniques like 3D printing. He has over 100 publications in international journals (h-index = 45) and 7 patent applications.