Research Goals

Understanding of industrial mixing processes is often a key to the design of efficient chemical reactors. My research program targets the development of novel colorimetric and fluorescent reaction-based diagnostics for industrial mixing processes. It couples the use of acid-base, redox, and/or complexometric chemistry to the solution of important chemical engineering problems. The goal is to enhance chemical engineering design, either through diagnostics that provide direct engineering insight or through diagnostics that drive the development of improved turbulence models for computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Description of Research Interests

I spent the 1998-99 year working at Dow Chemical Company, Freeport, Texas, in the Fluid Mechanics and Mixing Group. There I participated in the design and performance of industrial mixing experiments, and I began a research program directed toward the development of novel, more effective diagnostics for industrial mixing processes. The mixing of species that react at rates comparable to or faster than the mixing rate is particularly troublesome, since the local concentrations are often far from the optimal concentrations that were determined in the R&D labs. Poor mixing in such situations often results in low yields and troublesome byproducts. Consequently, our efforts have focused on the development of reaction-based mixing diagnostics, so that the mixing processes designed on the basis of our diagnostics will be optimized for the real industrial reactions. Thus far, we have developed reaction-based colorimetric diagnostics for mixing time and "formation of byproducts". Fluorescent versions of these systems are under development. Other, more advanced diagnostics, which may make possible the quantitative imaging of the reaction rate, are also in process.

Papers and Presentations

Last Updated: September 17, 2001
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