Combustion Research for Chemical Processing
Level 3 Seminar Room,
Mechanical Engineering,
University of Melbourne
Combustion is overwhelmingly the main means of delivering heat and power in the process industries and transport. In this presentation, the focus is on processes in which the desired products are the combustion products themselves.
Some of the processes being considered have been used in industry for many years. Despite, or perhaps because of this there are opportunities for combustion research to lead to significant improvements. This point is illustrated in terms of the science and technology of the catalytic combustion of ammonia over platinum that is the basis of the production of nitric acid and nitrate fertilisers on a huge scale worldwide.
Other processes remain at early stages of development, where opportunities for innovation are abundant. With many such opportunities involving catalysis, the status of detailed kinetic (microkinetic) modelling of catalytic process is reviewed. This area may appear familiar to many combustion kinetic modellers but a closer inspection reveals a wealth of chemical and computational complexity that transcends familiarity.
Speaker
Brian Haynes is Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney. He has a long and distinguished career in chemical process engineering and kinetic modelling of energy-intensive applications, especially combustion processes. His research interests lie in the study and application of fundamentals with a view to solving practical problems, supported by industry. He was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2002. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and of Engineers Australia.
Brian has served the Combustion Institute (CI) in many functions, most importantly as its President (2004-2008). He was Program Co-Chair for the 27th International Combustion Symposium in Boulder, 1998 and he recently presented the Hottel Plenary Lecture at the 37th Symposium in Dublin. He was awarded the Bernard Lewis Gold Medal of the CI in 2012 for "for brilliant research in the field of combustion”.