IChemE Editor’s Session – 31^st March 2023

Hydrid workshop – Belfast (David Keir Building, DKB/01/028) & TEAMs (online)

TEAMs link (browser version is suggested for international users):

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ODVkNmIyMDktOTI2YS00MTA4LTk2NGEtMTYxZjdlYTA3OTAw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22eaab77ea-b4a5-49e3-a1e8-d6dd23a1f286%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2251d684d7-fec6-4c0d-9539-b9fe19032910%22%7d

Direct access to the workshop is also available through Koushare platform:

https://www.koushare.com/lives/room/996515

Workshop programme

9:00 am (UK time) – Workshop introduction, Dr Chunfei Wu, Queen’s University Belfast

9:05 am (UK time) – Scholarly publishing

Manuscript preparation and submission, Dr Luaine Bandounas, Executive Publisher, ELSEVIER

Authorship & Responsibilities, Professor Ian Wilson, University of Cambridge

Plagiarism, Professor Jerry Heng, Imperial College London

9:50 am (UK time) – Introduction of IChemE Journals, Ms Catherine Cliffe, Managing Editor, Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)

Process Safety and Environmental Protection, Professor Guohua Chen, Editor-in-Chief of PSEP, City University of Hongkong

Chemical Engineering Research and Design, Professor Jerry Heng, Editor-in-Chief of ChERD, Imperial College London

Food and Bioproducts Processing, Profession Ian Wilson, Editor-in-Chief of FBP (Food), University of Cambridge

Carbon Capture Science and Technology, Dr Chunfei Wu, Editor-in-Chief of CCST, Queen’s University Belfast

10:30 (UK time) – Questions and Answers

Zhe Wang, a PhD student from QUB visited Professor Guo’s group at Huazhong University of Science and Technology from Jan 2023, thanks to the BIOMASS-CCU project. She has visited the solid state Ionics lab, and learned how to assemble the solid state battery electrolyte. The solid state electrolyte is one potential product which could be applied to a new energy field. She discusses the latest high-voltage electrolyte trend with other members of Professor’s Guo group. Assembling pouch batteries and testing the electrochemical performance with high-voltage electrolyte, learning the latest low-temperature test equipment. Joining the group meeting, she reports the recent research status of perfluorinated high-voltage electrolytes.

The Professor Guo’s group website is as follows:

(http://www.hust-ssi.cn/)

Irati Garcia has recently been in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia (UBC) working in Prof. Bi’s research group from UBC thanks to the BIOMASS-CCU project. She has obtained safety training at UBC and participated in the start-up and preliminary tests of the microwave pilot reactor, carried out several tests under different conditions using microwave heating and also investigated the amounts of CaO. She has also exchanged scientific knowledge with the group of Professor Bi’s, and carried out data analysis and materials characterisations and also a few collaborated papers are being prepared.

Leire, a PhD student from UPV/EHU visited Professor Bi’s group at UBC from July 2022. She has done the preparation of the biomass samples to be fed into the gasifier, runs and analysis of the results. The gasification plant consisted of three stages: biomass gasification, syngas treatment and methanation. As mentioned above, a double bed unit was used for the gasification stage, since this configuration promotes heat and mass transfer. In these units, steam reacts with the biomass (in this case sawdust) in the gasification reactor, producing syngas and char. The char and the circulating bed material (in this case sand) pass into the char combustion chamber, where the temperature rises due to the exothermicity of the process. The hot solids leaving the combustion chamber return to the gasifier to provide heat to the gasification process. In this way, high carbon conversion and high syngas quality are obtained. The syngas from the gasification reactor and the flue gas from the combustion chamber are treated in separate gas cleaning trains. The operational complexity of large plants is well known. Accordingly, natural gas is first used to reach the reaction temperature and then air and biomass are introduced to reach the final reaction temperature by combustion. In the syngas cleaning stage, contaminants such as HCl, H₂S, tar, particulates, etc., are removed. The methanation stage consists of one reactor for the WGS (Water Gas Shift) reaction and two reactors for the methanation reaction.

Dr Gartzen Lopez from University of the Basque Country visited University of British Columbia, Canada, to exchange knowledge related to biomass gasification and low-carbon technologies.