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Scale-up and manufacturing
A lot of promising new materials technologies never reach the market owing to issues with scaling-up to produce large quantities that are typically required in applications.
One reason is that the synthesis of new materials is usually complex, multistep and energy intensive, hence difficult to scale-up and they remain at lab-scales. Due to the simplicity in their synthesis and green credentials, the vision for this project is to scale-up continuous manufacturing of green nanomaterials.
A lot of promising new materials technologies never reach the market owing to issues with scaling-up to produce large quantities that are typically required in applications.
One reason is that the synthesis of new materials is usually complex, multistep and energy intensive, hence difficult to scale-up and they remain at lab-scales. Due to the simplicity in their synthesis and green credentials, the vision for this project is to scale-up continuous manufacturing of green nanomaterials.
We are interested in:
Funding: EPSRC
- Demonstrating continuous and scaled-up production.
- Identifying key parameters controlling production.
- Designing and comparing industrial scale manufacturing using both the existing process and the green process.
- Transferring scale-up principles to other nanomaterials.
- J. R. H. Manning, T. Yip, A. Centi, M. Jorge, M. and S. V. Patwardhan
An eco-friendly, tunable and scalable method for producing porous functional nanomaterials designed using molecular interactions.
ChemSusChem, 10(8), 1683-1691, 2017.
Also see a blog on this paper in ACS Green Chemistry: The Nexus, 2017:
Understanding nature helps unlock the potential of nanomaterials through cheaper, greener and safer methods - Drummond, C., McCann, R. & Patwardhan, S. V. A Feasibility Study of the Biologically Inspired Green Manufacturing of Precipitated Silica. Chemical Engineering Journal, 244, 483-492, 2014.
- C. McKinstry, R.l J. Cathcart, E. J. Cussen, A. J. Fletcher, S. V. Patwardhan, J. Sefcik, Scalable Continuous Solvothermal Synthesis of Metal Organic Framework (MOF-5) Crystals, Chemical Engineering Journal, 285, 718-725, 2016.
- Patwardhan, S. V. & Perry, C. C. Synthesis of Enzyme and Quantum Dot in Silica by Combining Continuous Flow and Bioinspired Routes. Silicon 2, 33-39 (2010).
Funding: EPSRC
