MERIT Lecture: Mud, sludge and custard tamed?

Events — By Jennifer Thomas on November 2, 2011 10:04 am

Professor Richard Buscall, Principal of MSACT Consulting (UK) will present the next MERIT Visiting Scholar Lecture.

Mud, sludge and custard tamed? Well, that is the aim of SERCh*

*Suspension Engineering Rheology Chart

3pm, Tuesday 8th November 2011

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Theatre,Building 165, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Refreshments to follow after the lecture.

Suspensions of fine particles are ubiquitous in industry, the environment and in the home. A few examples include fabric softeners, pharmaceutical suspensions, ceramic, catalyst and pigment precursors, mineral processing streams, mining and oil and gas tailings for disposal and water-recovery, river water for purification, wastewater for disposal or recycling. Trillions of dollars of material are formulated and sold in suspension form world-wide and many billions of tonnes of material are otherwise processed. The processing of suspensions is much more problematic than processes involving simple liquids and gases. Likewise the stability of formulations can be difficult to predict and control. In both instances the complex and variable nature of the physical (or rheological) properties of suspended matter is a major complicating factor.

Despite these difficulties, substantial and steady progress has been made. For example, over the last 25 years or so, we have developed a much better understanding of sedimentation and thus suspension stability. Similarly, scientists and engineers at the University of Melbourne, and others, have made substantial progress with the prediction, control and scale-up of processes that can be thought of as quasi-1-dimensional, like pipeline-transport together with some of the simpler operations used to concentrate suspensions, to isolate solids and to purify water, like pressure filtration and batch settling. By no means all processes can be regarded as quasi-1-d though, indeed, many important processes are not and the challenge now is develop the knowledge and methods needed to predict, scale-up and control processes involving mixed flows and deformations in two or more spatial dimensions. This is a grand challenge, as it has been to the polymer processing community.

Professor Buscall has spent much of his career working for one of the world’s leading chemical companies, ICI and was the youngest and longest serving ICI Fellow. At ICI he led the activity in colloid and interface science and rheology for many years, collaborating on a continuing basis with world-leading universities. Professor Buscall holds several honorary academic appointments, and divides his working time between pro bono research in suspension mechanics and training and consulting work for various blue-chip companies. He is a past Chairman and Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Colloid & Interface Science Group and a past President of the British Society of Rheology (BSR) and has received many awards for his work.

For more information contact Anthony Strickland from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

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Abbott Laboratories engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Vascular Products. The Pharmaceutical Products segment offers adult and pediatric pharmaceuticals for the treatment of dyslipidemia, cholesterol, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, hypothyroidism, obesity, HIV infection, epilepsy and bipolar disorder, migraines, prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, anemia, duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux diseases. The Diagnostic Products segment provides diagnostic systems and tests for blood banks, hospitals, commercial laboratories, physician?s offices, alternate-care testing sites, and plasma protein therapeutic companies. This segment?s products include immunoassay systems; chemistry systems; assays for screening and diagnosis for drugs of abuse, cancer, therapeutic drug monitoring, fertility, physiological diseases, and infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV; genomic-based tests; hematology systems and reagents; and point-of-care diagnostic systems and tests for blood analysis. The Nutritional Products segment offers pediatric and adult nutritional products through its own distribution centers or public warehouses to retailers, wholesalers, health care facilities, and government agencies.

Abbott is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to discovering new medicines, new technologies and new ways to manage health. Their products span the continuum of care, from nutritional products and laboratory diagnostics through medical devices and pharmaceutical therapies. Their comprehensive line of products encircles life itself – addressing important health needs from infancy to the golden years.

Abbott has a 50% owned joint venture with TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc.; a strategic alliance with Celera Group; and a collaboration with Genentech, Inc. to develop anti-cancer compounds. The company was founded in 1888 and is based in Abbott Park, Illinois.

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