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Charley Jones

Location
Level 1, Energy Building
Sponsor
Malvern
Primary Supervisor
Professor Mojtaba Ghadiri, Chemical & Process Engineering
Qualifications
MEng Chemical Engineering, Leeds

Biography

Charley chose to apply to the CP3 CDT due to his previous design and research projects making him realise that he enjoyed carrying out research based work, particularly within the fields of energy and fuel, with the career goal of working in Research and Development at some point in the future.

PhD: Value and efficacy of measurements of the electrostatic state of particles on the flowability of materials

Triboelectric charging occurs frequently during powder production, most notably within the pharmaceutical process. This can be invoked by either particle-particle collisions or particle-vessel collisions. This phenomenon presents both safety (explosions) and operability (agglomeration, segregation, etc.) issues during powder processing. For the purpose of this PhD, a particular focus has been applied to how the tribo-charging of powder-based materials affects their flowability properties. The experimental work will involve using equipment such as the Malvern G3 morphologi (particle size and shape analysis), a single-impact tribo-charging rig and the FT4 powder rheometer. This will be accompanied by a modelling aspect of the project, which will require the coupling of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with Discrete Element Methods (DEM) to further analyse the system and phenomena.

Research Project(s) during degree:

  • MEng research project - 'Alcohol-Diesel Fuel Blends: Stability and Emission Performance', with Dr. Hu Li, Chemical & Process Engineering
    Varying proportions of ethanol-diesel and butanol-diesel fuel blends were mixed together and observed over a period of several weeks to gain a measure of the stability. The most stable blends were then used in the GenSet engine in order to test for emissions (CO, CO2, NOx, THC), as well as fuel performance characteristics (combustion temperature and fuel consumption).
  • Design project (BEng) – Charley’s team was assigned the task of designing a manufacturing plant for the production of R-Flurbiprofen. One half of the project was completed as a group, featuring tasks such as: HAZOP analysis, economic evaluation, P and I diagram and general material calculations. The other half of the project was to be completed individually, where Charley’s goal was to design a filter-dryer system, as well as a condenser, to feature within the overall production cycle. Within this plant equipment section, he completed several objectives, namely: Chemical Engineering Design (Vessel sizing, filter bed height, filtration time, drying time, heat exchanger and condenser calculations and pipeline sizing), Mechanical Engineering Design (Material selection, vessel thickness, joints and opening sizes), Process control and Costing.

Outreach, training and other activities:

  • Dean of Engineering Excellence Scholarship for duration of degree

Masters research project in year 1 of CDT:

  • ‘Oilfield Mineral Scale Growth and Inhibition in Multiphase Environments’ with Dr Thibaut Charpentier, Chemical & Process Engineering