Reaction engineering
Match mixing, heat transfer and residence-time behaviour to the mechanism and kinetics.
Research area 03
Flow chemistry and reaction engineering
Engineering the reaction environment around the needs of the chemistry.
Continuous processing provides precise control of mixing, heat transfer, residence time, pressure and inventories. The group applies commercial and bespoke reactor concepts to multiphase, hazardous, photochemical and thermally demanding chemistry where the engineering environment can change what is synthetically practical.
Scientific questions
Questions that shape the work
- 01
Does continuous operation resolve a genuine chemical or process limitation?
- 02
What reactor geometry and transport behaviour are required by the transformation?
- 03
Can reactive or hazardous species be generated on demand and consumed immediately?
- 04
How should reaction, work-up, analysis and downstream operations be integrated?
Established expertise
Demonstrated capabilities
These themes reflect the group’s established scientific record. Availability for a new project depends on scope, collaborators, funding and the practical requirements of the work.
Batch-to-flow translationGas-liquid and multiphase processingOn-demand reactive-intermediate generationThermal and pressure controlPhotochemical flow processingResidence-time and mixing designBespoke reactor developmentContinuous work-up and downstream integrationMicro- and meso-scale processing
Approach
How the problem is addressed
Chemistry, evidence and technology are considered together, with methods selected for scientific value rather than novelty alone.
Contained generation
Minimise standing inventory of unstable, toxic or energetic intermediates.
Integrated processing
Connect reaction stages with sampling, analysis, separation or further transformations.
Representative applications
Where this expertise can contribute
- Hazardous reagent handling
- Exothermic and fast reactions
- Gas-phase reagent chemistry
- Photochemical transformations
- Continuous multistep processing
Future research direction
Developing the next programme
Future research will focus on modular reactor and process configurations that can be selected and adapted rapidly around a route, rather than treating a single flow platform as a universal solution.
View the future programmeCollaboration opportunity
Discuss a substantive project
The group welcomes process challenges involving thermal control, pressure, gas handling, unstable intermediates, photochemistry, difficult scale-up or the need for a bespoke reactor concept.
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