Research facilities
Research students have access to all research facilities in the Department which are pooled for common use.
Departmental technicians provide research students with training in the safe and correct operation of all equipment. Students are also able to access university-wide facilities as well as off-site specialist facilities through research council funded projects.
The Department is housed in a purpose built facility which includes a 395 m2 multi-story mezzanine pilot plant, equipped with a range of process equipment for research and teaching.
Facilities include:
- pilot scale spray dryer
- spray freezing and spray freeze drying facility
- computer controlled 1L and 100L reactor systems with provisions to use FBRM (Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement (Lasentec) for in situ chord length distribution measurement and particle count)
- an Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) probe with Zeiss diode array spectrophotometer for in situ quantitative and qualitative analysis for real-time monitoring and control
- a range of reaction engineering rigs including continuous flow reactors e.g. a catalytic distillation column
- batch and continuous chromatographic reactors including differential flow reactors for studying gas phase reaction kinetics
- adsorption rigs for continuous operation, stirred and cross-flow membrane filtration cells
- experimental systems for studying multiphase phenomenon e.g. mixing and emulsification
There is a range of analytical facilities in the Department including: IR, multiple HPLCs, GCs, mass spectrometers, UV-vis spectrophotometers, elemental analysers, confocal microscope, porosimeters, contact angle and wetting measurement apparatus etc.
Additionally, there is a TA Instruments Q10 Differential Scanning Calorimeter, Linkam Controlled Temperature Microscope Stage (freeze drying capability). The Department also has a Class 2 cell culture training laboratory.
The Department uses a pooled engineering school workshop where research student experimental rigs are built. An experimental officer provides support in refining student concepts and engineering design. Technician support for electrical and computer interface development is also available.
Our research students have good access to computing facilities with a wireless connectivity to the fast university network. Students would typically have their own study space in the Department as well as access to printing and photocopying facilities. The University library is only a short walk away and there is also a common room for the use of staff and research students.